Major League Soccer owners could determine the next step in the league’s evolution on Thursday, as they are reportedly expected to vote on shifting the season calendar to a fall-to-spring schedule.
MLS owners could also vote to shift its competition format to a single-table system with five geographically organized divisions, instead of the current Western and Eastern Conferences, according to The Athletic.
While there were initial hopes to vote on the schedule change at a May meeting in Chicago, owners and the MLS Players Association opted to delay the vote. They could do the same at the upcoming meetings as well.
However, the runway to implement changes for the 2027 MLS season is quickly slipping away, and any further delay could push them farther from the expected bump in soccer popularity following the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Should MLS adopt the schedule change, it would align with Europe’s major competitions, beginning the regular season in July or August and ending in April, before the MLS Cup playoffs in May.
The move would allow MLS to align with international and transfer windows. MLS would also likely take a winter break in December and January, similar to the Bundesliga, followed by the offseason in June and July.
According to the report, matches would likely pause in the second week of December and resume in February, with hopes of avoiding kickoff on the NFL’s Super Bowl weekend, traditionally held on the second Sunday of February.
Weather Less of a Concern
While the schedule change would allow the league to align with the rest of the world, it would face challenges in its northern markets, which could need adjustments to training facilities and stadiums.
However, with the expansion into more southern markets, there is less concern. At the same time, the winter break would allow some of the harshest conditions to be avoided in colder climates.
The dates also allow the most important games and playoffs to happen in the spring, potentially bringing better weather than seen in past frigid MLS Cup matches in Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Toronto and other northern markets. Those cities have also shown an ability to host matches in colder weather.
Changes to Table, Playoffs
The proposed changes to the MLS structure would see teams reportedly split into five divisions. Clubs would play home and away against teams in their division and also play the remaining 24 teams in MLS once, bringing the total to 34 games—the standard number in past MLS seasons.
Outside of geographic reasoning, the divisions would not have any substantial impact, other than potentially securing playoff seeding.
Other ideas floated in the report included shifting the playoff structure to a repêchage style similar to the Canadian Premier League, where higher seeds play qualifying matches against each other, and would get a second chance against lower-seeded sides should they lose the first match.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as MLS Owners Set to Vote on Three League-Altering Changes—Report.
