We should be hearing about the home openers in the next week or so. The only other 2016 regular season news so far is that the league will shut for 2 weekends in June for the Copa America: June 3-5 and June 10-12 The first preseason games that I have seen are also out. http://fctucson.com/team/2016-mls-preseason-in-tucson/ The article lumps together two groups of teams that will be playing Tucson. The Dynamo are not in the Desert Diamond Cup but will be playing in the Desert Friendly phase out there again this year. Dynamo games in Tucson: Desert Friendlies Wednesday, February 3, 2016 Portland v. Houston 7:00 pm CT Saturday, February 06, 2016 Houston v. New England 5:30 pm CT
On a related note, MLS Live is back. http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2015/12/17/mls-live-2016 Live Dynamo games will still be blacked out around here but it is a good way to watch the rest of the league or watch Dynamo games later.
So what exactly happened to ESPN? Last year the whole thing with MLS Live was it was supposed to be a stop gap to whatever ESPN was going to be doing in 2016.
Apparently there were issues that ESPN couldn't resolve or they just decided to keep MLS Live going for a while. I'm wondering if one of the issues was how to handle content created by FOX, ROOT, and Comcast Sports nets on an ESPN vehicle. I know there was some talk about putting all of the games on ESPN3. They surely wouldn't have just put a Dynamo game produced by ROOT Sports Southwest on WatchESPN. This comment is on Reddit. I don't know if this poster had inside information or not. If it is a quote, there is no source listed. https://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/3x83lc/per_this_link_just_posted_to_mlssoccercom_it/cy2daz2
http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2015/...-6-league-announces-home-openers-all-20-clubs Home openers are out! Times are CT. WEEK 1 Sunday, March 6 NY Red Bulls vs. Toronto 12:30 pm Orlando vs. Salt Lake 1:00 pm Chicago vs. NY City 1:00 pm Dallas vs. Philadelphia 2:00 pm Houston vs. New England 2:00 pm San Jose vs. Colorado 2:00 pm Portland vs. Columbus 3:30 pm ESPN Vancouver vs. Montreal 4:30 pm Seattle vs. Kansas City 6:00 pm FS1 LA Galaxy vs. D.C. United 9:00 pm UniMas WEEK 2 Saturday, March 12 New England vs. D.C. United Columbus vs. Philadelphia Colorado vs. LA Galaxy Kansas City vs. Vancouver Salt Lake vs. Seattle Montreal vs. NY Red Bulls Sunday, March 13 NY City vs. Toronto WEEK 3 Saturday, March 19 D.C. United vs. Colorado Sunday, March 20 Philadelphia vs. New England WEEK 12 Saturday, May 7 Toronto vs. Dallas Toronto has another stadium construction delay to start the season.
So the Dynamo open against at home against New England. Game 2 would be against Chicago, Orlando, Portland, San Jose, or Dallas. It looks like Week 2 is all intraconference so probably Portland, San Jose or Dallas.
Using my inner @newtex , the last two home openers were against clubs who eventually played in the MLS Cup Final. New England in 2014 and Columbus in 2015. The "Nostradamus" schedule-makers decided that the Revs will go to the 2016 MLS Cup Final. So yeah, any team that wants to play their season opener against our Dynamo in Houston has somewhat of a chance to play in the MLS Cup but they may still lose just like what happened the last two years.
Dynamo pre-season games in Tucson, more games added: http://fctucson.com/team/2016-mls-preseason-in-tucson/ Desert Friendlies Wednesday, February 3, 2016 Portland v. Houston 7:00 pm CT Saturday, February 6, 2016 Houston v. New England 5:30 pm CT Tuesday, February 9 Vancouver v. Houston 7:00 pm CT Desert Diamond Cup Saturday, February 20 Colorado v. Houston 8:00 pm CT Wednesday, February 24 New England v. Houston 6:30 pm CT Saturday, February 27 TBA v. Houston Apparently the Dynamo are now in the Diamond Cup but those are the only games announced so far. There may be more games added. http://fctucson.com/team/columbus-crew-az-united-join-desert-diamond-cup/
What!!?? You mean we don't get to defend our Carolina Challenge Cup championship??? Darsh nabbit!!! Well at least we can add the star this year hidden under our armpit for that championship!
As I mentioned on the start times thread, looking forward to see how many "unavoidable" conflicts we have with the Astros this year. Astros schedule has been out for 3 months now, with start times. No way we should have more than 1 or 2 conflicts, and that would only be for unusual TV circumstances. Anything more than that and it's the FO blocking out dates for concerts and making up excuses.
We'll see how many conflicts we have. I was looking at the Astros' schedule and they have 13 weekends on the road between April 1 and October 1. Well, 14 but one of those is during the Copa America break. Add in the 7 weekends in March and October when the Astros aren't playing and that makes a total of 20 potential weekends. I don't know if the Dynamo gives TSU some reserved dates or not. How many the team turns in to the league and what the league can do with that, we don't know.
The announcement was Dec. 4th for TSU. No idea if Dynamo gets draft then releases to TSU or not. Some of these football schedules are done years out for the major schools - TSU isn't major but I bet the Dynamo can't just block out the fall every year and wait until MLS decides
Very quick glance - 7 times - SEVEN times - we have games scheduled on the same day as Astros. Now the Astros actually still have TBD on their schedule and the Dynamo have TBD listed on their schedule for 6 of the 7 conflict dates so maybe there will be an attempt to schedule them at times different enough so as to avoid conflict but most of the come during May-August so unless Astros do 1:00 starts its gonna be parking nightmares
Dynamo games: Times are CT, home team first Sunday, March 6 Houston v. New England 1:45 pm Saturday, March 12 Houston v. Dallas TBA Saturday, March 19 NY Red Bulls v. Houston 6:00 pm Saturday, March 26 Vancouver v. Houston TBD Sunday, April 10, 2016 Houston v. Seattle 2:45 pm ESPN Friday, April 15 Houston v. LA Galaxy LA 5:45 pm UniMas Saturday, April 23 Columbus v. Houston 6:30 pm Saturday, April 30 Salt Lake v. Houston 8:30 pm Saturday, May 7 Houston v. Kansas City TBD Wednesday, May 11 San Jose v. Houston 9:30 pm Saturday, May 14 Houston v. Salt Lake TBD Saturday, May 21 Chicago v. Houston 4:00 pm Saturday, May 28 Vancouver v. Houston TBD Thursday, June 2 Dallas v. Houston 8:00 pm Saturday, June 18 Houston v. DC United TBD Sunday, June 26 Portland v. Houston 5:00 pm ESPN2 Saturday, July 2 Houston v. Philadelphia TBD Friday, July 8 Orlando v. Houston 7:00 pm UniMas Friday, July 15 LA Galaxy v. Houston 10:00 pm UniMas Saturday, July 23 Houston v. Vancouver TBD Sunday, July 31 Houston v. San Jose TBD Saturday, August 6 Montreal v. Houston TBD Saturday, August 13 Houston v. Toronto TBD Friday, August 19 San Jose v. Houston 10:00 pm UniMas Wednesday, August 24 Houston v. Seattle TBD Saturday, August 27 Houston v. Dallas TBD Friday, September 9 Kansas City v. Houston 7:00 pm UniMas Saturday, September 17 Salt Lake v. Houston 8:30 pm Saturday, September 24 Houston v. Portland TBD Friday, September 30 Houston v. NY City 6:45 pm UniMas Saturday, October 8 Houston v. Colorado TBD Wednesday, October 12 Seattle v. Houston 9:30 pm Sunday, October 16 Houston v. LA Galaxy 5:45 pm Sunday, October 23 Colorado v. Houston 3:00 pm
Games by Month: March - 4 April - 4 May - 5 June - 3 July - 5 August - 5 September - 4 October - 4 Games by day of the week: Wednesday - 3 Thursday - 1 Friday - 6 Saturday - 18 Sunday - 6 Home games by day of the week: Wednesday - 1 Friday - 2 Saturday - 10 Sunday - 4 National TV: ESPN/ESPN 2 - 3 UniMas - 6 Opponents: Home - CAPS East home: NER, DCU, PHI, TFC, NYC East away: nyr, clb, chi, orl, mon West: FCD-fcd-FCD van - van - VAN SEA - SEA - sea LAG - lag - LAG rsl - RSL - rsl SKC - skc sje - SJE - sje por - POR COR - cor
Yes and no. I suspect most of the Dynamo TBDs are related to 7:30 or 8:00 start times because almost all of the conflicts are on Saturday games during warm months. Astros typically have 6:05 Saturday start times with a few 3:05 ones mixed and then any national TV considerations. But 3:05 starts or later knock the parking lots out of commission for Dynamo games. This is blatant disregard for the Dynamo STHs who don't want to pay $30 for parking with a hassle by either the team, the league or both. Asinine we would have this many conficts
I've yet to pay for parking on a conflict day (or for any game last season) and longest I've walked to the stadium is maybe 6-8 minutes. Just saying.....