MLS announces calendar change, will play fall-to-spring from 2027 onward

The MLS board of governors have voted to change the league’s schedule to more closely align with the European calendar, with seasons beginning in the late summer and ending in the spring. The league announced the change after a board meeting in Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday. The league will begin its season in mid-July, take a winter break starting in mid-December, then restart games in the first or third week of February (avoiding Super Bowl week). “The calendar shift is one of the most important decisions in our history,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber. “Aligning our schedule with the world’s top leagues will strengthen our clubs’ global competitiveness, create better opportunities in the transfer market, and ensure our Audi MLS Cup Playoffs take center stage without interruption. It marks the start of a new era for our league and for soccer in North America.” Related: MLS salaries: Son Heung-min deal pays $11m, second only to Lionel Messi The switch will take place in 2027, with the league playing a short season to begin the year and then starting its first full season under the new format that July. The calendar switch will be accompanied by a major change to the league’s format, also in a way that aligns more closely to European leagues. MLS’s 30 teams will now compete in a single table, the first time the league will be structured that way after spending most of its history with Western and Eastern conferences. The single table will also feature five six-team regional divisions, with teams playing each of their division rivals twice (home and away) and every other team in the league once, maintaining the league’s current 34-game regular season. Qualification for the playoffs will be based on the overall league table, with division winners guaranteed a spot in the postseason. The decision will bring an end to the schedule MLS has stuck since its first game in 1996, which sees the season begin in the spring or late winter and end in the fall, playing through the summer. Related: Lionel Messi says MLS must loosen spending rules in order to thrive The schedule was initially arranged that way in part due to the harsh winters in much of the US, with the later additions of Canadian teams Toronto FC, CF Montreal and Vancouver Whitecaps increasing the value of summer dates (though Vancouver’s stadium has a retractable roof). The current calendar also gives MLS less competition for more of its regular season in a crowded US sports landscape. Among the country’s major men’s sports leagues, the NFL, NBA, and NHL all play fall-to-spring. By playing through the summer, MLS’s only competition among major men’s leagues for most of its regular season is Major League Baseball. However, there have also been significant disadvantages to that arrangement, which have become especially problematic for the league as it seeks to become more of an active player in the global transfer market. MLS’s offseason currently falls in the middle of the European league season, with most teams doing only limited transfer business in January. That makes it difficult for MLS teams to add star players in a way that will allow those players to have a full preseason with their teams. It also makes it difficult for MLS teams to sell players abroad for sums they would like at a time that will not impact an ongoing season Similar issues then come up in the summer, with MLS teams reluctant to sell desired players abroad in the middle of a league campaign, and incoming players dropped into the middle of an MLS league campaign with no preseason. “If they don’t do it, there is no logical thought,” Columbus Crew coach Wilfried Nancy told reporters on Thursday. “If you don’t make the change, you can talk and talk and talk — it is impossible that people overseas are going to take us seriously.” The calendar switch also enables MLS to have its most important games – the end of the regular season, playoffs, and MLS Cup – during a period that is comparatively free from interference. The current MLS playoff format sees the postseason interrupted by a Fifa international window, and games themselves competing for attention alongside the NFL, college football, NBA and NHL season starts, and occasionally the World Series. MLS Cup has typically been played in late November or December – a time of year that features freezing temperatures in much of the country. After 2027, it will be played in May – likely in comparatively beautiful weather.