So How Is it That Seattle Got to Watch the MLS Cup?

By: Laurie | November 19th, 2007

Just last week I was making plans to watch my first ever MLS Cup. It is my first because I am a recovering Eurosnob, and I have spent the entire season working at learning to love MLS.

(Don’t blame me for that Eurosnobbery thing. It’s not my fault. Blame Zidane.)

But anyhow. The experiment has been successful. I am now an MLS fan. And as an MLS fan, I, of course, wanted to see MLS Cup, despite the fact that for me the pleasure factor of watching New England and/or Houston ranks only slightly above teeth cleaning. This was completely irrelevant! I would cement my standing as an MLS aaficionado by watching the final!

So the first thing I do is check the time. Ouch. 9:00 a.m. Pacific. On a Sunday morning. That’s kind of brutal. But I guess it’s what we have to expect when we follow an unpopular sport that has its final game during NFL season, right? I can deal with it. Loving soccer in the US is all about learning to live with pain.

But it appears that the powers that be have give us a partial antidote to this pain, because I see the game is on…ABC?!? Whoa. Network television! Even David Beckham never made network television! We have arrived at last! But…hold on a second. Checking the Seattle listings…and… Nine o’clock, ABC, we have This Week With George Stephanopoulos, followed by kiddie programming. What gives?

Another curious Seattle soccer fan noticed this as well. He or she contacted ABC-KOMO in Seattle and got the following response:

KOMO will not be airing the MLS Cup on Sunday. The FCC regulations on Children’s programming are extremely strict. Part of the requirements for retaining a broadcast license is that stations must air a specific amount of children’s programming each week during a specific window of time. ABC booked so many hours of sports programming this weekend that it was necessary for us to pre-empt some of the sports programming and air FCC children’s programming.
Unfortunately ESPN was not able to find another home in the Seattle market to air the soccer match – either on cable or broadcast television.

Excellent. So what this means is that in Seattle, the home of the next MLS franchise, soccer rates below George Stephanopoulos and cartoons. You want to see the equivalent of the soccer Super Bowl? Sorry, out of luck.

But wait. There’s more to this story. Here’s where maybe it pays to have your new soccer franchise purchased by a billionaire, a millionaire Hollywood guy, a TV star and a soccer guy. (Okay, so the soccer guy probably didn’t help much. I just threw him in to complete the set.) The following little blurb appeared in the Seattle PI newspaper on Saturday morning:

ESPN2 announced Friday it will carry the MLS Cup final in the Seattle market. The game between the New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo starts Sunday at 9 a.m.

This means that as the rest of the world’s ESPN2 was showing the Tennis Master’s Cup Final, we Seattlites were watching the MLS Cup.

Seattle MLS owners Paul Allen, Joe Roth, Drew Carey and Adrian Hanauer? You must continue to use this power only for good.

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Category: MLS, World Football

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Shaz

Not a bad thing at all, and I share your love of Zizou, but when the player is mouthing off at the referee and then headbutts another player RIGHT IN FRONT FOR THE REF, I think he should be sent off. I'm not concerned about the headbutt, just the level of officiating (and the level of commentary that suggested it was the right thing not to have sent the player off as it would have 'ruined the game').

Smith was a non-factor after that incident anyway, so it would have made little difference to New England if he had been sent off.
Laurie

Shaz, so you're saying a headbutt is a bad thing? As a Zidane fan, this is rather incomprehensible to me. ;-)
Shaz

I just picked up an HD TV and happened to stumble upon the MLS Cup on Sunday morning while wondering at all the hidden network TV channels that suddenly became available to me. But sweet fancy Moses there's a lot of hairy dudes in the MLS. I mean, is there a shortage of razors in these club houses? Are MLS wages so low that facial grooming is put to the wayside?

Having said that, it was a decent game to watch, and after the blatant but under-punished headbutt by Smith I'm glad Houston won.
mags

Well there you go, I don't even think to check anything other than the HD channels when watching ESPN. So yeah, channel 174 was tennis. Should have looked at 32.
nick

mags, by chance were watching espn2 HD? because they split the coverage espn2 was the cup espn2 HD was tennis.
Laurie

Really? I have Comcast also. (But I'm not in city limits.) Wonder what the deal is?
mags

Living within Seattle city limits and having ESPN2 via Comcast, I did not get the MLS cup. I was stuck with frickin tennis!
Laurie

When I lived in Denver I was a huge Broncos fan. Now that I'm in Seattle, I check the standings around Christmas time. If we have a shot at the playoffs, I start paying attention. If not, footballs are round.
Shane

I love the NFL scheduling vs MLS fan popularity concept. Sorry to the "football lovers" but i have news for you: If your team doesn't have Tom Brady and Randy Moss on it, you don't need to watch at all cause you have no chance in hell at winning.