Today Detroit City FC announced they have inked a deal to show all home and away games not tied to a CBS, CBS Sports Network or ESPN broadcast (5 in total) locally. The men’s Detroit City FC games will air on either Detroit50 (WKBD-TV) or CBS Detroit (WWJ-TV). Detroit50 and CBS Detroit are owned by the CBS News and Stations group, allowing both networks to be used for this deal.
If there is one other good nugget of information in this news is that all games will stream on CBS Detroit’s website across Michigan. This CBS Detroit streaming portion of the deal also includes the USL W-League Detroit City FC team as well. The USL W-League broadcasts will be available nationwide.
I cannot commend Detroit City FC enough for doing a deal that includes both the men’s and women’s sides. What this deal does is set a high bar for any team in the USL Championship to include their ladies team in any future deal made going forward. This is the kind of deal that shows how committed the team is to their local community.
If there is one thing I hope to see in their local broadcasts is showing that tie to the community. Use that time during the halftime show to do player profiles and showing the team at events being done in the community. It might sound corny and simple but it gives the television audience an additional layer to get people to show more support to the squad.
Here is the club’s press release announcing the deal.
This is great news! I wish we could know the terms of the deal, e.g. how much money, for how long, etc.!