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As Kansas City prepares for the biggest soccer tournament in the world next month, Major League Soccer is preparing for the biggest change in the league’s 30-year history next year.
“The change was inevitable at some point,” Kansas City Cauldron Vice President Chris Miles said.
Since its inception in 1996, MLS has operated with a spring-to-fall schedule within a single calendar year, but the league decided to flip its calendar beginning with the 2027-28 campaign.
A year from now, MLS will be wrapping up a 14-game spring “sprint” season before making the permanent switch to a July-to-May schedule, which aligns with the top leagues in Europe.
“I'm very in favor of it,” said David Lee, Sporting KC president of soccer operations and general manager. “I think for people in my role in our industry, to align with most of the European calendar, I think we'll make player trading decisions so much more effective and efficient that I believe we'll be able to access a higher level of talent, potentially without spending more money.”
The global nature of soccer makes player movement more complex than other professional sports leagues in the U.S., but the calendar change ought to streamline business decisions and make MLS more transactional.
“It'll be very positive from a player-transfer standpoint, both with incoming players into the league — we'll have a better opportunity because the summer is the big transfer window — and then similarly, in selling players,” FC Dallas Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said.
The summer transfer window is much more active than the winter window.
“FIFA released the study a couple months ago, something like 80% of the global football market transfers, in terms of value, happen in the summer, not in the winter,” Lee said. “There is just more movement for players, so there is an opportunity for us to be active in that market.”
It has long been a problem for player movement to and from MLS.
“Normally, what happens when you approach a team in Europe, one of their players is playing every week and you ask for them in January — when they're in the middle of competition — they don't want to sell them,” Lee said. “We have the same problem here. If a European team is coming to try and acquire one of our players, normally that's in their summer window, which is in June and July, and that's in the middle of our season, when we don't want to sell the player because it would hurt our competitiveness. So, I believe that by aligning that you'll see more transfers in and out, which I think is a positive thing.”
Getting there will be a little odd but not unprecedented.
“The ‘sprint season’ is going to be very interesting,” Miles said. “We had a COVID season that was similar, where we played a pretty congested, shorter schedule. I think everyone's just going to try to have fun with it and see where it goes.”
MLS still has a long way to go to compete with the top leagues in Europe — the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, France’s Ligue 1, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A — but the calendar change should help close the gap.
“It's one of probably the only leagues in the world that really has significant growth potential in what it can be, both on and off the field,” said Lee, a native of Exeter, England. “I think the quality of MLS is much higher than people give it credit for, and it's a much more difficult league than most people perceive it to be.”
But MLS needs better access to the world’s best players to continue its upward trajectory, making the calendar change necessary from a business perspective.
“It was one of those inevitable things for the league to grow,” Miles said. “If we want the best talent from Europe, which teams are starting to get the financial power to purchase those players, then you’ve got to play on the schedule so that the business makes sense.”
The 2026 MLS season, which is interrupted by FIFA World Cup 26 taking over North America, will be largely in line with the league’s traditional schedule.
The “sprint season” will allow MLS to crown a 2027 champion before making the permanent schedule change, which should also give the league’s postseason more visibility.
“I think it will improve our playoffs,” Hunt said. “Right now, our playoffs are during a really busy time in the sports calendar, competing against college football and the NFL. Being able to have May as an opportunity to really showcase our playoffs, I think that'll be beneficial for the league.”
On balance, Miles said MLS fans are pleased with the change.
“The bad news about the current calendar is, if you make it really far in the tournament, you're going to be playing in the cold weeks of January, if you want championships,” Miles said. “Now, to have the opportunity to have people playing their best soccer in the best weather of the year is exciting.”
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