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Fire Station: MLS Team Inks Three-Year Deal With CSN Chicago As Exclusive Local TV Home

The Fire have "inked a three-year deal" with CSN Chicago as their "exclusive local TV home, ending a two-year run" on WPWR-MYT, according to Danny Ecker of CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS. The deal "will include 21 Fire games" during the '15 season. Play-by-play announcer Dan Kelly and color analyst Kevin Egan "will return to the airwaves." The deal is a "major marketing expense for the Fire." However, sources said that it will cost the team "less than the 'seven figures' per year it paid to produce and broadcast a full season of games on WPWR." Team and RSN officials "declined to disclose financial terms." Ecker noted "one important factor in facilitating" the deal was that CSN Chicago "made its overflow channel, CSN Plus, a 24/7 network in October" as opposed to being used only when two live events overlapped. CSN Chicago will help "raise its profile as another destination for live sports in the Midwest" with Fire games. The deal also gives the RSN a "powerful platform to reach millennials and the Latino community." Fire COO Atul Khosla said that he "expects roughly two-thirds of the team's CSN games to air" on the primary channel. Ecker reported channel listings "will be determined by the broadcast schedules of the Cubs and White Sox." Meanwhile, 13 Fire games "will be shown exclusively on national TV" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 1/26).

REGIONAL REAL: In Salt Lake City, Chris Kamrani reported Real Salt Lake on Friday "announced a landmark two-year broadcasting deal with Sinclair Broadcasting Group" which will result in RSL and Sinclair "carving out their own spot in niche markets throughout the Intermountain West region." RSL Owner Dell Loy Hansen said that matches will be broadcast on stations in Boise, Las Vegas and Reno, and "eventually Albuquerque, Phoenix and Tucson, upping RSL's reach of one million homes in the Utah market to a combined 5.5 million throughout the seven regions in the West." RSL President Bill Manning said, "We're going to become a regional team, similar to what the Atlanta Braves did in baseball many, many years ago" (SLTRIB.com, 1/23).

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