MLS over the weekend posted its largest gross TV viewership for season openers since '04. The league's telecasts from Friday through Sunday totaled 1.63 million viewers across FS1, Fox Deportes, ESPN and Univision, compared to 1.96 million viewers in '04, which saw the hyped debut of then-young phenom Freddy Adu. Friday night's season opener on FS1 between the Timbers and expansion club Minnesota United only drew an estimated 235,000 viewers, but the Sunday night game between expansion club Atlanta United and the Red Bulls averaged 375,000 viewers on FS1. That figure marks the net's second-highest MLS audience yet, behind only an Orlando City SC-DC United match last season, which drew 378,000 viewers. ESPN, which aired the opening of Orlando City's new stadium in a match vs NYCFC on Sunday, averaged 411,000 viewers, up 14% from its MLS opener last year. Univision’s Saturday night broadcast of FC Dallas-Galaxy was its most-viewed MLS opening-weekend match yet with 509,000 viewers. It also was up 9% compared to last year’s opening-weekend match on UniMas. The previous Spanish-language high for an MLS match was 509,000 viewers for DC United-Galaxy last year.
