Major League Soccer and Fox Soccer agreed to a one-year deal Friday, continuing the broadcasting relationship between the two that goes back to 2003. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
The opening game of the Fox Soccer Channel slate is the first-ever MLS match for the Portland Timbers, when the expansion side takes on MLS Cup champion Colorado Rapids on March 19.
The match is one of seven featuring the Rapids, which ties them for most appearances on FSC with the Los Angeles Galaxy. FSC will also show the first MLS Cup rematch between Colorado and FC Dallas on April 8. That match marks one of two nationally televised regular-season games for FCD this season.
Here's the schedule of MLS games on FSC this season (all times Eastern):
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER ON FSC
MARCH
3/19 – Colorado Rapids vs. Portland Timbers, 9 p.m.
3/25 – Seattle Sounders vs. Houston Dynamo, 10 p.m.
APRIL
4/1 – Columbus Crew vs. FC Dallas, 7:30 p.m.
4/8 – FC Dallas vs. Colorado Rapids, 9 p.m.
4/16 – Toronto FC vs. D.C. United, 7:30 p.m.
4/22 – Colorado Rapids vs. Seattle Sounders, 9:30 p.m.
4/23 – Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Portland Timbers, 11 p.m.
4/29 – Houston Dynamo vs. D.C. United, 8:30 p.m.
MAY
5/6 – Portland Timbers vs. Philadelphia Union, 10:30 p.m.
5/14 – Real Salt Lake vs. Houston Dynamo, 9 p.m.
JUNE
6/3 – Los Angeles Galaxy vs. D.C. United, 11 p.m.
6/10 – New York Red Bulls vs. New England Revolution, 8:30 p.m.
6/11 – Seattle Sounders vs. Vancouver Whitecaps, 10 p.m.
6/17 – Sporting Kansas City vs. San Jose Earthquakes, 8:30 p.m.
6/25 – San Jose Earthquakes vs. Los Angeles Galaxy, 11 p.m.
JULY
7/2 – D.C. United vs. Philadelphia Union, 7 p.m.
7/9 – Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Chicago Fire, 10:30 p.m.
7/16 – Seattle Sounders vs. Colorado Rapids, 4 p.m.
7/29 – Philadelphia Union vs. Colorado Rapids, 7:30 p.m.
7/30 – Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Los Angeles Galaxy, 7:30 p.m.
AUGUST
8/5 – Colorado Rapids vs. Columbus Crew, 9:30 p.m.
8/13 – Sporting Kansas City vs. Los Angeles Galaxy, 8:30 p.m.
8/20 – Portland Timbers vs. Vancouver Whitecaps, 10 p.m.
8/27 – Chivas USA vs. Real Salt Lake, 10:30 p.m.
SEPTEMBER
9/9 – Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Colorado Rapids, 11 p.m.
9/16 – Portland Timbers vs. New England Revolution, 11 p.m.
9/23 – Sporting Kansas City vs. Philadelphia Union, 8:30 p.m.
OCTOBER
10/1 – Toronto FC vs. New York Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m.
10/15 – Seattle Sounders vs. San Jose Earthquakes, 10:30 p.m.
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Happy that MLS will continue to be shown on FSC? Wish the deal was for more than one year? Which matchup(s) are you looking forward to the most?
Share your thoughts below.
When VS first got the NHL contract people complained but they have shown great committment to their NHL production. Their ratings have rose over the past few years. I think they would do a great job.
A great idea for a drinking game is to do a shot everytime Sullivan refers/name drops a player that is not in the game he is covering.
I LOVE FSC! VS is for Tour de France types!
Get Directv, dude…Lots of soccer
VS is owned by Time Warner, satellite carriers don’t have VS so while a lot more soccer fans and casual fans who have Timer Warner or some sort of cable will gain exposure, you would see all the DirecTV & Dish Network people left out, the best is for ESPN and for the regional FOX Sports channels or COMCAST SPORTS regional channels to pick game up for each market or market near an MLS team. ESPN is the best way to go, we gotta hope 1 game goes on ESPN and another on ESPN 2 every weekend and if the middle of the week game calls for it like NY vs LA or Portland vs Seattle then also the wed & thurs game should be on ESPN
Production level? You mean the 15 seconds they put into researching the teams an preparing for the game? No thanks. Fsc sucks for MLS & is still not in hd for the majority of us. Versus is free & always in hd. I don’t know about you, but I would rather pay less & enjoy a better product. Watch the hockey playoffs on versus this year and you will learn that they have their stuff together.
You are certainly not going to get the production value that FSC puts into if VS takes over. The only benefit would be that they would show more games. I gotta think it would still be a step down for MLS to move to VS. but… on a personal level I wouldn’t mind the move just to be able to see more games.
I’ll watch any Fox game in SAP before listening to their English drivel
Why can’t we have games on both versus along with fsc. Would like to get to the point where all games are televised. Not just 3 per week.
The catch-22 here is that Fox can’t generate the revenue to improve production value until viewership increases and viewership isn’t going to improve until production value improves. I still think MLS belongs at least partially on a soccer only station. I don’t see this being resolved by the end of this season.
Yes but stigma against soccer kills that. Also, UFC has a weekly show on basic cable, gives free UFC fights, and free preliminary fights on spike. All MLS has is ESPN 2 (in most cases) once a week in season.
Like UFC, brands can grow if shown at pubs. Most pubs dont have U-Verse…They have DirecTV which carries FSC
If you are a fan of fotball…switching to Directv probably wouldn’t be the worst idea
I see the Revolution are not a glamorous team for broadcasters 🙁
Some people don’t want to change their entire packages just to get FSC when Versus is generally available without making such a change…