NEW YORK - Major League Soccer, together with its national television partners - ABC, ESPN, Univision, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en Español and HDNet - today unveiled its 2007 regular season schedule. In the League's 12th season, each of the 13 clubs will play 30 regular season games, for a total of 195 matches from April 7 to Oct. 21. The season kicks off April 7, live on ABC at 3:30 p.m. ET, when four-time MLS champion D.C. United visit the Colorado Rapids in their brand new stadium, Dick's Sporting Goods Park. The 2007 season will conclude on Sunday, Nov. 18 with MLS Cup 2007, live on ABC from RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. at noon ET.
The 2007 MLS season will feature the most comprehensive national television schedule in League history, with a total of 113 live matches. Fans will find it easier than ever to follow their favorite teams and players as each of the four national broadcast networks has anchored its live broadcasts on a certain night of the week, providing destination viewing for all sports fans. Throughout the season ESPN2 will broadcast "MLS Primetime Thursdays," while Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en Español and HDNet will each air an MLS match on Saturdays. Univision's family of networks, which includes TeleFutura and Galavisión, will air MLS matches on Sundays.
Also for the first time in League history, every regular season game will be televised, either through national or regional broadcasts. The entire MLS schedule, including individual team schedules, is available at www.MLSnet.com.
A linchpin of this year's television schedule is "MLS Primetime Thursdays" on ESPN2, consisting of 29 live broadcasts, including three MLS Cup Playoff matches and the 2007 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game on July 19 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. The MLS All-Stars will take on Celtic FC of Scotland in a 2.5-hour programming window. The April 12 and Oct. 18 MLS Primetime Thursday broadcasts will also feature an extra 30 minutes of coverage, as will the two ABC broadcasts and the three playoff games on ESPN2. An additional MLS broadcast on the ESPN networks will be determined at a later date.
MLS action returns to the Univision family of networks in 2007 with 25 Sunday broadcasts, 22 on TeleFutura and three on Galavisión during the regular season. Viewers will note that the Sunday lineup focuses on the MLS teams from the largest Hispanic markets in the United States. Playoff games that will air on the Univision networks will be announced at a later date.
Fox Soccer Channel will broadcast 28 regular season games, each one in a three-hour programming window entitled "MLS Saturday on FSC." Fox Soccer Channel's on-site coverage will include MLS's first-ever 30-minute pre-game show and 30-minute post-game show; all Fox Soccer Channel MLS games will also air in Spanish in two-hour programming windows on sister network Fox Sports en Español, the largest Spanish-language all-sports network in the U.S. The two Fox networks also will carry three MLS Cup Playoff games.
HDNet, the first all-high definition national television network, begins its fifth season of MLS coverage in HD, airing 31 regular season games in high-definition, 27 of them on Saturday nights. HDNet's coverage will extend into the playoffs, with specific games to be announced at a later date.
With Toronto FC joining the Eastern Conference as the first MLS team based outside the United States, each MLS team will play two games against the other 12 teams, one home, one away, accounting for 24 games of the season. The remaining six games are played against intra-conference foes.
