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

True. We also don't know how MLS (and USL for that matter) are going to approach it going forward.

 

Yes, 22-30 of March is a Fifa date. They might have to play a few games almost every Wednesday during the season. CCC was played in every week in February this year, two weeks in March, three weeks in April & two weeks in May when the playoffs will take place next year.
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Teams not in CCC will probably play more than a few midweek games as the CCC teams will only have a few dates available. So the question will be who is the new sponsor of Wednesday night soccer? You'll have a 14 game schedule in 10-12 weeks depending when they start minus the Fifa date (unless they play through) to get the season in.

 

USL will stop playing the USOC after the 2028 seasons, because they won’t play any tournament without PRO/REL

 

This podcast was hosted today by Gavino Da Falco who worked with Apple for CF Montreal games, 98.5fm radio in Montreal and now covering FC Supra on TVA Sports. He gave insights based on sources from within the club regarding the winter calendar

According to this : starts at (25:30) in French

• MLS is increasingly frustrated with CF Montréal having to start every season on the road. If the team makes the playoffs this year, they may not even be able to host matches in Montréal, as the Olympic Stadium is currently under renovation.

• Looking ahead, the upcoming winter schedule (February to April) presents a major challenge: most matches cannot be played at Saputo Stadium due to weather conditions, while Olympic Stadium will remain unavailable.

• The league wants this situation resolved by 2028 and the club is hoping the ongoing renovations will be completed by then though that timeline appears unlikely. MLS has made it clear that it is not prepared to tolerate the current status quo until 2030 or beyond.

• A deadline of Fall 2028 has reportedly been set for CF Montréal to have a stadium that meets league standards. MLS has already provided its specifications which would require interior renovations estimated at $400M–$500M CAD (excluding the roof and acoustics, which are already funded).

• Meanwhile, the Quebec government has allocated roughly $170M for upgrades to seating, corporate suites, and locker rooms but not until 2030 or 2032. This funding is both insufficient and too delayed to meet MLS expectations.

• According to sources, the government has indicated that no additional funding for interior upgrades will be approved before this year’s October election, especially with the current ruling party trailing in the polls.

• CF Montréal has hinted that it could consider relocating if progress is not made. This may be a strategic move to pressure the government into accelerating and financing the required upgrades. However, this would likely lead to complex negotiations: the government would most likely prefer/expect the team to play all its home games at Olympic Stadium, while the club would likely want to split games between Olympic Stadium and Saputo Stadium.

• If the team were to play exclusively at Olympic Stadium, it could face significant financial losses similar to the Vancouver Whitecaps. At the same time, the government is being asked to significantly increase its investment to accelerate renovations for a team that would primarily use the indoor venue only during the colder months.

 

That's a lot of good info you've laid out. Thanks.

 

Just read an article from 2022.
Building a retractable roof over Stade Saputo would likely cost between 75 & 100 million according to local sports broadcasting.
For context, modifying an existing open-air soccer stadium to include a retractable roof often add or more to standard venue costs, making it a highly complex and expensive engineering endeavor. Given these steep financial hurdles, Major League Soccer's CF Montréal has never actively moved forward with a roof proposal, and no firm, finalized project costs exist.
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The biggest problem is it says that Mr. Saputo wants to invest his money to renovate the stadium, including a redone North stand with more luxury suites, a complete winterization (heated pitch, changing all the seats, redoing the plumbing), improving both entrances, adding more food concessions and bathrooms, etc. But he's got problems with the city, he thinks he pays too many taxes for a land that he doesn't actually own but is only rented to the Olympic Park. So, he is not sure if it's worth it to invest that much money that will make him pay $4M more in taxes every year without even owning the place at 100%. Mr. Saputo might try to make an agreement to break his stadium's emphyteutic lease before going forward with the renovations.
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Seems the problem is Canada has a problem with public/private partnership when it comes to stadium.

 

There's a public/private partnership between the City of Toronto and MLSE it's working fine, same for many other venues : City of Hamilton & Forge/Tiger-Cats, City of Ottawa and OSEG, City of Halifax & Wanderers, City of Regina & Saskatchewan Roughriders...just to name those all over the CFL and partially in the CPL.

At some point, owners should be held responsible for making poor. Just like the Whitecaps who waited last minute to address their venue issues.

As seen below, Saputo was supposed to build his stadium in an area call "Bassin Peel"


What stands out? With the new subway line they built and the new residential area, Stade Saputo could have been in the heart of this

Griffintown - Next to downtown financial and entertainment districts, Old Montreal touristic area, Major universities and all regional rail and city subway lines connecting the entire metropolitan area


Griffintown Station in planning, 1 stop from Gare Central under the financial district.


Instead, he opted for this location :
Hochelaga-Maisonneuve area. East Island, outside of downtown, harder to access from all other directions - North & South shores and the larger subur areas in the east. Only 1 subway line service the area. No corporate or other entertainment presence and the city refuses to rezone the area just for Saputo.

He decided to build the stadium on land he doesn't own (Olympic Park belongs to the province) and must pay taxes to the City of Montreal. If the city of Montreal doesn't make exceptions for the Montreal Canadiens, why would they for CF Montreal?



One should be avoid generalizing too quickly. Based on all this background, people in the province would resist the government providing subsidies to help them out. I think there will be an effort to help them but within reasonable limits.

Tweet confirming the above

Ce matin Tony mentionne que le stade Saputo à la base devait être bâti au bassin Peel et pour une raison qu’on ignore ils ont changé d’idée pour Hochelaga.

Bref un bon bloc ce matin sur le #cfmtl et les défis du calendrier hivernal et la complexité du big O ! pic.twitter.com/Efztm2JiEx

— 🎙️Gavino De Falco (@GavinoDe_Falco) May 18, 2026

 

That seems really cheap for a retractable roof. That sounds like the cost of a permanent roof.

I think Canada, like most countries, has a problem with US style tax breaks for private developments. They have other ways of helping private businesses.

 

So I just checked. My tiny bit of research suggests that the UK and Canada do give tax breaks on thinks like capital investment and green energy they don't appear to give discretionary tax breaks to individual companies. For instance giving Google a ten year tax abatement to open a data center in the UK (which is probably why there is no Google data center in the UK).

Instead they provide cash grants (see Wrexham) and lottery funding (see nearly every football stadium upgrade over the last 30 years).depending on the type of business.

There are examples in soccer of local councils buying the land beneath football stadiums then renting it back for a nominal fee in order to save struggling clubs (see Notts County). But I think Montreal already owns the land Saputo is built on.

 

No they don't own the land

 

Just in case you, too, are unfamiliar with that word
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emphyteusis

 

I already know they don't own the land and I said the story was from 2022. It's the reason the stadium isn't getting an upgrade and possibly the reason Canadian teams might be going the way of the Dinosaur in the future. From what I see, it seems things are tough in Canada and a few businesses have relocated to the US.

 

Sure. I'd just never heard the word 'emphyteutic' before.

 

I got you. I was more focused on with the improvements they would pay more taxes every year after their investment.

 

Huh?

 

It's forecast to be 90 at the kickoff of Salford v Notts County on Monday. How will the players survive?

 

They likely won't. No one has ever played in that kind of heat before, anywhere on Earth! I can't believe they're going to make the players play when they face almost certain death.

 

Been pretty funny hearing about all the heat in England this weekend, thinking of how they are going to handle New Jersey, let alone Monterey?

 

The players handled it well. The Salford fans who were in direct sunlight aren't happy but they lost, so they wouldn't be.

 

Thank you. Most EFL games that don't kickoff at 3 pm on a Saturday are streamed by Sky Sports although it is difficult to get full match replays if you happened to be at the game.

League One means a better quality of football and potential full houses against Sheffield Wednesday, Leicester City and Mansfield Town (we've had 3 full houses since the stadium was rebuilt in 1992/93).

Also the last time we were in League One our average attendance was 5,351. This season it was 11,520. Things are looking up.

 

I think this move is stupid . Don’t fix what isn’t broken .

 

USL Super League is flipping their Calendar too!!

BREAKING: The calendar is flipping. The USL Super League calendar.

The Super League will transition to a spring-to-fall league in 2027 (after a fall sprint season), aligning it with the #NWSL.

USLSL president Amanda Vandervort explained why to ESPN:https://t.co/oWCav2E0mq

— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) June 5, 2026