Major League Soccer announces shifts in season scheduling & TV. Here’s the scoop

Major League Soccer is preparing itself for a significant calendar shift.

The league announced on Thursday afternoon that it is shifting its season calendar to a fall-through-spring slate beginning in 2027. The move aligns the MLS season’s calendar with the FIFA international match calendar — and with the bulk of European soccer leagues.

“The calendar shift is one of the most important decisions in our history,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said in a league-office news release. “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.”

Currently, Major League Soccer’s 34-match regular season begins at the end of February and runs through mid-October. The MLS Cup Playoffs run into mid-December, with a pause of almost two weeks between the first round and conference semifinals, due to a mandated FIFA window in November.

Starting in 2027, the MLS season will begin in July or August, continue through mid-December, and then take a six-week pause during the coldest part of the year. League matches would resume for the second half of the season in mid-February leading into the MLS Cup in May.

On a conference call with reporters, Garber said 91% of the league’s matches would be played within the same window they’re currently scheduled.

The 2024 MLS Cup clashed with college football’s championship weekend, competing for viewers and prime broadcast windows over linear cable. Venues clashed with football games, too — conflicts in Seattle, San Diego and Charlotte forced some playoff games to be played on a Monday or Tuesday. The newly announced calendar shift will push the MLS postseason into May, when such conflicts over venues should be far less likely.

How will this affect Sporting KC?

While there are many aspects to consider in the news announced Thursday, Kansas Citians might wonder how the shift in schedule will affect Sporting KC.

The club appears eager to adopt the new plan.

“I believe the change in our competition calendar has the potential for transformational benefits for MLS in the years to come,” said David Lee, Sporting KC’s president of soccer operations and general manager. “While the majority of the footprint of matches will remain the same as the current schedule, moving the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, our most important period of the season, to now take place in a less cluttered domestic sports landscape while also avoiding the playoffs being interrupted by international FIFA windows, will be a significant improvement.”

The other main reason for the change is to align the beginning and end of the MLS’ seasons, as well as the timing of MLS’ primary and secondary transfer windows, with those of the major European soccer leagues. MLS teams want to conduct the bulk of their roster moves and other business during the league’s primary window, which typically coincides with the rest of the soccer world’s secondary window. And when the largest movement of players occurs globally each summer, MLS teams have traditionally had but a single month in which to pursue them.

In the event an MLS club is able to sign one of those international talents, he then has just a handful of games remaining in the league’s season in which he can make a positive impact with his new American team.

The transfer window alignment hypothetically allows MLS to be more transactional with the rest of the world each summer. It also makes U.S. teams much less likely to lose players mid-season, or miss out on revenue-generating transfers out of the league.

In the current alignment, the middle of the MLS season coincides with the time when clubs in Europe and elsewhere are gearing up for their next campaign.

Downsides to the newly unveiled MLS alignment include the fact that teams will soon be playing late-December and February games in such northern MLS outposts as Chicago, Minnesota, Toronto, Montreal and New England — all of which have outdoor venues that will be prone to cold and inclement weather.

Garber pushed back at the notion the move will only affect the league’s northernmost teams, noting that playing through the heat of summer is just as difficult for teams in the south.

League officials continue to work on potential changes to the format of competition, which like the scheduling alterations would roll out in 2027. One includes potentially moving away from a two-conference model and toward a model featuring regionalized divisions in a single table.

Changes to MLS broadcasts via Apple TV

Another significant announcement Thursday was that the league is discontinuing its MLS Season Pass subscription as the primary way to watch MLS games.

Instead, all MLS games and Leagues Cup matches will be available via a basic Apple TV subscription. With such a subscription, viewers currently have access to F1 races, select MLB games, movies and such Apple TV shows as Ted Lasso and Severance.

So there will no longer be a stand-alone paywall for MLS. But watching Apple TV isn’t free — subscriptions currently run $12.99 per month or $99 per year.

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.