Our Lahoud mood is sadness.
After Austin FC’s last regular season game on Oct. 9, Verde fans will no longer see the familiar faces of Adrian Healey and Michael Lahoud in the Q2 broadcast booth on match days.
If you haven’t heard, a new national TV deal is set to start next year as part of a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Apple to broadcast all MLS games on Apple TV+.
Austin’s regional broadcasts on such channels as The CW Austin and KBVO will be replaced with a national MLS crew of 10-14 people to cover all the games across the league next season. Similar to how it’s set up in the NFL.
Soccer media personality Grant Wahl recently gave a hat tip on Twitter to recognize all the local MLS TV broadcast crews when he was in Austin for a match.
There will still be some local elements to broadcasts on game days.
Austin FC will continue to have local radio airing the games on KASE-FM Alt-97.5. The Apple TV deal will allow ATX fans to choose listening to the commentating on the local radio broadcast, instead of the national TV broadcast.
The Verde TV crew has featured Adrian Healey and Michael Lahoud in the booth since the club’s second-ever match vs. Colorado Rapids in April 2021 (the club’s first match against LAFC was a national broadcast).
It has come full circle for the crew—again with Colorado—when the pair makes their final TV call as Austin faces the Rapids on Oct. 9 at Q2 Stadium for the season finale.
Neither Healey nor Lahoud have announced what’s next for them. And the club has not yet made an official announcement about their future in Verde.
In a best-case scenario for Austin fans to keep seeing these familiar faces, both commentators could be plucked by MLS as one of their dozen or so national TV analysts next season.
Play-by-play announcer Adrian Healey has an impressive soccer broadcasting resume, prior to Austin’s TV coverage, he anchored ESPN’s MLS games for a good part of a decade, including lead announcer for six MLS Cups, among other notable on-air accomplishments.
Color analyst Michael Lahoud has been a steady figure in the league for over a decade, first as a player, and now providing content for MLS on TV, podcasts, and MLSsoccer.com.
Best of luck to both men and we’ll remember them fondly as the OGs of Austin FC broadcasts.
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