The Philadelphia Union have officially announced the match times for their 2016 Major League Soccer Regular Season.
Midafternoon beginning
The Union will start on Sunday March 6th at FC Dallas with a 3 PM EST kickoff. For their home opener, the Union will host the New England Revolution on Sunday March 20th with a 2:30 PM EST kickoff.
National TV spot
Philadelphia will also be playing three games on national television. On April 8th versus Orlando City and May 20th versus D.C. United, the Union will be featured on UniMas with a 7 PM EST start time. For their rivalry match on July 17th versus the New York Red Bulls, the Blue and Gold will play on Fox Sports 1 with another 7 PM EST start time.
Four games remain unannounced
Despite the announcement of the kickoff times, Philadelphia still has four games that do not have an announced start time. These games include the three games against Canadian opposition in addition to their June 18th matchup with New York City FC.
Homestand finish
The Union finish the season with two games at home with the penultimate game against Orlando and the season finale against the Red Bulls. To coincide with MLS Decision Day, the Union will play their second-to-last game at 5 PM EST and their last game at 4 PM EST. For MLS Decision Day, every MLS Eastern Conference game will start at the same time as games in the Western Conference.
In their first ten games of the season, Philadelphia will play six playoff teams from the 2015 season (Dallas, Columbus Crew, New England, Seattle Sounders, Los Angeles Galaxy and Montreal Impact). In those first ten games, the venues are split for Philadelphia: five at Talen Energy Park and five away from Chester. These first ten games will certainly be a tough run for a team that has undergone a major overhaul this offseason by Head Coach Jim Curtin and Sporting Director Earnie Stewart.
The entire schedule, with the kickoff times, is available on the Philadelphia Union website.