HARRISON, NJ (Jan. 9, 2013) – The New York Red Bulls released their full 34-match 2013 MLS Regular Season schedule today. Full season ticket plans for the Red Bulls’ 2013 home matches are available now by calling 1.877.RBSOCCER or logging onto www.newyorkredbulls.com/tickets.
To view the full Red Bulls and MLS schedule, log onto www.newyorkredbulls.com/schedule and www.mlssoccer.com.
New York’s regular season home opener against D.C. United on Saturday, March 16 will kick off at 12:30 PM ET and will be shown nationally on NBC. Prior to opening their Red Bull Arena schedule, the Red Bulls will start their 2013 campaign with a pair of road games. First, on Sunday, March 3, New York will face the Portland Timbers at JELD-WEN Field with kickoff time set for 7:30 PM. The match will be shown live on ESPN2. New York then travels to San Jose a week later to face the San Jose Earthquakes on March 10 at 10:00 PM (TV: ESPN2).
Each of the League’s 19 clubs will play 34 matches, 17 at home and 17 away, during 35 weeks. Within each conference, each club will play the same number of in-conference and out-of-conference games.
The Red Bulls will host each of their I-95 rivals D.C. United, New England Revolution and the Philadelphia Union twice at Red Bull Arena this season. New York tangles with the Union at Red Bull Arena on March 30 at 3:30 PM (TV: NBC Sports Network) in the first match of the season between the clubs. Less than two months later, the Red Bulls face reigning MLS Cup Champion, the LA Galaxy, at Red Bull Arena on May 19 at 1:00 PM (TV: ESPN2) to begin a three-game homestand.
Five of New York’s final eight regular season matches are at home, starting Aug. 31 when the Red Bulls face United for the third and final time of the season at 8:00 PM in Harrison (TV: NBC Sports Network). New York wraps up its home schedule with a date against the Revolution on Oct. 5 at 7:00 PM and versus the Chicago Fire on Oct. 27 at 5:00 PM (TV: UniMas; Local TV TBA).
Other highlights of the regular season schedule:
- The Red Bulls will play 25 matches against Eastern Conference teams and nine against Western Conference sides (New York will face each Western Conference team once). New York will battle Sporting Kansas City and the Chicago Fire twice while facing each of the other Eastern Conference sides three times.
- Because of the unbalanced schedule format, the home and away fixtures were reversed from the 2012 regular season (ie: If New York faced a Western Conference club on the road in the teams’ only match against each other in 2012, New York will host that same side in this season's fixture).
- New York is on the ESPN Networks seven times (two on ESPN, five on ESPN2), six times on the NBC Sports Group (five on NBCSN, once on NBC) and six times on UniMas. The team’s local broadcast schedule for the remaining matches will be announced at a later date.
- Fifteen of New York’s 17 home matches take place on either Saturday or Sunday. Two will occur on Wednesday nights (April 17 vs. Sporting Kansas City and May 8 vs. Montreal Impact).
