Sporting KC

Sporting Kansas City releases full 2015 schedule


Dominic Dwyer celebrated a goal against the Montreal Impact last season.
Dominic Dwyer celebrated a goal against the Montreal Impact last season. Special to the Star

The release of the 2015 Major League Soccer schedule Wednesday confirmed the inevitable for Sporting Kansas City.

A move to the Western Conference will supply the club with a daunting slate of matches.

Sporting KC will play three games against Seattle, Houston, Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas, Portland and Colorado in 2015, and it will see the LA Galaxy, San Jose and Vancouver twice.

The New York Red Bulls will visit Sporting Park for the season opener on March 8, a match that was announced last month as part of the opening-weekend slate. That will highlight one of 10 nationally-televised matches for Sporting KC, which will be featured on ESPN2, Fox Sports 1 and UniMas after the three networks signed eight-year agreements with the league that run through the 2022 season. KMCI-TV will broadcast the remaining 24 regular season matches.

Sporting KC will face each Eastern Conference club once in 2015 as the league celebrates its 20th season.

The LA Galaxy and Chicago Fire will kick off the MLS season on March 6. The Galaxy will make the trip to Sporting Park on Oct. 25 to close out the regular season.

That will serve as the precursor to a new playoff format in 2015, in which 12 teams will make the postseason. The top two seeds from each conference will qualify for the conference semifinals, with the lower four seeds from each conference playing in single-elimination knockout games.

The conference semifinals will begin Oct. 31. The full playoff schedule will be announced at a later date, the league said in a news release.

Sporting KC will compete in 16 matches in the first 15 weeks of the season before its first bye week in June.

With the move west, Sporting KC and Real Salt Lake will provide three rematches of their 2013 MLS Cup meeting. Real Salt Lake will visit Sporting Park on April 11 before Sporting KC makes return trips to Utah on June 21 and July 24.

Sporting Park will play host to its 100th Sporting KC match on May 16, when the club welcomes Colorado to Kansas City.

To reach Sam McDowell, call 816-234-4869 or send email to smcdowell@kcstar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @SamMcDowell11.

Date

Opponent

Time

TV

Sun., March 8

vs. New York Red Bulls

6 p.m.

FOX Sports 1

Sat., March 14

at FC Dallas

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sat., March 21

vs. Portland Timbers

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sat., March 28

at New York City FC

TBD

SKCTV

Sun., April 5

vs. Philadelphia Union

6 p.m.

FOX Sports 1

Sat., April 11

vs. Real Salt Lake

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sat., April 18

at LA Galaxy

9:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sat., April 25

at Houston Dynamo

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sun., May 3

vs. Chicago Fire

4 p.m.

ESPN2

Sat., May 9

at D.C. United

6 p.m.

SKCTV

Sat., May 16

vs. Colorado Rapids

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Wed., May 20

vs. New England Revolution

7 p.m.

ESPN2

Sat., May 23

at Seattle Sounders

TBD

SKCTV

Fri., May 29

vs. FC Dallas

8 p.m.

UniMas/KMCI-TV

Sat., June 6

vs. Seattle Sounders

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sun., June 21

at Real Salt Lake

9 p.m.

FOX Sports 1

Sat., June 27

vs. Colorado Rapids

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sun., July 12

at Vancouver Whitecaps

TBD

SKCTV

Sat., July 18

vs. Montreal Impact

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Fri., July 24

at Real Salt Lake

10 p.m.

UniMas/KMCI-TV

Sat., Aug. 1

vs. Houston Dynamo

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sat., Aug. 8

at Toronto FC

TBD

SKCTV

Sat., Aug. 15

vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Wed., Aug. 19

vs. San Jose Earthquakes

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sat., Aug. 22

at Columbus Crew SC

6:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sat., Aug. 29

at Colorado Rapids

8 p.m.

SKCTV

Wed., Sept. 9

at Portland Timbers

9:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sun., Sept. 13

at Orlando City SC

6 p.m.

FOX Sports 1

Fri., Sept. 18

vs. FC Dallas

6 p.m.

UniMas/KMCI-TV

Wed., Sept. 23

at Houston Dynamo

7:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Sun., Sept. 27

vs. Seattle Sounders

4 p.m.

ESPN2

Sat., Oct. 3

at Portland Timbers

9:30 p.m.

SKCTV

Fri., Oct. 16

at San Jose Earthquakes

10 p.m.

SKCTV

Sun., Oct. 25

vs. LA Galaxy

6 p.m.

SKCTV

This story was originally published January 7, 2015 at 1:41 PM with the headline "Sporting Kansas City releases full 2015 schedule."

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