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2017 Philadelphia Union schedule includes 5 games on national TV

Here's the Union's 2017 schedule. It includes five national TV appearances. Local TV arrangements and some kickoff times are still to be determined.

Here's the Union's 2017 schedule.

The highlights:

- As was previously announced, the season begins March 5 at Vancouver, and the home opener is March 11 vs. Toronto.

- There are five games on national TV: four on ESPN (after having none last year) and one on Fox Sports 1.

- ESPN games include a Friday night contest, April 14 at home against New York City FC. ESPN will also televise the reigning MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders' visit to Chester on Sunday, October 1.

- Three of the Union's first four games are on the road, including the first ever trip to Orlando's new stadium on March 18.

- Atlanta United, one of this year's two expansion teams, will visit on Saturday, August 26. The Union will play at the new Mercedez-Benz Stadium on Wednesday, September 27.

- The other expansion team, Minnesota United, will host the Union at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Saturday, September 9. That will be the only matchup between the teams this year.

Here's the full 2017 Union schedule:

Sunday, March 5: at Vancouver Whitecaps, 9:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 11: vs. Toronto FC, 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 18: at Orlando City, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 1: at D.C. United, 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 8: vs. Portland Timbers, 7 p.m.
Friday, April 14: vs. New York City FC, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Saturday, April 22: vs. Montreal Impact, time TBD
Saturday, April 29: at Los Angeles Galaxy, 10:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 6: vs. New York Red Bulls, 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 13: at D.C. United, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, May 17: vs. Houston Dynamo, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 20: vs. Colorado Rapids, 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 27: at Real Salt Lake, 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 3: at New York City FC, time TBD
Sunday, June 18: vs. New York Red Bulls, 5 p.m. (ESPN)
Saturday, June 24: vs. D.C. United, 7 p.m.

Sunday, July 2: vs. New England Revolution, time TBD (Fox Sports 1)
Thursday, July 6: at Sporting Kansas City, 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, July 19: at Montreal Impact, time TBD
Saturday, July 22: at Columbus Crew, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, July 26: vs. Columbus Crew, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 29: at New England Revolution, 7:30 p.m

Saturday, August 5: vs. FC Dallas, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 12: vs. Montreal Impact, time TBD
Saturday, August 19: at San Jose Earthquakes, 10:30 p.m.
Wednesday, August 23: at Toronto FC, time TBD
Saturday, August 26: vs. Atlanta United, 7 p.m.

Saturday, September 9: at Minnesota United, 8 p.m.
Sunday, September 7: at New York Red Bulls, 1:00 p.m. (ESPN)
Saturday, September 23: vs. Chicago Fire, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, September 27: at Atlanta United, 7 p.m.

Sunday, October 1: vs. Seattle Sounders, 1 p.m (ESPN)
Sunday, October 15: at Chicago Fire, 3 p.m.
Sunday, October 22: vs. Orlando City, 4 p.m.

Some national notes:

- For the second straight year, MLS will have simultaneous kickoffs on the last two weekends of the season. The penultimate round will be split by conference, with all Eastern Conference games at 3 p.m. Eastern and all Western Conference games at 5 p.m. On the final day, all games leaguewide will kick off at 4 p.m.

- National TV highlights include six games on Univision's flagship broadcast network and four on Fox's broadcast network. ESPN will air 28 games, ESPN2 will air three games, Fox Sports 1 will air 29 games (plus the All-Star Game) and UniMás will air 18 agmes.

- Fox's games are Orlando-Los Angeles on April 15, Seattle-Portland on May 27, New York Red Bulls-New York City FC on June 24, and Atlanta-Orlando (the first game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium) on July 30.

- Univision's games are Los Angeles-Dallas on March 4 (opening weekend), New York City-Atlanta on May 7, San Jose-Los Angeles on May 27 and July 1, Atlanta-Orlando on September 16, and Orlando-Dallas on September 30.

- Univision and UniMás will televise many games on Saturdays this year, instead of Fridays, as part of combined broadcast windows with Liga MX coverage.

- Top games on ESPN's slate include Orlando-New York City on March 5 (the first game in Orlando's new stadium), Minnesota-Atlanta on March 12 (Minnesota's home opener), Seattle-Toronto on May 6 (the MLS Cup final rematch), Portland-Atlanta on May 14, New York City-Seattle on June 17, Portland-Seattle on June 25, New York Red Bulls-New York City on August 25, and Montreal-Toronto on August 27.

- Top games on Fox Sports 1's slate include Portland-Minnesota on March 3 (the season's first game and Minnesota's MLS debut), Atlanta-New York Red Bulls on March 5 (Atlanta's MLS debut), Seattle-Atlanta on March 31, New York Red Bulls-Los Angeles on May 14, New York City-New York Red Bulls on August 6, Los Angeles-New York City on August 13, and Seattle-Portland on August 27.

- The "Rivalry Weekends" are June 23-25 and August 23-27. The last weekend of May isn't officially one of those, but it has quite a few big games.

- MLS wil go dark during the CONCACAF Gold Cup group stage, July 7-17.

The Twitter handle above is for my general news reporting. My soccer handle is @thegoalkeeper. Contact me there for any questions about this post.