MLS Eye Major Calendar Shakeup: Fall To Spring Schedule Switch Still Under Consideration

Written by Patrick Echatah

After the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Major League Soccer may be moving to a fall-to-spring season, which would disrupt the league’s scheduling structure.

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Speaking on the subject prior to the 2024 MLS Cup final in Carson, California, MLS commissioner Don Garber stated that while any change would be “complicated,” MLS and U.S. Soccer’s bodies are “ongoing work” on a possible solution.

Garber and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani discussed a wide range of American soccer topics during their speech at the Sports Business Journal’s Business of Soccer conference this week.

The MLS commissioner brought up the schedule change again, acknowledging that there are legitimate worries about winter in the United States, especially with northern teams like Minnesota, Montreal, and Toronto, among others.

“Let’s just be obvious – having playoffs in May is probably better than having them in December, where we’re competing against college football and NFL football and lots of other things,” Garber said.

“So we’re going to do the work… Nelson Rodriguez runs our competition group meeting with owners and chief soccer officers and chief business officers going through the math.

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“Once we get through all that, we’ll then have to take it to that process of governance and figuring out whether it makes sense for the enterprise.”

CONCACAF and MLS have prioritised the buildup to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, even though any changes won’t happen until after the 2026 season.

“We have this opportunity with our [USMNT] – as the women have been able to achieve with so many World Cup victories – to have it be entirely about sport,” said Garber. “You have to have that. If the U.S. team doesn’t do well, it certainly is going to be a disappointment because of the high expectations.”

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