Update on when MLS could switch to the same schedule as other big leagues | OneFootball

At Major League Soccer ownership meetings this week, owners voted to continue exploring a potential change to a fall-to-spring schedule like most big European leagues play, but to delay such a flip until at least 2027.

What does it mean? The short version is that a new MLS schedule model won't begin until at least July or August of 2027, if it begins at all. That's contrary to earlier reporting, which suggested the league might try to kick off a new schedule model right on the back of the 2026 World Cup, which will be played in the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19 fo next year.

The shape of the MLS season until summer of 2027 is a bit less clear, however, because we still don't know the approach MLS will take to its competitive structure during the World Cup year.

Potential for split seasons?

League commissioner Don Garber has already said the league will pause for the entirety of the tournament, unlike most summers when it has played its schedule through at least portions of previous Concacaf Gold Cups, Copa Americas, European Championships and World Cups.

Garber has also indicated the league could consider a split season model -- with a spring league championship and a fall league championship -- in 2026 to maneuver around the World Cup. That doesn't appear to be off the table yet for next year.

Conceivably, MLS could try the spit-season model in 2026, and then vote next year around this time to enact a full calendar switch beginning with the 2027-2028 campaign. In that scenario, MLS would play three short seasons -- like the ones regularly played in most other Concacaf domestic leagues, including MLS' partner Liga MX in Mexico -- and then transition from there into a fall-to-spring schedule.

More like the Bundesliga than the EPL

Any new MLS schedule is likely to include a sizable winter break, similar to the six weeks the German Bundesliga takes off in the middle of its season. There's also the potential for Leagues Cup games to be played during that break in warm-weather MLS markets.

Evens so, flipping the schedule could potentially impact league attendance numbers, particularly in its colder markets in the Northeast and Midwest. However, it would also allow the league to eliminate schedule conflicts with international match windows, and potentiall attract more in-its-prime international talent.