The 2004 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game and the Celebration Game which precedes it on Saturday will be broadcast to fans across the globe via several media, including ABC Sports television, online at MLSnet.com and Spanish-language radio. The East vs. West matchup which kicks off at 2 p.m. ET from RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. will be preceded by a Celebration Game between the MLS USA Legends and MLS World Legends beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET, a match which will be streamed live and exclusively on the League's official website at www.MLSnet.com.
The 2004 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game will be broadcast live to a national television audience on ABC Sports and to 81 countries across the globe via ESPN International. Saturday will mark the ninth season that the Disney family of networks is televising the annual summer soccer showcase with ABC airing the game on six occasions (1998, 2000-2004) while ESPN (1996) and ESPN2 (1999) have broadcast one All-Star Game each. Saturday's game will once again include SAP (Supplemental Audio Programming) functionality for optional Spanish-language commentary.
Two live radio broadcasts will also be provided by Radiovisa KMXE 830 AM (California) and Radio America (Washington, D.C.) in Spanish. Both Radiovisa and the League's official website, www.MLSnet.com, will air the Celebration Game honoring American soccer's past, present and future beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET.
TELEVISION
Calling the game action for ABC Sports on Saturday are television soccer veterans JP Dellacamera, who will handle play-by-play duties, and lead analyst Eric Wynalda, now in his second full season on the RadioShack Soccer Saturday game broadcasts on ESPN2. The ABC team also includes World Cup champion Lorrie Fair, who is in her first full season as field analyst on the weekly ESPN2 matches.
In addition, MLS will provide Spanish-language SAP (Supplemental Audio Programming) for the ABC Sports broadcast of the MLS All-Star game, with Ernesto Motta serving as the play-by-play announcer and Robert Sierra filling the role of color analyst. Motta, a native of Argentina, is the "Official Spanish Voice of the MetroStars", serving as the play-by-play announcer during the season-long broadcast of MetroStars matches on Radio WADO 1280 AM in New York City. Additionally, Motta is the host of "Solo Fútbol", a weekly program featuring MLS and international soccer news also broadcast on Radio WADO.
A 70-man crew will work the ABC broadcast, which will be delivered by 17 cameras, including multiple super slo-mo replay machines, a Jib and goal cameras which feed 14 digital replay tape sources. For the third consecutive season the ABC broadcast will be delivered in stereo with a mixture of bench, player, sideline and goalmouth microphones. The broadcast's audio mix will feature 27 "field-effects" microphones, four wireless mics and 64 other audio inputs. MLS superstars Landon Donovan (San Jose Earthquakes) and Freddy Adu (D.C. United) are each scheduled to wear wireless microphone units during their time on the field.
ABC Sports, in its ninth season of MLS coverage, and ESPN are the League's primary national English-language television outlets. The combined networks - ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC Sports - present the most comprehensive soccer coverage in the United States, featuring Major League Soccer, the Men's and Women's World Cup, U.S. National Team soccer and the NCAA Men's and Women's soccer championships.
Prior to the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star game and on the same network, ABC Kids on the ABC Television Network will air a half-hour JETIX Kids Cup special starting at 11:00 a.m. ET with youth from sixteen countries competing for the JETIX Kids Cup championship. The show will feature Adu, Donovan as well as former World Cup stars Wynalda and Fair. (Watch the promo: 56K; 384K)
RADIO
The 2004 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game will feature two Spanish language radio broadcasts. Two official MLS team radio partners, Radiovisa (California) and Radio America (Washington, D.C.) will air the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game live with Radiovisa also carrying the Celebration Game.
In its first year as the Los Angeles Galaxy Spanish-Language radio partner, Radiovisa KMXE 830 AM is rapidly becoming the leading provider of long-form and short-form talk, news and entertainment programming on Spanish-language radio stations nationwide. Radiovisa is a 50,000 watt radio station blanketing Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and is now the largest Hispanic AM radio signal in the United States. Troy Santiago, a veteran Los Angeles TV and radio sports personality who broadcasts every one of the Galaxy's regular season games, will handle play-by-play of the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game.
Radio America WACA 1540 AM, in its eighth season as D.C. United's official Spanish-language radio partner, will air the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star game live from RFK Stadium, the MLS club's home stadium. Radio personality Danilo Noel Dirón, a native of Uruguay, who hosts "La Mesa Redonda del Fútbol" (Round Table), a daily soccer-only radio show, will provide color commentary on WACA's broadcast. Dirón will be joined in the booth by long-time Washington area broadcasting fixture and El Salvador native Herbert Baires, a six-year play-by-play veteran on D.C. United broadcasts.
More information on Radio America and Radiovisa can be found on each station's respective web site at www.radioamerica.net and www.radiovisa.com.P>
INTERNET
MLSnet.com, the official website of Major League Soccer (MLS), will provide soccer fans around the world an extensive array of editorial and multimedia coverage of the 2004 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game. In addition, beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET, the website will provide exclusive live streaming video coverage of the MLS Celebration Game, an exhibition featuring the MLS USA Legends facing the MLS World Legends and showcasing the legendary stars of the 1994 World Cup and the icons of soccer in America, including stars of the past like Wynalda, Marcelo Balboa, Alexi Lalas, Carlos Valderrama, Marco Etcheverry and Raul Diaz Arce.
Fans who visit MLSnet.com during the game will also have the unique opportunity to vote for the Honda Most Valuable Player for the 2004 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game. The online fan balloting will account for 50 percent of the vote, with media covering the game providing the remaining tallies. Voting will be cut off after the 80th minute and the Honda All-Star MVP will be announced on the air and online.
MLSnet.com's live "MatchTracker" will provide fans with a textual real-time play-by-play description of the League's ninth annual All-Star game. MLSnet.com will also offer extensive on-site editorial coverage and commentary before, during and after the game as well as throughout the rest of the weekend's festivities, including Friday's Sierra Mist MLS Youth Soccer Shocker Tour and the Sierra Mist Soccer Celebration.
Currently available on MLSnet.com are: video highlight packages of all eight past MLS All-Star Games; enhanced biographies of this year's All-Stars, including individual video packages for each player; photo galleries; and a sweepstakes to win a jersey autographed by members of the winning team.
The 2004 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game is the main attraction of a weekend extravaganza of soccer-themed events and programs, all of which aim to pay tribute to the past, present and future of American soccer. Thousands of the 15 million registered youth participants under the age of 18 will have the opportunity throughout the weekend to see, touch and feel the approachable heroes of Major League Soccer past and present. Through clinics, on-field presentations, pre-game and halftime ceremonies, "Sierra Mist Soccer Celebration" events for families and youth, player autograph sessions and more, MLS will recognize the importance of youth participation as the future of our sport.
Tickets to the 2004 Sierra Mist MLS All-Star game can be purchased online at MLSnet.com. The event, featuring the MLS All-Star Game and the MLS Celebration Game paying tribute to the 1994 World Cup, offers six levels of ticket pricing, ranging from $25 to $60 for individuals, and $16 to $40 for groups of varying sizes.
