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U.S. Soccer, ESPN ink deal for Open Cup broadcasting rights

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The longest-running domestic cup competition in the U.S. is heading to ESPN+.

U.S. Soccer announced on Friday they reached a multi-year agreement with ESPN in regards to broadcasting the U.S. Open Cup. All U.S. Open Cup matches starting with the first round through to the final will be aired on ESPN+.

“We are extremely pleased by the commitment from ESPN+ to broadcast every game of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup for the next several years,” U.S. Soccer CEO Dan Flynn said. “This landmark agreement demonstrates U.S. Soccer’s commitment to making soccer the preeminent sport in the United States and is the result of growing audience demand for soccer in the U.S. It will provide a national platform for more fans to follow the game in their communities throughout the country.”

The agreement will cover through the 2022 edition of the tournament. 2019 will be the 106th edition of the tournament as the Houston Dynamo defend their title. The winner of the U.S. Open Cup wins $300,000 in prize money as well as a spot in the following year’s Concacaf Champions League.

ESPN+ currently broadcasts Major League Soccer as well as several leagues and competitions in Europe, including Serie A, EFL Championship, FA Cup, and more.

Comments

  1. For US Open Cup or CL to ever meet their potential, MLS clubs will need to gain quality depth. For obvious reasons, lower league clubs are motivated but- few MLS teams seem to care/give it any priority, so…. why on earth would I care more than the clubs?

    Reply
      • You mean $60/year on top of cable (including ESPN already) (at cable cost which ain’t cheap these days) for something I used to get for free? What a deal. And all these little Netflix-y add-ons add up. I wouldn’t mind if it was ESPN3 that acknowledges I already pay for cable and logs me in, but this is instead like NBC and their new Gold thing where they are slowly sticking games behind a paywall that used to be my choice on a free app.

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