NWSL Releases Broadcast Schedule on Lifetime

The NWSL has finally released more information on the new television deal with Lifetime for the upcoming season, including the featured games of the week.

After knowing the schedule for a couple of weeks, the NWSL has now released the games slated for their national TV deal. Here are the the games fans can look forward to watching on Lifetime this season.

The season starts with the two teams that will be on Lifetime the most this season, the Portland Thorns will host the Orlando Pride. A week after that Orlando will have a raucous atmosphere when they play their first game in Orlando City Stadium against the Washington Spirit.

Portland and Orlando will each get five home games, this makes sense since the league will want to showcase their best atmospheres. The majority of the games will also be held at MLS venues, only five TV matches won’t be held at those stadiums. Not only are these the better atmospheres in the league, but having a stadium with an existing setup for TV also helps.

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Overall Houston and Orlando have the most appearances with seven each. It feels like a lot for two teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year, but they will have the two most marketable stars in Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan once they return from their European teams.

Portland and the Chicago Red Stars will be on six times each. They figure to be two of the top teams this season. Defending champs North Carolina Courage will have five appearances, but won’t have a game until June 3rd which is odd. Sky Blue FC and Seattle Reign FC each have one home match and three away. Not having Seattle at home more often is surprising, they often draw large crowds and play entertaining matches.

The Boston Breakers and FC Kansas City got the short end of the stick this year. They each only get one game on TV and they both will be on the road for them. Last year’s runners-up Washington won’t have a home game broadcast either, but they will have three on the road.

Still no word on the domestic streaming of matches that aren’t games of the week. However, the league also announced you could watch the Games of the Week on Lifetime’s app and website. International fans can watch the games on NWSLsoccer.com.

The games will have Jenn Hildreth handling the play-by-play duties and Aly Wagner as the main analyst. Dalen Cuff and Kate Markgraf will also be part of the pregame show before each game.

Next: Seattle Reign: 25-player preseason roster released

Having the league on a major TV Network is a big step in the right direction. This announcement not having any details about the availability of the rest of the games, with just about two weeks to go, is a big issue though.

Having games on Lifetime will expose more people to the league, but having less availability on the internet, like the league has had before, can be a major issue. Hopefully more news on that comes in the days leading up to the season.