MLS Regular Season Schedule is Out

by Sounder At Heart on Feb 3, 2010 12:19 PM PST in Major League Soccer Comment 17 comments

This is not the complete schedule for Sounders FC. Most of you know that, but I should remind you that there will be the US Open Cup, the CONCACAF Champions League as well as 3 friendlies tagged onto the following schedule.

It is notable to me that though 1/3 of all league matches are on TV this year, only 9 will be of Sounders. A "balanced" TV schedule would have been 10. A schedule that would have featured the team and city with the best MLS TV ratings should have had more. This is an MLS miss.

MLS added the Philly SSS Opener to the ESPN2 schedule. Seattle now is evenly represented on National TV.

Also notable are the reduction in weeknight games, this year down to 15%. This is due to a bit less crowding from FIFA dates, and just a wise move to get more people inside the stadiums. You should expect a bump in attendence overall from this alone.

Philly has the anti-Sounders schedule due to their stadium issue. Their 3rd Home Game is against the Sounders on June 27th, a Sunday (MLS still fixing their online version of schedule).

Also notable is that the Sounders/Seahawks conflict lead to only a tiny weighting towards road games. In September/October there will be only 3 home games and 5 away. It could have been worse. Throw in August and its only a 5/6 split in favor of traveling.

Sounders have a double week early, and both matches are roadtrips. Kind of long ones at that. At Dallas on a Thursday followed up by at Toronto. At the end of that first 6 matches of March/April Sounders need to be at 10+ points. They are facing clubs that are generally lower to mid-level teams, with the at Salt Lake being the only one where I expect a poor result. Also, several teams historically start slow as they don't bring in their full squad until the end of the Primary Transfer Window. It is great that one of the shortest/cheapest roadtrips is the first one of the year.

The Second Six gets more difficult with only the loans of Donovan and Beckham making it a bit easier. By the time the World Cup starts Seattle fans should have a good picture of what kind of team has come back to defend their single trophy and effort towards a multi-Cup year.

Full Regular Season Schedule after the jump. I have included the date change that MLS has indicated will be made to the @Philly match.

date	opponent	time (PT) / result	TV, Radio / attendance
March
03/25 - Thursday	Philadelphia	6:30 p.m.	ESPN2, Deportes
April
04/03 - Saturday	New York	8:00 p.m.	FSC, FSE
04/10 - Saturday	at Real Salt Lake	6:00 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
04/17 - Saturday	Kansas City	12:00 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
04/22 - Thursday	at FC Dallas	5:00 p.m.	ESPN2, Deportes
04/25 - Sunday	at Toronto FC	11:00 a.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
May
05/01 - Saturday	Columbus	7:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
05/08 - Saturday	LA Galaxy	1:00 p.m.	TeleFutura
05/15 - Saturday	at New York	4:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
05/22 - Saturday	San Jose	12:00 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
05/29 - Saturday	at Colorado	TBD	DK, MLSnet.com
June
06/05 - Saturday	New England	7:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
06/10 - Thursday	D.C. United	7:00 p.m.	ESPN2, Deportes
06/27 - Sunday	at Philadelphia	1:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
July
07/04 - Sunday	at LA Galaxy	7:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
07/11 - Sunday	FC Dallas	7:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
07/15 - Thursday	at D.C. United	5:00 p.m.	ESPN2, Deportes
07/25 - Sunday	Colorado	8:00 p.m.	FSC, FSE
07/31 - Saturday	at San Jose	7:00 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
August
08/08 - Sunday	Houston	7:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
08/14 - Saturday	at Chivas USA	7:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
08/28 - Saturday	Chicago	7:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
September
09/04 - Saturday	at New England	4:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
09/09 - Thursday	Real Salt Lake	8:00 p.m.	ESPN2, Deportes
09/18 - Saturday	at Columbus	4:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
09/25 - Saturday	at Chicago	5:00 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
October
10/02 - Saturday	Toronto FC	12:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
10/09 - Saturday	at Kansas City	5:30 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com
10/15 - Friday	Chivas USA	8:00 p.m.	ESPN2, Deportes
10/23 - Saturday	at Houston	1:00 p.m.	DK, MLSnet.com

Thoughts on the schedule?

UPDATE: Final Four Matches for the League

Team	Opp 1	Opp 2	Opp 3	Opp 4
Chicago	@ Dallas	Columbus	DC	@Chivas
Chivas	Toronto	@ Seattle	@ San Jose	Chicago
Colorado	DC	@ Dallas	@ LA	Salt Lake
Columbus	San Jose	@ Chicago	@ Toronto	Philly
DC	@ Colorado	San Jose	@ Chicago	Toronto
Dallas	Chicago	Colorado	@ Salt Lake	@ LA
Houston	@ Philly	New England	@ San Jose	Seattle
Kansas City	@ New York	Seattle	@ New England	San Jose
Los Angeles	@ Chivas	@ Philly	Colorado	Dallas
New England	Real Salt Lake	@ Houston	Kansas City	@ New York
New York	Kansas City	Salt Lake	@ Philly	New England
Philly	Houston	LA	New York	@ Columbus
Salt Lake	@ New England	@ New York	Dallas	@ Colorado
San Jose	@ DC	Houston	Chivas	@ Kansas City
Toronto	@ Seattle	@ Chivas	Columbus	@ DC
*Seattle*	*Toronto*	*@ Kansas City*	*Chivas*	*@ Houston*

It may be a good thing that RSL ends with 3 Away.

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Comments

Big games

for the last two of the season, likely.

I’m a little concerned with 7/25 vs. CO. That’s a Sunday, and don’t we have CCL on the 27th? Ten days between games, and then two in three days, with the second possibly taking place in Central America? That’s brutal.

If our first leg is at home, then the situation would be better. But still. Why not play CO on Saturday, giving us an extra day? MLS knew the CCL date. What the hell?

by Cornchops on Feb 3, 2010 12:33 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Completely agree with this

That’s some bad fixture congestion that last week in July. Maybe MLS will make a change, move the COL game to Saturday, like you suggested…otherwise, that’s just bad planning. How can we make a good showing if the fixtures are that close together with the small amount of players on the roster?

24 is clearly the most perfect of numbers.

by AMb1valenT on Feb 3, 2010 1:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Really odd too

because COL owns their stadium.

But if Seattle hosts that first match it isn’t a big deal. No matter what there was going to be a game there. It is only a big deal if Sounders are away for that Leg of the Prelims.

Also, expanding the roster size wouldn’t necessarily help, because it would most likely result in 4 more guys that of the same quality as the back end of the roster.

It isn’t size that matters but DEPTH.

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Feb 3, 2010 2:05 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

That's a good point

I guess that’s really what I was trying to get at – having more better players. Like in other leagues, where managers can run out very different lineups for different competitions, while keeping a similar amount of quality play. I follow Arsenal in the Premier League, and they do that sort of thing all the time. I’d love it if Sounders could do the same thing.

Not that I need to explain that to you, obviously :-) You’ve been talking very intelligently about this topic for awhile now! (Thanks for the great content, by the way)

24 is clearly the most perfect of numbers.

by AMb1valenT on Feb 3, 2010 2:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Welcome to what you wished for...

by DadRyan on Feb 4, 2010 7:08 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

and why 3 friendlies?

IF the Sounders progress through the Open Cup, and IF we make the CCL group stage, it seems pretty silly to schedule THREE additional “friendly” matches. I have qualms with filling the stadium up for a match against an elite European side only to see what is essentially a reserve match for a half (or more)

...that's MISTER Keller to you!!!

by malcontentjake on Feb 3, 2010 2:16 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Money, exposure

by lemonverbena on Feb 4, 2010 7:09 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Helping the US audition for a World Cup bid.

by BrianL on Feb 4, 2010 3:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think the Friendlies...

will happen during the break for the world cup. It makes sense, and should help the team keep in shape during the break. Hopefully they schedule it right, though any team we play will probably be without their stars since they are at the world cup.

by Murk on Feb 4, 2010 11:47 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

So now you know

So while you have only 9 national matches (did you include telefutura?) Notice that LA has 16, as the Beckham affect in full force. While lowly KC has 3 and only one at home, Colorado has only 8 but none on ESPN. RSL has half as many as LA, you would think the MLS Cup Champions would deserve a bit better, we get 3 at home and thank goodness only one on Telefutura. RSL has only one home match before May, starts the season on the road and ends it on the road. I am just happy we don’t have the huge gaps like last season where we had months with 6 MLS matches (sometimes 3 in 7 days) and then months with 3 and gap of 20 days.

by denz on Feb 3, 2010 2:55 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

TV is still under the sway of Beckham

Absolutely, I understand why they thought that way, but they are wrong.

If 4 of the top 5 matches for TV ratings last year featured Sounders why would the ignore it this year?

6 ESPN2
2 FSC
1 Telefutura

I think that means that ESPN has better business sense than FSC

Now, I’m happy that they are expanding the % of matches that are shown nationally, even thought it is only a minor tweak up, that helps. I’m also hoping that some of the Knock-Out Rd replays are lead-ins to the ESPN2 coverage in the Summer. That should help too.

Overall this is a much better schedule than the league has had, maybe ever.

85% on weekends, no more Sunday every week

And if they can take a total of 3 Saturdays off for FIFA dates this year, they can do that for the forseeable future. That would be a great thing to lock in forever, a min. of 3 FIFA dates off.

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Feb 3, 2010 3:11 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The Changed Philly date

Also added an ESPN2 date for Sounders.

So 7/2/1

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Feb 3, 2010 3:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

They may have won the MLS Cup

But RSL isn’t a team I’d get excited to see. Honestly, no teams in MLS other than the Sounders are, but for the vast majority of the season last year RSL especially non-special in a large group of unspecial teams.

by CarlosT on Feb 4, 2010 3:14 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

and how was Seattle special?

Sorry I get a new team, but the story wasn’t the team who performed well and I can go into the reasons they did and why they were nothing like other expansion teams. the story was the crowd and who the hell watches TV because of a crowd? Sorry, your team was a snoozer for much of the year, how many goals did you score at home after the All Star match?

The league pushing your team to ESPN to showcase the fans instead of the matches isn’t a bad thing, but Seattle only won 1 more match than RSL and was a great story, but no team was more exciting to watch on their home pitch than RSL, best record, most goals scored, and when it counted 3 straight road wins.

It is OK, let the league continue to play favorites it is what they do. It hurts the league in the long run as people end up not even knowing that teams play in markets like KC (3 National TV matches), New England (4), TFC (4 in the US), San Jose (5), but let’s make sure LA ends up there 16 times, or Philly 17 times. It is a smart move to try to put big market teams on TV more, it helps the ratings, but as long as ESPN puts matches on midweek vs. weekends it won’t matter much. “the Don” is trying to sell a story more than play on the pitch, he is selling an illusion more than reality of the league, and I hope it works out. I think focusing on the matches is much more important than the hype.

by denz on Feb 5, 2010 12:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm ok with it

We’re over represented on ESPN with 7 of the 25 matches.

FSC games are nice and I’m sure give us a larger total audience, but fewer people in the northwest will be able to watch the games.

Having only 1 Telefutura game is interesting. I wonder if we aren’t as big in the spanish speaking community.

I suspect there’s more to it as well. Can FSC take their pick of games after ESPN? Would the front office rather have games on KING/KONG than FSC? Does MLS charge more for different games that might prevent FSC or Telefutura from picking them up?

by lefthand on Feb 3, 2010 4:40 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

The hispanic community isn't a huge focus for the team

From what I gather any way. They’re not going out of their way to ignore them either, but they don’t seem to be making a huge effort beyond the basics.

Which is exactly the right approach, in my opinion. Hispanics are largely a saturated market with a low potential for conversion, so money and time spent trying to reach them will be mostly wasted anyway. It’s much better to just market the team generally, because while the sport might not have the same popularity in the general public as in the Hispanic community, those people will likely not have three or four teams they are already following in leagues with a higher standard of play.

by CarlosT on Feb 4, 2010 3:21 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Why Qwest will be a popular choice for HD broadcasters

7 of the 10 national broadcasts are from Qwest, the reason for this is not just about atmosphere.

It is also because Qwest is WIRED from the ground for an HD TV truck to just pull up to a parking spot and plug in and be immediately ready for dozens of HD cameras. It makes it quite easy to get the best angles when the stadium is designed that way.

Most other stadiums in the league require many cables running from camera locations back to the truck and takes several more hours for setup.

I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart

by Sounder At Heart on Feb 3, 2010 7:57 PM PST reply actions 1 recs