MLS’s Move to a Global Schedule Is Harder Than It Looks: Here’s Why

Major League Soccer is more committed than ever, at least conceptually, to shift its schedule to the sport’s international standard of fall-to-spring. Getting there, however, is proving to be tougher than expected.

The league’s board of governors, meeting this week in Chicago, agreed to expand its exploration of the move. A possible shift coming out of the men’s FIFA 2026 World Cup in North America will not happen, though, and any pivot will not happen until at least 2027—and perhaps much later than that.

“We’re not there yet,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “No decision has been made, and frankly, sitting here today, I’m not sure whether or not we have all the support we need to be able to achieve that.”

Since MLS’s 1996 debut, the league has operated on a winter-to-fall schedule, beginning this year in February, with the postseason to follow starting in October and the MLS Cup in early December. A handful of other leagues follow a similar model, including the United Soccer League and Canadian Premier League, but fall-to-spring remains the dominant model across the world.

A variety of business issues related to an MLS shift—including media, sponsorship, and venue-related deals—all remain substantial hurdles. Climate-related and geographic concerns also come into play, with MLS’s 30 clubs spanning broadly from warmer locales such as South Florida to three teams in Canada. 

“Though there’s momentum to try to get that done, there’s a lot of things that need to happen,” Garber said. “We’ve got to figure out the commercial impact. We’ve got to get closer to researching our players to get a sense as to what their point of view is. We’ve got facility issues to look at.”

Moving to a fall-to-spring schedule is also seen as a tool to help MLS increase its global standing, particularly relating to the player transfer window. Both commercially and competitively, the league is currently seen as trailing many of the major European ones, including the Big Five of the U.K.’s Premier League, Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A, and France’s Ligue 1.