MLS owners vote to flip schedule to European calendar, change format starting in 2027 – The New York Times

MLS
Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images
PALM BEACH, Fla. — MLS owners officially voted Thursday to flip the league’s calendar to begin in mid-July and run through May.
The vote moves MLS forward on a major change it has been studying and debating for more than a year. The league will begin play under the new format in 2027.
In addition to a new calendar, league owners also voted to update the regular season format. The playoff format is still in discussion. The league will move to a single-table competition, but will also have five six-team divisions beginning in 2027, according to sources, though league executives declined to go into detail on the new structure.
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The plan is for the MLS regular season to span from the middle of July to April, with playoffs staged in May. A winter break would take place in December and January. Games would likely pause from around the second week in December through the first or third week in February. MLS understandably is trying to avoid restarting the league on Super Bowl weekend.
There would also be a summer break in June and July.
“When we look at the footprint, 91 percent is the same as the current footprint,” MLS executive Nelson Rodriguez said. “To begin and end in great weather, with less stadium conflicts, with our fields in pristine shape, with our players on a cycle that mirrors the global cycle, especially as it relates to the big international events and schedule, will just make our fan experience and our player performance and our overall player quality that much better. That’s the large driver of it. And having our playoffs, having our end of season in April, leading into our playoffs in May, completely uninterrupted by any FIFA window or event will also be massively popular and again add a lot to the quality and drama of our league.”
The league will stage a “sprint season” likely to be 14 games from mid-February through May in 2027 ahead of the calendar flip.
A significant chunk of the new season will overlap with the typical MLS calendar. MLS currently plays from the third weekend of February through the second weekend of December. Now, MLS’s most valuable property — the end of its regular season and its playoffs — will no longer compete directly against college football and the NFL. By moving the MLS playoffs to May, the league also will avoid a FIFA international window disrupting its playoffs.
“When we think of our existing footprints, we begin in the middle of February, as it is, and our Cup, even next year, will end, the third weekend of December,” Rodriguez said. “And so the difference isn’t in the footprint, it’s in the volume of games within that footprint. Obviously, your playoffs have less number of matches than your regular season, but the period is the same. You’re in the playoffs, you’re playing in November. You qualify for Concacaf Champions Cup, you’re playing the first week of February. And so there’s no appreciable change there at all in our mind.
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“In terms of the competition with the NFL and college football, right now, our playoffs are up against the last few weeks of the NFL season as it starts to reach its playoffs and its climax, (and) it’s up against college football championships. The weather is more challenging or can be less predictable at that time, and we have some stadium conflicts. Those are all alleviated with the playoffs in May. There’s no gridiron at all.
“Our stadium conflicts are far less. Our weather is prime, which makes our playing conditions prime. It’s not too hot, it’s not oppressive. Our fields will be in great shape. Our players will be ready to go.”
The debate over the calendar flip has found its harshest critics in the northern markets, where fans have voiced concern about losing summer games while adding games in colder months. Because of the winter break spanning from mid-December to early February, the league believes it is only adding a handful of games outside of the windows that currently exist in today’s MLS schedule. Fans in warmer markets, meanwhile, expressed relief at fewer games being played on some of the hottest days of summer.
Some colder-market owners sought mitigation for expenses and loss of revenue that would come with the calendar flip, including renovations to stadiums and training facilities. Other owners in warmer markets pushed back on those requests, according to sources. No mitigation was tied to this vote, Rodriguez said.
Starting the season in mid-July rather than in August when most European leagues start also gives MLS more summer dates.
“We think the mid-July start is optimal for us,” Rodriguez said. “At that time those intercontinental tournaments are likely to be finished. At that time among North American professional men’s sports leagues, I think only Major League Baseball will be active in its regular season. And it’s a great time for us to launch, great time for our fans to enjoy our league. So it just makes a lot of sense for us.”
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Rodriguez noted that the league will probably play more games in December and February in warmer markets, and likely more games in the hottest summer months in the northern markets, but noted the league’s principle is to not have a team play more than three games in a row on the road or at home.
The league is also committing to taking off FIFA international windows, though Rodriguez said there are discussions to play in the new double September-October window so the league does not have a long pause in the middle of the new calendar.
The back-and-forth was a snapshot of the impossibility of finding a calendar that would work perfectly for all markets in a continental league that spans from Vancouver to Miami and from Houston to Montreal. It also spoke to the league’s recognition that it needed to start pivoting from a business that revolved around local gameday revenue in order to find a wider national audience that might bring the all-important media revenue that could change the math for league owners.
There was no debate about the sporting reasons for the change. MLS teams will soon do the bulk of their business in the summer window, which expands opportunities to buy players and sign free agents at a time when much of the world does its business, as well as to sell players at top market prices without disrupting a team’s season.
“For me, it’s going to be crucial. Simple as that,” Columbus Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said Thursday. “If they don’t do it, there is no logical thought. … 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.”
Said Rodriguez: “The calendar flip also allows us to take more advantage of the world’s largest global transfer window, what we would call in the summer, and the players that are acquired, the player services that are required then would play more of the regular season than as we’re currently constructed, and those teams that might be in Concacaf would have those players fully acclimated for Concacaf,” he said. “So again, we see this as really having a positive impact on overall player quality and our match quality.”
MLS will also no longer be behind a separate paywall on Apple TV beginning in 2026.
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MLS and Apple agreed to alter the partnership agreement at the end of the 2025 season, multiple sources told The Athletic. MLS Season Pass will no longer exist, and all MLS games will be available on the Apple TV streaming service. (Apple rebranded Apple TV+ to Apple TV.)
That now puts MLS on a streaming service with several of Apple’s popular shows, as well as with MLB and F1, which will begin airing on Apple TV next season. In addition, Apple and NBC recently announced a bundle with Peacock for $14.99 a month, which would give fans access to the Premier League, MLS and F1 in one bundled price.
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Paul Tenorio is a senior writer for The Athletic who covers soccer. He has previously written for the Washington Post, the Orlando Sentinel, FourFourTwo, ESPN and MLSsoccer.com. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulTenorio

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