This flew under my radar but the NASL has signed a deal with ESPN late last week to show a weekly "Match of the Week". The first match was already shown (past Saturday, Indy v Carolina). 27 matches will be available exclusively on espn3.com which is available to 92 million people (and available to those qualifying subscribers on the WatchESPN app via Xbox LIVE/Gold, AppleTv, Roku and Amazon Fire TV). All other matches are available to subscribers of NASLLive.com ($29.99 for full season or $4.99 per month). SA www.soccertvblog.com
NASL Press Release - Game Of The Week on ESPN3 - http://www.nasl.com/article/uuid/52...3-to-show-nasl-match-of-the-week#.U04MV1c0_0k Ugh, no listing of the games in that press release - well aside from the one that was played last Saturday. (Actually wounded up watching the final couple of minutes of that match - nice coverage done by the home team Carolina.) Unfortunately the league schedule doesn't list them either. Guess they are going by a week to week basis on deciding what game is on ESPN3. Would be nice if Indy Elevens home opener is the ESPN3 Game Of The Week for this weekend. Read some articles about their staff/team and would like to see them play especially since its their first ever home game. Hope they have a great first season, well except when they play the New York Cosmos!
NASL has announced that they will use "flex-scheduling" for the ESPN3 matches. Since you don't really need adjust matches to fit into the schedule of a streaming service that can handle multiple matches, I am assuming this means that the "Match of the Week" will always be at the same time and day. In this case, we are looking at Saturdays at 7:30pm ET for all 27 matches. Looking at the NASL schedule, there seems to always be a match or two in this time slot. But it still doesn't tell us much since they would employ flex-scheduling which means they could move any match to that slot and show it on ESPN3. One other thing I didn't mention earlier and nobody seems to talk about in the articles is that the NY Cosmos have a TV deal for their home matches with One World Sport. Not sure if this excludes their home matches from the ESPN deal....? SA www.soccertvblog.com
And speaking of minor leagues - both the USL Pro league and the women's NWSL stream their matches live on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/USLPRO http://www.youtube.com/user/NWSLsoccer
Actually, the home team last Saturday was the Indy Eleven. The broadcast was from one of the local stations in Indy, WNDY.
This Saturday's match (April 19th) on espn3.com: 7:30pm ET Carolina Railhawks vs. Fort Lauderdale Strikers SA www.soccertvblog.com
This Saturday's match (April 26th) on espn3.com: 7:30pm ET Tamba Bay Rowdies vs. Atlanta Silverbacks SA www.soccertvblog.com
Having it on ESPN3 isn't good enough. They'd better add it to ESPNU or ESPN Classic if they want to get more viewers for the NASL.
New York Cosmos retweeted NASL @naslofficial · Nov 1 Next Saturday - @MNUnitedFC vs. @FTLStrikers - 7:00 pm ET. @SAScorpions vs. @NYCosmos - 8:30 pm ET. Both matches will air LIVE on @ESPN3! The Championship will feature a pair of single-elimination semifinal matchups. The highest-seeded semifinal winner will then host "Soccer Bowl" the following weekend. Here are next weekend’s postseason semifinal matchups - #1 Minnesota United FC vs. #4 Fort Lauderdale Strikers Saturday, November 8 - 6:00 pm CT - 7:00 pm ET. NSC Stadium - Blaine, Minnesota. Broadcasts - ESPN3 - NASLLive.com - KSTC45-TV #2 San Antonio Scorpions vs. #3 New York Cosmos Saturday, November 8 - 7:30 pm CT - 8:30 pm ET. Toyota Field - San Antonio, Texas. Broadcasts - ESPN3 - NASLLive.com - ONE World Sport - KSAT12.2-MeTV Well since ESPN3 is showing the semifinals, they should be showing "Soccer Bowl" too. Will probably also be on NASLLive.com and on the local stations of the two teams in the match. Wouldn't be shock if ONE World Sport shows it too even if the Cosmos are not playing.