MLS is considering switching to a fall-spring calendar after the 2026 World Cup

Major League Soccer is considering revamping its calendar and moving to a fall-spring season with breaks in the summer and winter, multiple sources briefed on the league's discussions say The athlete.

MLS executives and owners have weighed the changes to the calendar, which they say will help maximize the league's participation in the global transfer market, among other benefits. The hope is that the league can implement the changes as soon as summer 2026, after the World Cup.

Nelson Rodriguez, executive vice president of sports products and competition at MLS, said: The athlete It's still “too early” to know whether MLS will implement changes or what those changes might look like.

“We've actually been engaged since January, and it's been very extensive, inclusive and intentional,” Rodriguez said. “It's still too early. We still ask questions. We are still collecting and analyzing some data. We are still formulating models. Some of these models relate to formats themselves, others are designed to evaluate the information we receive.”

A change would certainly impact MLS's competition on the American sports calendar. The MLS Cup playoffs, which began this week, face the MLB playoffs, college football and NFL, as well as the NBA, college basketball and NHL regular seasons. Under the new calendar, the playoffs would likely be played in April and May, with most of the competition coming from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NBA postseason and the start of the MLB season.

MLS holds group meetings with athletic directors, general managers and owners. Rodriguez said the league has also conducted extensive fan surveys, “and we're going back into the field with another fan survey.” The league also plans to set up fan and player focus groups to gauge interest and hear concerns about changes, as “This has an impact on the entire ecosystem,” says Rodriguez.

Why make changes?

From a competitive perspective, changing the schedule could have several benefits, from synchronizing the league's transfer windows with the European calendar to maximizing the visibility of the playoffs in the American sports calendar.

The majority of global transfer business is completed in the summer window. This currently falls in the middle of the MLS season, creating conflict for teams looking to buy and sell players – a problem that will be felt more acutely as MLS teams become more active in the international market.

Teams that want to sell players in the summer, when they are at their peak value, must expect to lose some of their best players in the middle of the season and have little time to replace them. The MLS and Leagues Cup schedule also means new signings arrive in the summer when there are fewer than 10 games left in the regular season.

Athletic directors looking to buy players during the summer window have also complained that the U.S. summer window closes too early to take full advantage of the market. With the MLS window closing before most European windows close, teams often find that players want to wait and see all options, causing MLS teams to miss out on potential signings. MLS clubs generally cannot benefit from the dominoes that fall later in the transfer window.

“I wish our window was a little kinder to us,” Charlotte FC sporting director Zoran Krneta told MLSsoccer.com this summer. “I'm a big proponent of moving the window back to around September 5th because not only would we have a lot more chance of signing really good players, but we would also have the chance of signing the players who are suddenly surplus .” to the requirements.

“Sometimes when deals fall through in the last two days, the club wonders, 'Okay, what do we do now?'” It would really be a smart move by American clubs and Major League Soccer. The league really wanted to change it this year but couldn’t for a variety of other reasons, but that’s where we need to start to be super competitive.”

While the transfer window is determined by the Canadian Soccer Federation and US Soccer and not the MLS, a move to a fall-spring schedule could help alleviate some of these issues.

How would the schedule change?

With the changes, the MLS season would begin in early August, like most European leagues. The first part of the schedule would last until mid-December before a winter break, expected to last about five weeks. The season would resume in early February and run through the spring, with the MLS Cup in late May.

A schedule change would move the MLS playoffs and MLS Cup to a less crowded part of the American sports schedule. An MLS Cup in warm weather and less competition from other sports leagues is certainly attractive to everyone.

A fall-spring calendar would also mean that MLS, like the rest of the world, would pause the season during all FIFA international windows, which would be a welcome change for most teams and players.

Columbus Crew won the 2023 MLS Cup last December. (Maddie Meyer, Getty Images)

“The playoffs are the most valuable piece of real estate in a league season, and playoffs that would take place in the spring or summer suggest a different dynamic,” Rodriguez said. “It starts with the fact that the weather is almost optimal for all 30 clubs, the stadium conflicts are a little less, the competition with other North American sports is different and there is at least a greater orientation towards the rhythm of European football. So those are factors. They also come with their own trade-offs.”

The league is also considering the possibility of organizing teams into divisions rather than conferences and playing part of the schedule as intra-conference and intra-divisional play only, with playoff spots at stake. The second half of the season would then help determine the seedings and playoff spots for the entire season.

The MLS Players' Association will play a critical role in these discussions and Rodriguez said the league is working with the MLSPA to ensure it receives feedback from players. The league requires player approval for any schedule changes, particularly because the collective bargaining agreement stipulates that each player is entitled to six weeks of vacation per year, with five consecutive weeks of vacation required.

What are the disadvantages?

The league would no longer play from June 1 to July 15, replacing those game weeks with games from early November to mid-December. That may be welcomed by fans in cities like Dallas, Orlando, Miami, Houston and Austin, but it would be difficult to appeal to markets like Toronto, Chicago, Minnesota, Salt Lake City, Montreal and New England, for which the summer months are most important profitable weeks of the season.

Sources involved in and briefed on the discussions said there were concerns about a possible calendar change from certain MLS stakeholders operating in colder markets. The league hopes to gain more insight by surveying fans in different markets to determine whether they would attend games during the winter months, particularly in markets most affected by weather.

While ticket sales would likely be impacted, there are also other logistical issues to consider, including the impact on the training environment. Teams in colder climates, for example, might be forced to train indoors on grass.

The MLS calendar shift also requires consideration of weather and colder climates. (Rob Gray, USA TODAY Sports)

“Each consideration has different impacts across all of our clubs, and that’s part of the balance,” Rodriguez said. “The greatest strength of our individual system is our ability to work together as partners off the field and our ability to evaluate our business – our business is commercial, sporting and brand – and that has proven to be a great help in this process,” because There was an amazing spirit of collaboration, not just internally between all departments in MLS, but between all of our clubs.”

There are also other hurdles that need to be addressed. The League Cup is currently played for a month in the middle of summer, interrupting the regular season. MLS is weighing various Leagues Cup formats and schedules that would fit this new calendar, including potentially hosting the tournament in January and February with teams in groups in warmer weather locations such as California, Texas and Florida.

The league would also have to decide how the US Open Cup and Canadian Championship fit into the new calendar, even though MLS withdrew its participation in the Open Cup this season.

These issues could cause the calendar change to be delayed. The league had previously held discussions about potentially changing the competition format in 2013 and 2014, but decided against making a change. However, with the World Cup just around the corner, discussions over the calendar now appear to have really taken off – although Rodriguez warned it was simply too early to know.

“We’re at a different point in our development as a league,” Rodriguez said. “With the World Cup we have more eyes on us than ever before. And so it was really worth it that no one showed any territorial behavior and everyone was considerate and cooperative. I think there is a recognition that this is the right time to do this level of analysis.”

(Top photo: Aaron Doster / USA TODAY Sports)