Nine FC Edmonton games to be broadcast on The Score By Steven Sandor Posted on May 10, 2013 6 0 968 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter As a broadcaster, I sometimes have to sit on some announcements that, well, I am contractually obligated not to publicize. But, Friday (even though, if you’ve been diligent in checking the TV listings, you know about this already) FC Edmonton and Rogers have announced a new broadcast partnership. With Gareth Hampshire on play-by-play and myself on colour, nine FCE matches will be broadcast coast-to-coast on The Score this season. Rogers just got the all-clear to complete its acquisition of the Score two weeks ago and it is now part of the Sportsnet family, and has already been to a couple of Toronto FC games. Going forward, fans can expect to see a large promotional campaign for the Eddies with the Rogers family of stations. Expect to see Citytv trucks with FCE signage and promotions on air. We’ll be excited to take our broadcasts to a larger national audience. And, with Ottawa coming into NASL next season, it gives us the chance to introduce more of Canada to our league. Our first Rogers/Score broadcast goes this Sunday, when the Eddies host the Atlanta Silverbacks in a newly revamped Clarke Stadium. This will be the first game played in Clarke since the new stands were installed, which boost the capacity of the field from 1,200 to 4,000. The game kicks off at 2 p.m. MT. Our Score broadcast will be on at 6 p.m. MT, or 8 p.m. ET. Because of pre-existing programming commitments at The Score before Rogers officially took over the station, there isn’t a window to show the game live. And that’s how it will be for the first three broadcasts of the season. They will be on same-day tape delay, airing at 6 p.m. MT/8 p.m. ET. Beginning June 16, we’ll be live at 1:30 p.m. MT/3:30 p.m. ET start time, including a 30-minute pregame show. And this is where it gets a little tricky. On the matchdays of our nine Sportsnet/Score broadcasts — whether live or on tape — our normal live stream of the game on NASL.com will only be available outside of Canada. For local viewers, if you want to see it live, come on down to Clarke or you’ll need watch it on The Score (and, for the three taped broadcasts, turn off the Twitter!). All home games will be broadcast live on TEAM 1260 in Edmonton. One of the reasons the official announcement came so close to the actual start of our programming schedule is that Rogers could not legally administer any of The Score’s operations until the CRTC blessed the sale of the channel a couple of weeks ago. Even though the proposed sale was pitched in 2012, the CRTC doesn’t allow the buyer to take over the station until it gets the all-clear from the regulatory body. FC EDMONTON ON THE SCORE ALL TIMES MT May 12 vs. Atlanta, 6 p.m. (delay) May 26 vs. Fort Lauderdale 6 p.m. (delay) June 2 vs. Tampa Bay 6 p.m. (delay) June 16 vs. Carolina, 2 p.m. June 30 vs. Minnesota United, 2 p.m. Aug. 11 vs. San Antonio, 2 p.m. Sept. 22 vs. Minnesota United, 2 p.m. Oct. 6 vs. Carolina, 2 p.m. Oct. 27 vs. Tampa Bay, 2 p.m.
