The Crew announces 2021 local broadcast, radio schedule

The Columbus Crew is about to start its 2021 season on Thursday night against Real Esteli in the CONCACAF Champions League, which will be the first match to be on television of the year. The club announced Wednesday afternoon the full broadcast schedule for the defending MLS Cup champions this season and each match will be broadcast on television and heard over the radio wave.

It will be another season where Crew matches will be broadcast by Bally Sports Ohio and Bally Sports Great Lakes (formerly Fox Sports Ohio and SportsTime Ohio). Twenty-seven of the Crew’s 34 MLS regular season games will be shown on the Bally Sports networks and the announcing team remains from the 2020 season with Neil Sika handling play-by-play duties, Jordan Angeli as the analyst and Brett Hiltbrand working on the sidelines and as the host. They are are set to return to their duties on May 1 when the Crew plays CF Montreal, the first match on Bally Sports.

As the MLS champions, the Columbus Crew will have seven matches broadcast on national television for the regular season. This includes the opening game on April 18 against the Philadelphia Union in Columbus. FOX will broadcast both Crew matches against Western Conference opponents with the June 27 match at Austin FC and the August 21 clash against the Seattle Sounders both on national television.

ESPN/ABC will show four Black & Gold games starting on May 16 with the Crew’s road match against the New England Revolution in a 2020 Eastern Conference Final rematch. The new Crew Stadium opener on July 3 against the Revs will also be shown on ESPN with a second July game going on ABC when Columbus travels to Atlanta United. The final nationally televised regular season match will be on ESPN on Aug. 27 with the first Hell is Real derby match against FC Cincinnati at the new stadium in Columbus.

The CONCACAF Champions League will be broadcast on the FOX Sports networks beginning Thursday night with the Crew’s first leg against Real Esteli on FOX Sports 1. The second leg on April 15 at historic Crew Stadium will also be on FS1. Should Columbus advance in the Champions League, more matches on FOX Sports are expected.

Crew games will also be available on radio with another full season of games airing on 97.1 The Fan for English broadcast. Chris Doran will offer the play-by-play once again for all Crew games while Juan Valladares steps in again for another season as the Spanish play-by-play announcer. All Spanish language Crew radio broadcasts will be streamed live on the club’s official YouTube channel.