Sporting Announce Expanded Television Deal

Sporting Kansas City announced an expansion of the Sporting KC Television Network today. The expansion will see Sporting games that are not on national television broadcasted to portions of nine states around the Midwest. KC already had a deal with KCMI (38 the Spot) to broadcast all 23 of KC's games that are not on national television.

Joining KCMI in broadcasting all 23 games is WIBW out of Topeka, KMTW in Wichita, Cox Channel in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Cox Channel in Omaha, and MyUTV in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (although four of the games will be broadcasted on the same day on tape delay). 

Then up to 20 games will be broadcasted in parts of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, South Dakota,  Minnesota, and Wisconsin on Mediacom (MC22) (5 will air on tape delay in select markets).

Finally, KZOU in Columbia will broadcast 16 games.

So Sporting KC will be all over the place in the Midwest. Without looking up the other team's contracts I'd guess this gives KC one of, if not the largest media footprints in the league.

Compared to just 10 years ago when I remember "watching" a Wizards game at a bar in KC this is fantastic. And by watch I mean follow it live on match tracker after a meeting. The team's attempts to become the regions team with this deal is great, it's similar to the Royals regional radio deal or the Chiefs past where one of their logos even showed them as a regional team.

There are a few questions I've seen. The biggest from fans in those areas is how this affects MLS Live or Direct Kick. Whether the black out rules will apply, if fans won't be able to watch the game, having previously purchased the plan, in part, to make sure they would be able to see Sporting to begin with.