Yeah, after missing out on all the HDNet-only Wizards broadcasts last year - mollifed by FSW showing the Wizards 9 or 10 teams, I was mortified when the espn2/FSW schedules were released and included only one KC game between them. The week before the season began, I called DirecTV and had them upgrade me to their HD receiver. I still only have an NTSC receiver, but the games come in clear and look great. Since I'd been a customer for about 4 years, they gave me the "new subscriber" offer - (call and ask for "Customer Retention"). For $99 I got the HD receiver, a second regular receiver, a new tri-oval dish, and an over-the-air HD antenna (for local HD feeds) all installed. I have to pay a monthly $5 or so for the HD package, but I dropped the Starz Movie package, so that was a wash. Additionally I switched from Total Choice to Para Todos, which adds Telemundo, Fox Sports en Espanol, TyC Sports and a bunch of other channels.
I was watching three games at once some weekends on MLS.com. I could count the number of games not on their on my hands and toes - and I'm not even Antonio Alfonseca. The Metros have benefitted greatly from the advent of the YES network which lost Jackass Dolan two local teams and time to fill during the summer. Whether or not these stations last now that the Metskis are getting their own network remains to be seen. I guess MSG would be Knicks/Rangers/Metro - which is great for Metro. Would I be correct in syaing that Metro Soccer Report is the only show of it's kind amongst the MLS teams? (and no jokes about me counting to twenty please.)
I looked up all the information thru all 10 clubs Schedule departments on their websites. A bit painstaking, but yet it had to be done. Winner Communications is no longer the Official Broadcasting department of the MLS anymore since about 2002. I also understand that the reason the ExtraTime show on ESPN 2 was that Rob Stone and Alexi Lalas had to fly to Oklahoma to produce the show. The deal for the league ended and of course all the clubs were told to go and get your own contracts. Since FSN NE only shows the Celtics, they had to show the Revs. In all honesty MSG & FSN NY are the same people. I am also in the business working in the TV Communications department. So it's all very interesting getting all the MLS matches with all the different announcers. So that's what I learned. But great follow ups on this post guys.
Okay, 130 of 150 MLS games were broadcast in an NTSC format. 12 games were not broadcast at all (one of which was scheduled, but bounced by an MLB game), and 8 games were available on HDNet only. MAY 01 not shown MLS 021 - Colorado at Kansas City MAY 15 not shown MLS 030 - Kansas City at DC United MAY 29 not shown MLS 041 - Colorado at Chicago JUN 05 not shown MLS 086 - Kansas City at Los Angeles JUN 09 HDNet --- MLS 048 - Kansas City at Colorado JUN 12 not shown MLS 050 - Colorado at DC United JUN 19 HDNet --- MLS 056 - Kansas City at New England JUN 26 not shown MLS 061 - Colorado at Columbus JUN 26 HDNet --- MLS 063 - Kansas City at San Jose JUL 17 HDNet --- MLS 083 - Kansas City at Dallas AUG 14 not shown MLS 143 - Colorado at Chicago AUG 18 HDNet --- MLS 103 - Kansas City at Columbus AUG 28 HDNet --- MLS 113 - Colorado at San Jose SEP 01 not shown MLS 093 - Kansas City at Chicago SEP 04 not shown MLS 115 - DC United at Chicago SEP 08 not shown MLS 120 - Columbus at San Jose SEP 10 not shown MLS 123 - Kansas City at Colorado SEP 18 HDNet --- MLS 130 - San Jose at Kansas City SEP 25 not shown MLS 132 - Colorado at Kansas City OCT 16 HDNet --- MLS 148 - San Jose at Dallas Away Teams 9 - Kansas City 7 - Colorado 2 - San Jose 1 - DC United, Columbus
Of course that "1" game was KC vs Colorado, with the other 3 KC/COL matchups receiving no air time whatsoever. On that basis alone, I'm predicting that KC will get past SJ and Colorado will get past LA.
Apparently the Columbus at New England game will be shown on a local Columbus cable channel: Time Warner Connection/Sport! TV which on Time Warner's website is refered to as "and Central Ohio Sport! TV™, featuring local high school athletics!" Awesome, baby! As of right now, the playoffs look like this: Fri 9/22 9:30pm HDNet Los Angeles at Colorado 9:30pm FSW Los Angeles at Colorado 9:30pm KWHY-22 Los Angeles at Colorado (DirectKick) (KWHY TD 11pm) Sat 10/23 7:05pm MSG Metro GameNight (1/2 hour) (iNDemand DirectKick) 7:30pm MSG DC United at MetroStars (DirectKick) 7:30pm CSN DC United at MetroStars 7:30pm FSW DC United at MetroStars 7:30pm WLVI-56 Columbus at New England (DirectKick) 7:30pm SportTV Columbus at New England 9:30pm FSW Columbus at New England (Delayed) Sun 10/24 5:00pm espn2 Kansas City at San Jose Sat 10/30 6:35pm MSG Metro GameNight (1/2 hour) 7:00pm MSG MetroStars at DC United (DirectKick) 7:00pm HDNet MetroStars at DC United 7:00pm FSW MetroStars at DC United 8:30pm FSBA-alt San Jose at Kansas City (DirectKick) 10:00pm FSW Colorado at Los Angeles (DirectKick) Sun 10/31 3:00pm FSW San Jose at Kansas City (Delayed) 5:00pm espn2 New England at Columbus (3 hours) - FSBA-alt is "Fox Sports Net Plus" and appears as an additional cable channel in San Jose area markets, and as FSBA-alternate on DirecTV and DISH Network. - I wonder if the DirectKick feed of Colorado at Los Angeles on 10/30 will carry the FSW audio? - If San Jose at Kansas City (10/30) runs to OT and/or PKs will the delayed FSW broadcast show the entire game? - I'm just guessing that the WLVI feed of Columbus at New England will be the DirectKick feed. - I'm also guessing - based on history (and iNDemand's invaluable schedule) - that MSG will be the DirectKick feed of United at MetroStars (9/23). Unfortunately the Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic feed will be blacked out and CSN-DC, unlike MSG, isn't rebroadcasting the game.
No I meant that two of the games not shown anywhere and 1 game on HDNet had neither Colorado or KC playing in it. The other 9 games had either Colorado or KC (or for 3 of them, both) playing in it.
LA/Colorado on MLSNet.com has the video and Joe Tutino's radio call under, I believe. It's Joe, and it sounds like a simulcast of his radio call of the game. So we think 130 is the number. That's 87% of the games available in non-high-def and that's $.53 a game, thereabouts. So all the bitching about the price of the Direct Kick going back up should be stifled as well.
I'm pretty sure MSG Network does its own MLS production with a semi-rotating team of full-timers (all MSG employees based in NY). Basically, they mostly seem to use a number of production crew members who either didn't get offered enough money to join YES or do hockey for a living (plenty of time to kill and make some extra money during the summer and a work stoppage).
Actually, there were 24 espn2 games that weren't part of the shootout... So for $69, DirectKick was 106 regular season and 8 post-season games. or $69/114 per game.
So $.61 a game. Well, that's different. If it's going to be that much more, I'm not going to buy it anymore.
Actually, yeah, the Altitude broadcasts made it to DirecTV. I know this because I recorded some Rapids broadcasts from Altitude on my DirecTiVo, watched them, and realized that Mike Haynes, in addition to being an insufferable hockey announcer, is a really bad soccer announcer. So far as I know, just about ever local broadcast made it onto DirecTV's Direct Kick. The only exception that comes to mind was an early-season Revs-Quakes game that was curiously the FSW game of the week. The really funny part was that while it wasn't on Direct Kick, it was on Fox Sports Net New England and was not blacked out. Weird.