MLS Releases First Part Of New Schedule

MLS announced the Phase 1 schedule for its American teams today.  This will consist of 6 mostly regional games played between Aug 22nd and Sept. 12th.  The Canadian teams will take part, all playing each other, but the exact details are still being worked out and will be announced at a future time.

The Rapids schedule looks like this:

• Sat Aug 22nd, 7pm, FSL
• Wed. Aug 26th, 6:30pm, @Dallas
• Sat. Aug 29th, 7pm SKC
• Sat. Sept. 5th, 8:30pm, @SJ
• Wed. Sept. 9th, 7pm, Houston
• Sat. Sep 12th, 7:30pm, @FSL

These 6 games ill be followed by another 12 games to be announced later that will probably still be mainly focused on intra-conference play but may include some crossover.

For the home games no fans will be allowed in the stadium but a select number of credentialed media will be allowed.  The road games in Dallas and FSL will likely have a limited number of fans based on what the teams said today.  There's no official announcement yet but the release from the Rapids made it clear we can expect to find the games on Altitude, for those of you who still get Altitude, and on Altitude Radio.  Those of us without Altitude thanks to the ongoing dispute with Comcast and DISH are likely out of luck as I assume the standard blackout rules for MLS Live will apply.

I can say that the two game set with FSL will include the Rocky Mountain Cup.  Should both games be played in home markets as expected then the Cup will be awarded at the end of the second game.  The Committee is currently working on plans to have an on-field presentation if possible, though the team's and league's rules in regards to the pandemic may prevent an actual handoff of the Cup.  Regardless, the result will be official and the winning team will have the Cup whenever they can for the rest of the season and next season.  This precludes any of the remaining 12 games being part of the Cup competition, but it seems unlikely we'd get a balanced schedule between the teams in Phase 2, if there are any games at all.

Overall its not a bad schedule for the Rapids, though we'll be 11 games into the season and have played 5 of them against FSL and SKC.  A winning record and a Cup should be expected by the end of this 6 game stretch.