Sporting Kansas City announced their 34-game regular season schedule on Thursday for the club’s highly-anticipated 2011 Major League Soccer season, the team’s first to be played at the $180 million plus, state-of-the-art soccer-specific stadium currently being built in Kansas City, Kansas.
For 2011 ticket information, contact the Sporting Kansas City ticket office toll-free at 1-888-4KC-GOAL, or visit www.sportingkc.com/virtualvenue.
Kansas City, a charter member of Major League Soccer, will begin its 16th season with ten games on the road, all to be played on Saturdays over a twelve-week span. During this time, final touches will be made at the stadium site ahead of its nationally-televised grand opening on June 9th when Sporting Kansas City faces rivals Chicago Fire at 9 p.m. CT on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.com.
The marquee match is one of six Sporting Kansas City regular season MLS games to be broadcast nationally in 2011. Five of the six matches scheduled for national exposure will be played at Sporting’s brand new home ground, which will seat 18,467 soccer supporters and features an iconic canopy roof that covers every seating section.
The stadium’s grand opening will be followed by a CONCACAF Gold Cup doubleheader on June 14th, featuring four of the region’s top national teams in the opening round of the biennial regional championship. Kansas City is one of four MLS venues selected to host matches for the tournament, whose winner will qualify for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil.
Sporting Kansas City’s 17 regular season home matches will come predominantly in the second half of the 2011 schedule, including nine consecutive games at home from July 23rd through September 10th. The homestand is part of a larger stretch that sees Sporting scheduled to play 13 of 16 games at home in July, August and September.
The home schedule features 11 Saturday matches, including eight with primetime 7:30 p.m. CT kickoffs, and four mid-week Wednesday matches all at 7:30 p.m. CT, in addition to the home opener on Thursday, June 9th and a single Sunday fixture on August 21st at 6 p.m. CT against D.C. United.
The 2011 Sporting Kansas City season will feature the debut of Designated Player Omar Bravo, an icon at Mexico’s Chivas Guadalajara and with the Mexico National Team. Six of Sporting Kansas City’s matches in 2011 will be shown on Major League Soccer’s Spanish-language broadcast partners, ESPN Deportes, TeleFutura and Galavision.
Excluding the home opener, nationally telecast on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.com on June 9th, all Sporting Kansas City home and away matches will be telecast live locally in high definition on KSMO-TV, with one or more games slated to be simulcast on KCTV-5.
Sporting Kansas City will play every MLS team once at home and once on the road, as MLS again adopted a balanced schedule for the second consecutive season. The League has grown to 18 teams in 2011 with the addition of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Portland Timbers to the Western Conference.
The 2011 MLS schedule features 306 regular season matches, as well as the 2011 MLS AT&T All-Star Game on July 27th at Red Bull Arena. Every match of the 2011 MLS regular season will be broadcast live and MLS has not scheduled games on August 10, September 3-4, and October 8-9, which are all FIFA fixture dates for international competition.
