Sporting Kansas City announced Thursday the addition of MyTV Wichita and WIBW-TV/MyTV Topeka as the club’s new regional broadcast partners. The stations will carry all 13 of the club’s remaining away matches live this season.
“The incredible growth of our fan base has led to increased demand to air Sporting Kansas City games throughout the Heartland,” Sporting Kansas City Executive VP of Business Operations Andrew Steinberg said. “We are thrilled to be expanding the reach of The Sporting Broadcast Network, which will now cover 85% of Kansas and the entire Kansas City metro area, with plans to continue spreading to new markets throughout the region.”
MyTV Wichita and WIBW-TV/MyTV Topeka join KSMO-TV to provide live, over-the-air broadcasts of Sporting Kansas City matches in 90 of the 105 counties in the state of Kansas and all of the Kansas City metropolitan area. Combined, Sporting Kansas City can now be seen in more than 1.5 million homes throughout the region, including the cities of Kansas City, Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence and Manhattan.
In addition to the 13 remaining Sporting Kansas City road matches during the 2012 MLS regular season, five home matches at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park will be nationally broadcast to provide a total of 18 upcoming telecasts that will now reach a wider regional audience.
MyTV Wichita (KMTW-TV) is broadcast throughout the Wichita and Hutchinson areas of central Kansas and is operated by Kansas City, Mo-based Newport Television, which also owns and operates Fox Kansas (KSAS-TV).
“We are excited to expand our sports programming portfolio with the addition of Sporting KC matches,” said Jeff McCausland, VP/General Manager of MyTV Wichita and Fox Kansas. “Major League Soccer will complement our current sports offerings that include English Premier League soccer, the NFL, Big 12 basketball, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, Formula One Racing, MMA and college football.”
WIBW-TV, the CBS affiliate in Topeka, Kansas, is owned by Gray Television and will also air Sporting KC programming on MyNetworkTV subchannel MyTV Topeka.
“We are excited to join the Sporting Kansas City family,” WIBW General Manager Jim Ogle said. “WIBW wants to introduce the great experience that a Sporting KC game can be to northeast Kansas. We are excited to partner on our two channels.”
The stations join Sporting Kansas City’s list of official broadcast partners for the 2012 Major League Soccer season, along with KSMO-TV, Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Gran D 1340 AM.
Sporting Kansas City continues the 2012 season at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Eastern Conference rivals Chicago Fire. The club will host a watch party in the Members’ Club at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park with doors opening one hour prior to kickoff. Parking is available in Lot D for all fans in attendance.
