Crew announce 2008 schedule

COLUMBUS - The Columbus Crew today announced its schedule for the 2008 Major League Soccer season, which it opens at home on March 29 vs. Toronto FC and features a home date against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Oct. 4.

The Crew's home schedule features a total of 12 Saturday games, two ESPN2 Primetime Thursdays and one Sunday. The two Thursday games, as well as one more to be announced, will be the popular "Bob Evans Buck-A-Brat Nights" at Crew Stadium.

Single-game tickets are scheduled to go on sale to the general public on Friday, Feb. 15, at Noon, at the Crew Stadium Box Office and all central Ohio Ticketmaster retail locations, via Ticketmaster phone at 614-431-3600 and on-line at TheCrew.com and Ticketmaster.com. In the meantime, the both the Home Opener and Oct. 4 game against L.A. are part of all full-season, half-season and 5-pack ticket plans, which are currently available by calling 614-447-CREW (2739) and at TheCrew.com. Both of those matches are also currently available through group packages.

In the league's 13th season, each of the 14 clubs - including the expansion San Jose Earthquakes, who return after a two-year hiatus - will play 30 Regular Season games over 31 weeks, 15 at home and 15 on the road, between March 29 and Oct. 26. All 14 teams will play each other twice (home and away), for 26 games. The remaining four games will be played against different intra-conference teams (two home and two away), with consideration given to rivalries. The Crew's additional intra-conference games are against New England and Kansas City at home and at New York and Toronto.

MLS and its national television partners, ABC/ESPN, Univision, Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Sports en Español and HDNet, also unveiled the national TV schedule today. The Crew is currently scheduled to appear on national television 14 times, three times on ESPN2 Primetime Thursday, six times on FSC (with five of those also on FSE), four times on HDNet and once on Univision's TeleFutura. The Crew's local TV information will be released at a later date.

The 2008 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game is scheduled for Thursday, July 24, at 7 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2 and TeleFutura, when the MLS stars will play host to an international opponent to be announced at BMO Field in Toronto, Canada. MLS Cup 2008 will cap year 13 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., on Sunday, Nov. 23, at 3:30 p.m. on ABC and TeleFutura.

The complete 2008 Crew regular-season schedule follows, with all national broadcasts noted: