MLS owners gearing up to vote on potential seismic changes
Major League Soccer appears on the cusp of some major changes.
Team owners are expected to vote on Thursday on moving the MLS to a fall-spring calendar — bringing the league in line with top leagues in Europe — and changing the competition format to a single-table system from its current two-conference system, The Athletic reported Wednesday.
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The MLS board is scheduled to meet in Palm Beach, Florida.
The calendar change has been a topic of conversation around MLS for some time now. It would mean that the season would run from mid-to-late July or August through April.
The playoffs would take place in May, and the league would take a winter break in December and January, while June and July would serve as MLS’s summer break.
MLS and the MLS Players Association have been in talks about the possible change. Any switch would need the MLSPA approval, since it would impact its members’ vacation days and the preseason.
MLS has not yet responded when sought for comment by The Post.
The league’s window to make the calendar flip is shrinking if it hopes to shift things for the 2027 season, MLS’s first full season following the 2026 World Cup that’s taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The Athletic’s report did suggest there is a chance that no vote is brought up on Thursday and that a vote would need to take place by March 2026 in order to make the changes a reality for 2027.
The calendar shift is expected to help teams during the transfer windows, in particular, the summer window, which currently happens in the middle of the MLS campaign. It would also eliminate the hurdles clubs face during the winter transfer window that falls in the middle of many European seasons.
New York City FC, which is in the middle of a playoff run, has been very public about its support of the potential calendar flip, with club CEO Brad Sims telling Sports Business Journal that NYCFC was “really bullish” on the idea.
“From our standpoint, timing could really work out with opening our new stadium,” Sims said earlier this month. “I think that would make a lot of sense for us, but in the New York market, we already play games early in the season — February, March — not a problem. We endeavor to play games late in the season. … That kind of calendar is not something that worries us.”
NYCFC is opening a new soccer-specific stadium in Willets Point next to Citi Field in 2027.
The Red Bulls have not publicly voiced a position on the topic, and the club declined to comment when reached by The Post on Wednesday night.
Earlier this year, commissioner Don Garber addressed the idea during the MLS All-Star Game over the summer.
“There are a number of key benefits to it aligning with the world standard we think is important for our brand as we try to continue to engage as one of the important, influential leagues in the world,” he said then.
The other change would move the league to a single-table format, create five divisions organized geographically and eradicate the Eastern and Western Conferences.
Teams in the same division will face each other once at home and away. They would then play the other 24 teams once during the season.
The postseason format is still being figured out, according to The Athletic.
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