CHICAGO, Ill. (March 5, 2013) – The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced that WPWR My50 Chicago will be the official television broadcast partner of the Chicago Fire for the 2013 season. WPWR My50 Chicago will begin its coverage of the Fire for the Men in Red’s match against Chivas USA at Toyota Park on Sunday, March 24 at 4:00 p.m. CT. Over the course of its 16th season, up to 23 of the Fire’s matches will be shown live on My50 Chicago. Seasoned play-by-play announcer Dan Kelly will partner with Kevin Egan in the broadcast booth for matches on My50 Chicago.
“We are thrilled to announce our new partnership with My50 Chicago as the ‘Home of the Fire’ for Chicago Fire matches throughout the 2013 season,” said Fire COO Atul Khosla. “Placing all of our matches on a local channel and providing destination programming is integral to the growth of our club. My50 Chicago is a widely available, over the air local affiliate committed to building connectivity throughout the Chicagoland area through soccer and the Chicago Fire. We’re looking forward to cultivating our relationship this season.”
In addition to the at least 20 matches available in HD on My50 Chicago, the Fire will appear on national broadcasts NBC Sports Network (eight games), ESPN (one game), ESPN2 (one game), Univision (one game) and UniMas (five games) throughout the season. National TV coverage of the Fire resumes for Opening Night at Toyota Park against the New England Revolution on Saturday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. CT live on NBC Sports Network.
“My50 is extremely proud to be the official “home of the Fire” for the 2013 season,” said Dennis Welsh, Vice President and General Manager of My50. “The Fire is coming off a successful 2012 season and we are looking forward to providing our viewers all the live action throughout the coming season. Partnering with the Fire is just another example of My50’s commitment to bringing appointment local programming to Chicago area viewers.”
Kelly returns for his fourth season as the official voice of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club. Prior to joining the Fire as the club’s play-by-play announcer, the St. Louis product called play-by-play for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks on Comcast SportsNet from 2006-2008. In addition, Kelly has done play-by-play for the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Big Ten Network, Denver University Men’s hockey and for MLS games on HDNet.
Egan is a television sports journalist from Dublin, Ireland, who’s covered the game of soccer at the highest level. After working for RTE (Ireland’s National Broadcaster) for five years, Egan moved to Chicago in 2009 and began working for the Big Ten Network. At BTN, Egan commentates on Big Ten soccer matches, while also presenting ‘BTN Soccer Report’, an online show covering the beautiful game within Big Ten country.
The entire Chicago Fire schedule including all of its broadcasts on WPWR My50 Chicago can be found at www.Chicago-Fire.com/schedule.
The Fire host Opening Night at Toyota Park against the New England Revolution on Saturday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. CT (NBC Sports Network). Chicago Fire Season Tickets are available by calling 1-888-MLS-Fire, via Ticketmaster or by heading to the club’s official website at www.Chicago-Fire.com.
