Major League Soccer announced on Monday that it has signed a six-year multimedia rights agreement with TSN (The Sports Network), Canada’s most-watched specialty network. The network will nationally televise 24 regular season MLS games live in 2011, including two Sporting Kansas City matches.
Sporting’s match in Toronto on Saturday, June 4th will be the first of 2011 to air on TSN at 6:00 p.m. CT from BMO Field. Later that month, Sporting Kansas City’s $180 million plus, state-of-the-art stadium will be showcased to fans across Canada when KC hosts Vancouver for the inaugural series finale against the expansion Whitecaps FC on Saturday, June 25th at 7:30 p.m. CT.
With the addition of these two matches, Sporting Kansas City is currently slated to appear on national television in the United States or Canada on eight occasions in 2011. Six of the eight matches scheduled for national exposure will be played at Sporting’s brand new home ground, which will seat 18,467 soccer supporters and features an iconic canopy roof that covers every seating section.
The stadium grand opening will be broadcast on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.com on Thursday, June 9th at 9:00 p.m. CT against the Chicago Fire. Additionally, five Sporting Kansas City matches in 2011 will be available nationwide on Major League Soccer’s Spanish-language broadcast partners, TeleFutura and Galavision.
Every Sporting Kansas City home and away match will be telecast live locally in high definition on KSMO-TV, with the exception of the home opener on the ESPN family of networks. One or more games will also be simulcast on KCTV-5 in 2011.
All MLS games on TSN will be broadcast in high definition and will be available live to fans in the United States via the MLS Direct Kick Package and/or MatchDay Live on MLSsoccer.com.
Beginning next year, TSN and TSN2 will combine to broadcast 30 regular season MLS games live across Canada. Additionally, TSN will add select additional games between U.S.-based teams to its lineup of MLS coverage beginning this season through 2016.
