Taylor Hawker, a founding member of the Timbers Army Fort Boise, a regional supporters' group for the Portland Timbers, was one of 15 fans that eagerly gathered at the Double Tap Pub in Boise, Idaho Saturday to watch the Timbers play the Montreal Impact.

While the game was broadcast locally in Portland on Fox 12 Plus, the match wasn't on live television in Idaho. The group had planned to stream the game live using ESPN+, a subscription-based streaming service for live sports.

But as it got closer to kickoff, the group suddenly realized that the game was blacked out on ESPN+ in their market.

"We were assuming we were going to be able to watch it using ESPN+," Hawker said. "Unfortunately, that was not the case and so quite a few people ended up leaving the bar. People were fairly upset. There were some disappointed fans here in Boise."

Timbers fans in Idaho were not the only ones that were inadvertently blacked out from streaming Saturday's game on ESPN+. Fans in Montana and parts of Washington and Eastern Oregon were also unable to watch.

But fans should not face the same issue moving forward.

Major League Soccer, which provides ESPN+ with blackout territories for matches, confirmed to the Oregonian/OregonLive Wednesday that the problem had been resolved. Like last week's game, Saturday's match between the Timbers and Houston Dynamo will be broadcast locally in Portland on Fox 12 Plus, but fans that do not have access to the live broadcast on television should not face a blackout on ESPN+ this time around.

"Major League Soccer has corrected the blackout territory for Portland Timbers matches on FOX 12 Oregon and Fox 12 Plus beginning with Saturday's match against Houston and continuing throughout the remainder of the season," the league said in a statement.

ESPN+ became Major League Soccer's platform for streaming out-of-market games in April after the league moved away from MLS LIVE.

Even though last week's game was on Fox 12 Plus locally in Portland, not Root Sports Northwest, MLS inadvertently had ESPN+ black out subscribers that were in the Root Sports Northwest territory. After being alerted to the issue by the Timbers, the league was able to correct the problem.

"It's as upsetting to us as it is to our fans because we want people to see our games," Timbers President of Business Mike Golub said. "I think everyone is confident that this is part of the growing pains of this new package and we'll get it corrected going forward."

Still, this isn't the first time that some fans have dealt with unexpected blackouts.

Kris Goss, who coordinates regional supporters' group activities for the Montana Volunteers, recalled having trouble accessing past games that were broadcast on Root Sports Northwest. Goss also said that the group couldn't access the Timbers vs. San Jose Earthquakes game in May. Like Saturday's game, that match was broadcast locally in the Portland area on Fox 12 Plus.

There are more than 20 unique Timbers supporters' groups across the United States and internationally, making it particularly important for fans in markets outside of Portland to have access to live television feeds and game streams.

"It's really difficult to know when a game is going to be blacked out and where it's going to be blacked out," said Jayme Fraser, a Timbers fan who lives in Vale, Oregon. "When you're trying to organize a meet-up for regional supporters' groups, that can be a big headache."

While the blackout issue should now be resolved, Golub encouraged fans to reach out to the Timbers organization directly if issues come up in the future. He said fans can call or email the club, as well as contact them on Twitter.

Goss said that the Timbers have been able to help address similar problems for supporters in Montana in the past and he is hopeful that the group won't have unexpected issues streaming games moving forward.

"The ability to watch the Timbers live is fundamental to your identity as a supporter of the Timbers," Goss said. "The club's responsiveness has been appreciated. They understand we're part of the Timbers family, even though we don't live in Portland."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg