MLS Match Day Live Is Under My Skin

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by the new CBA and the launching of MLS Match Day Live. Only, there's a lot of discontent simmering. All due to the absurd Greek tragedy that is MLSsoccer.com and it's Match Day Live service.

First impressions, good intentions and higher expectations are the cobblestones and road signs on the road to hell. As fans we realize if our League is going to launch a new website it is natural to have higher expectations. We can see the potential there and it excites us. The first impression we were left with upon launch however was "What chimp and circus trainer worked on this?" And that's the tamer version.

Obviously our League didn't plan to have a monkey humping a football. They wanted to bring us a state of the art viewing experience online with fountains of information just a click away. Okay they failed the launch. Disappointing as it was, we will forgive them. I won't hack on the tech issues as they are working on them. MLS even posted an apology. So like the economy we are on the road to recovery.....

Eventually all tech issues will be fixed and everything on MLSsoccer and Match Day Live will work. Awesome... but I still have a question.... What foolish person decided the BLACKOUT policy for MLS Match Day Live?

Here is the most glaring preposterous goatscrew in the whole field of cockups. Sit down for this one.

For $39.99 you can subscribe to Match Day Live and receive up to 160 matches live on your computer in HD! Suhweet! Nowhere do I see a blackout policy, I had to discover some of those oddities on my own.

I live in Salt Lake City, home of your MLS Cup Champion Real Salt Lake. All of RSL's games are televised so I expect NOT to see them on my Match Day Live service. No problem.

Last Friday I go to tune into the Chivas v Colorado on my HD Match Day Live service and I cannot view it. Problem. No customer service was available live so I filed a ticket. On Saturday after an hour or so I get hold of live chat support who tells me I am blacked out of all Rapids games as Salt Lake City is a Colorado Rapids TV market. Huh? That's right, Salt Lake is a TV market for the Colorado Rapids. (Don't tell RSL or Dave Checketts)

On a side note I checked all TV stations, especially the Altitude Sports Network and the Colorado game was not shown there on Friday night in this market.

On Monday I get this email from MLS support.

James,

Due to broadcasting rights assigned to the Altitude Sport Network, which is the primary broadcast partner for the Colorado Rapids and has a 10-state distribution zone that includes Utah, you will be blacked out for all Rapids games on Matchday Live. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

MLS Support


What we have here is a failure to communicate. ASN will rarely if ever air a Colorado game in this area. If they did that would be great, as I have the ASN channel on my cable. It gets better. Not all of Utah is blacked out. Not even all of Colorado is blacked out. Huh? I said not even all of Colorado is blacked out. They do this halfwit policy by zip code. Somewhere on Mainstreet USA a guy is blissfully watching Match Day Live while his neighbor across the street is blacked out. Brilliant.

MLS wants as MANY PEOPLE as possible to see their games and I concur. Who wouldn't? They better get a handle on this quagmire before everyone chalks it up to the half-baked marketing/pandering they have always done.

After all it seems, the more things change, the more they stay the same. And that's really unfortunate.