US sports broadcaster ESPN has agreed a deal with pay-television broadcaster One World Sports to simulcast North American Soccer League team New York Cosmos’ historic game against Cuba.
One World Sports will broadcast and produce the game, which takes place in Havana on June 2. ESPN will carry the match on its ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes channels.
The game will mark the first visit by a US sports team to Cuba since US President Barack Obama announced steps toward full diplomacy with the country. The Cosmos will be the first US professional soccer franchise to play in Cuba since the Chicago Sting visited in 1978, and the first US professional sports team to visit there since the Baltimore Orioles played the Cuban national baseball team in an exhibition game in Havana in 1999.
Earlier this month, the B4 Capital agency struck a deal to distribute worldwide media rights to the exhibition match – an agreement that excluded the North American market.