Earlier, home and away openers were made known, now the cat is fully out of the bag. welcome to Austin and 3 SSS's. This, the 26th year of the league, has the most extensive coverages ever with ABC, FOX, Univision CV & TVA networks.
Fully 37 games are to be shown nationwide with all the networks mentioned, more games are sure to be added the same. ESPN+ will stream all regional broadcasts nationally, out of market, in the US and any games not in English will be on Twitter in English.
The 34 games of 2021 will be evenly split with home and away games, heavy on intra conference play, in, I'm sure a nod to Covid and the economic losses of 2020. The top 7 of each conference go onto the playoffs.
The year kicks off with 7 straight weeks of games from April 16, then there is a FIFA window. This first flurry of games will have them shown on ABC, FOX & Univision with 4 games each, 18 more between ESPN, FS1, UniMas & TUDN through Memorial Day.
An opening week big event will be the first game at the fantastic West End Stadium of FCC as they christen the building with Miami on May 16, live on Fox & FOX Deportes. A month after, Austin FC does the same at their Q2 Stadium with the 'Quakes on UniMas & TUDN. Then it is off to Ohio and the Crew, they celebrate their MLS title of 2020 and the New Crew Stadium, July 3. This is their 2nd SSS and they face Bruce Arena's Revs on & ESPN Deportes. In their 4th season, they opened the first such stadium also facing the Revs.
Rivalry week is 10 days with 2 weekends Aug. 20-29, closing out with NYFCF & New York Red Bulls at 8 p.m. ET in a prime time match on FS1 & FOX Deportes. the next weekend features its last game with a Cascadia Cup contest at 10:30 p.m. ET as the Sounders host the Timbers on ESPN 7 ESPN Deportes, Live.
MLS Cup 202 redo, the Crew host the Sounders Aug. 21 at 5:30 p.m. ET in the New Crew Stadium.
Decision Day, the last day of the regular season, Nov. 7 has intra-conference games as many will battle for playoff spots as well as positioning there. With a pair of back to back windows the conferences will have the games start at the same time to see how is in and who is out in the cold of the Audi 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs, Times and teams TBD.
Playoffs will begin Nov 19, the MLS Cup is to be contested Dec. 11 3 p.m. on ABC, UniMas, TSN & TVA Sports.
Kwik KIXX:
-Only charter flights are to be used this year and they will travel game day when possible with more regional games as stated.
-MLS won't play in the June FIFA window and July 9-16 at Gold Cup time. teams were asked to play or not, 14 chose yes for the Sept. window.
-The 2021 Leagues Cup will feature from Aug, 9, Sporting KC, Orlando City, Sounders, & NYCFC.
-5 teams for the CCL are Atlanta, Crew, Union, Timbers, & TFC, this starts with Round of 16 games April 6-8 2nd legs April 13-15.
-Campeones Cup is back, the 3rd time as the Crew host this game the week of Sept. 27.
- Each of the trio of El Traficos are being shown prime time, nation wide.
-As was the case in 2020, the Canadian based teams will play in he states, the 'Caps in Utah, TFC out of Orlando and Montreal in Inter Miami's home.