“U.S. pro league Major League Soccer (MLS) is about to cash in on the sport’s growing popularity with a series of television deals that will bring in upwards of $15 million annually. Soccer United Marketing (SUM), the commercial arm of MLS, is close to a multi-year agreement with Fox Soccer Channel (FSC) for a wide-ranging rights deal worth around $20 million through 2010, according to sources.”
“With a separate, multi-year deal with ABC/ESPN —said to be worth at least $7 million-$8 million annually—expected to be announced as soon as this week, SUM could have four national TV deals. The others are a previously announced HDNet contract (said to be worth $2 million-$3 million annually) and another deal with Univision currently in the works.”
Beyond saying this can only be a good thing, I don’t have much else. It’s not in that excerpt, but it sounds like Fox Soccer will show games on Saturday, while ESPN will carry a Thursday night game. In related news, Fox picked up a bunch of games for the remainder of the 2006 season, which MLS’s site helpfully posted (check the very bottom of the page; I also see the next two games air at distinctly “unhelpful” times for West coasters). And, there’s also the games played for FC Barcelona’s U.S. tour on Fox (same link). Like I said, good stuff for the right people.
There is, however, the question of how my marriage will hold together with so many games on the TV.
There’s a big discussion about this - and, honestly, more subjects than one could possibly conceive - over on BigSoccer.com's corner of MLS's site. And that brings me to another point of interest: as one poster put it, MLS finally recognized BigSoccer (I can't find it, but here's a stand-in). On a personal level - how to put this? - BigSoccer is kind of a blackhole; addictive and well beyond time-consuming. It’s “affiliation” with MLS’ site will make it easier for me to find and that’s great because the people who populate it catch and discuss all kinds of breaking stuff; it's also a decent barometer of what the people I fondly call "the obsessives" are thinking. At the same time, I find I can’t be bothered to comment on anything; by the time I see the topics, upwards of 100 people have already sounded off, with at least two of them covering the same point I have in my head. What can I say? I’m too slow for message boards...
Still, it’s good MLS finally got on the ball with that one.
I’ve been intending to do what I am doing today for some time now, but haven’t yet managed to discipline my impulses. The basic idea is to have a “feature topic” and then close out the post with short notes on other stuff. Because I do only one post a day (barring weird breaking stuff), I feel some compulsion to get everything I can in that one post. But I also want to focus, at least a bit, on one story. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow and going forward, but here’s today’s quick notes:
- Round Four of the U.S. Open Cup. Two games play today: D.C. United v. Columbus Crew and LA Galaxy v. FC Roma. It’s fair to say the latter generates quite a bit more excitement. For interested parties, the latest previews come from the Boston Globe (LINK), the Dallas Morning News (LINK), plus two more from some outlet called the LA Daily Breeze (LINK and LINK). The Breeze’s second is the pick of the bunch as I see it. Only MLS seems all that interested in Columbus v. DC. (OK, not true; one fan blog, DCenters, pulled together a nice preview).
By the way, the rest of Round Four plays tomorrow. I strongly suspect the Open Cup will dominate the commentary tomorrow.
- In local news, Alan Gordon returns from the LA Galaxy’s subs bench for the six games remaining in the Portland Timbers’ season. I don’t think much of the Timbers’ chances, but head coach Chris Agnello figures they’ve got some kind of chance:
"With all these home games, and with a lot of teams going on the road now, it gives us a sliver of hope there to sneak in. Looking at the standings, everything is so tight in terms of points. Maybe we get a couple wins, someone drops a couple and we're right back in the mix. It's promising."
Yeah, we’ll see you in the post-season, Chief. If it weren’t for Seattle’s 3-game skid on the road, which left them only four points ahead of Portland over an equal number of games, I would have written the season off completely.
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