ATLANTA, GA – JULY 20: Mexico fans cheer during pregame introductions before the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal game between Panama and Cuba at the Georgia Dome on July 20, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)
By Liam McGuire on

Fox Sports has added the Mexican national soccer team to its list of soccer programming.

The New York Times reports an agreement will be announced on Wednesday, which will allow FS1, who hold the men’s and women’s World Cup rights through 2026, to televise 25 home games consisting of friendlies and qualifiers of the Mexican national team starting this year until the 2018 World Cup. The pact will feature 10 national team games in 2016 and 2017, and five in 2018.

The Times reports Fox Sports is hoping it can draw similar numbers to ESPN, who didn’t retain the rights when their agreement expired.

During the 2014 World Cup, the team’s two group stage games on ESPN averaged 3.1 million viewers, and a group stage match on ESPN2 averaged 1.9 million. In the round of 16, the Mexico-Netherlands match generated 5.7 million viewers.

David Nathanson, the head of business operations for Fox Sports, told the Times the move will draw in viewership from fans of Mexican heritage in the U.S.

“We get to tell the narrative of the Mexican national team through our tournaments such as Copa América Centenario this summer, and it is going to be the representative of the Concacaf region in the Confederations Cup in 2017,” said Nathanson. “This allows us to complete the story of arguably the team with the second-largest fan base in the United States.”

The first game of the new agreement will be a friendly February 10th against Senegal in Miami.

[New York Times]

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Social +Staff writer for The Comeback & Awful Announcing. Liammcguirejournalism@gmail.com

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