News: MLS owners approve fall-spring calendar and season format changes: Sources

Sutter really was an intriguing signing, for the time. And then his career was ended because of poor conditions on the Burn's practice field, and that was that.

 

Not to mention a possible billion dollars in expansion fees for two more franchises.

 

With next years World Cup and looking at the schedule, I noticed it's almost laid out in the months it will flip to in 2027-28 season. With a seven week break from May 25 to July 16 you can imagine that will be close to the end of the season and starting the new season give or take a week or two. The CONCACAF Champions Cup final is May 30th and Leagues Cup is August 4 to September 6.
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Also looking at next year schedule I see a lot of 2:30 & 4:30 Saturday games almost every week until the end of May with maybe just one week being skipped. Quite a few of them will be on FOX & FS1 besides Apple TV. Then they go away until one weekend in August and most of October.

 

I'm not totally opposed to the 5 divisions of 6 setup. As a Revs fan, it would b nice to keep DC in the division, but the setup keeps most rivalries intact.

The other more geographically centered setup that keeps ALL the regional rivalries intact would be like the NHL did with 7-8-7-8
EAST (7)
MON, TOR, NER, NYC, NYRB, PHI, DC

SOUTH (8)
MIA. ORL, ATL, CHA, NSH, DAL, HOU, ATX

NORTH (8)
MIN, CHI, KC, STL, CLB, CIN, RSL, CLR

WEST (7)
VAN, SEA, POR, SJ, LAG, LAFC, SD

 

It just doesn't work for playing everyone at least once in a 34 game schedule.

 

It was so cold at this Turkish top-flight game that players had mid-match cups of tea ☕️

Temperatures hovered around 7°F (-14°C) in Erzurum on Sunday 🥶pic.twitter.com/kdY5k8HjtV

— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) December 29, 2025

Maybe Hot Cocoa breaks at northern team games?

 

Mug Up!

 

A history lesson, for those unaware: The "Beat LA" chant was started by Boston Celtics fans in 1982, when they were losing game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to the 76ers, in Boston. Once it was clear that the Sixers were going to win, the crowd starting chanting "Beat LA", since it was known that the Sixers would go on the face the Lakers in the Finals.

In other words, we don't like LA either

 

Blowtorches???? Blowtorches!!!

A blowtorch was used at Hull to try and thaw the area surrounding the pitch, such is the cold snap in England 😳

Sadly it was not enough and the game was called off just 20 minutes before kickoff. It's a 400-mile round trip 🫤pic.twitter.com/E5UsZajONo

— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) January 4, 2026

 

Maybe they should put a tarp on the field that is a giant electric blanket in the future.

 

MLS players support plan to align with international calendar - ESPN

 

I figured they probably would. As mentioned in the article, any player with thoughts of Europe is going to look at the new schedule as more amenable. And I don't think any health issues related to extreme cold are any worse than those associated with extreme heat (generally speaking you can do more about the former than the latter). The union might ask that games be postponed when the conditions are adverse enough, but I'd have been surprised if they were categorically opposed to the shift.

 

I understand the move but believe it's more about the players and the league than it is about the fans. For every MLS fan that cries about the league being taken seriously, this is one of the consequences for that to happen. Soccer is a business and a player trying to move to a better league is just a part of it. Selling one of your best players in the middle of the season while you're trying to contend for a championship should happen less now if not at all.

 

Anyone know if the three players quoted are their teams' reps on the PA?

 

Chicago's is Omar Gonzalez, New England's is Brandon Bye and Vancouver's is Brian White (at least according to https://mlsplayers.org/about-us/player-reps ).

 

Omar no longer plays for the Fire though. He's a coach with Chicago Fire II. Going through the list..... a lot of those are going to change, LOL.

 

Yup, Brandon Bye isn't with New England anymore either.

 

Espinoza is no longer with the Quakes, Ditto DSC and the Loons, Sean-John and TFC, among others

 

If you can figure out a schedule for a league that takes 8 months, spans a continent and will not have any weather forced postponements I'm all ears.

 

Let's not pretend MLS hasn't had games postponed for weather in the past either. It's just part of the game.

 

I'll gently point out that some of the existing MLS weather delays are avoidable simply by moving kickoff times. Just as an example, the lightning / hail / tornado delays in St. Louis tend to happen in the 5 PM to 8 PM window. Moving kickoff to noon or 1 PM could avoid many of these delays. Also, the heat of the day in St. Louis isn't 1 or 2 PM. It's 6 or 7 PM.