Official: 2026 Roster/Rumors/Signings/Speculation Thread

Agree with Mbar! And if the Galaxy can't keep Diego, they would be better off giving those minutes to Wynder and then Sanabria. I have never understood the seemingly irrational props being given to a player who was past his prime when he left the Galaxy after the.2021 season. The fact is Seb hasn't scored more than 2 goals in a season since leaving. And if you look at his career totals after his peak year of 2015 its 22 goals in 11 seasons.

 

Not sure where to put this... from the Athletic

PALM BEACH, Fla. — MLS owners are expected to vote Thursday on two major changes to the league’s operations and structure.

Barring last-minute snags and final discussions and agreements with the MLS Players Association, the board of governors is prepared to make official a change to a fall-spring calendar that syncs up with many top European leagues, according to multiple sources briefed on the agenda. In addition, the league will likely vote on changes to the competition format. The proposal would see MLS move to a single-table system – one that also incorporates five divisions, more on that below – rather than two conferences.

The board meets Thursday in Florida.

While there is an expectation for a vote, however, there is also caution. The league’s owners have essentially moved toward this moment since May’s board meeting in Chicago. Many owners wanted these changes to be put in place for 2026. Still, no official vote has taken place yet, which leaves open the pessimistic possibility that MLS will once again not bring an official vote to the table.

The league, though, is nearing the deadline for when it must decide to flip the calendar if it expects to make the changes in time for the 2027 season. Teams need time to structure sponsorship and commercial deals around the change, as well as inform season ticket holders and suite holders. A vote would have to occur by March to give the league the best chance to implement the new calendar, sources said.

The league has been in discussions with the MLSPA about the change, which would impact players’ vacation days and preseason schedule. Any change would require the union’s blessing.

The plan is for the MLS regular season to span from mid-to-late July or August to April, with playoffs staged in May. The league would take a winter break in December and January. Games would likely pause from around the second week in December through the first or third week in February. MLS understandably is trying to avoid restarting the league on Super Bowl weekend.

There would also be a summer break in June and July.

“We believe that that alignment is something that makes sense,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said at the MLS All-Star Game this summer.

MLS commissioner Don Garber spoke about potential massive changes to the league’s structure this summerStacy Revere / Getty Images
The change would have important ramifications on two areas of the business. On the sporting side, it would sync MLS up with the primary and secondary windows with much of the rest of the world. The vast majority of global transfers take place during the summer window, which currently falls in the middle of the MLS season.

Moving to a fall-spring calendar would open MLS up to take far greater advantage of free transfers, while also maximizing value as both buyers and sellers. MLS teams often hit roadblocks trying to sign players in their primary winter window, which falls in the middle of many European calendars. It also causes issues for teams looking to sell players in the summer, when values are highest, because it can disrupt a team’s trajectory in the middle of the season.

Technical executives at clubs around MLS were nearly unanimous in their support of a calendar change because of the impact it could have from a sporting perspective.

On the business side, a calendar change would move the league’s most valuable property, the playoffs, to a far more attractive window in the spring — both for in-person and television viewing. The playoffs would no longer be up against college and pro football, and, importantly, would not be disrupted anymore by a FIFA international window.

The Vancouver Whitecaps and LAFC won their respective opening round playoff series on Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. They won’t play in the conference semifinal against each other until Nov. 22 — a three-week break between games.

The league has to work through the challenges posed to northern markets in the winter months, including likely changes needed at some training facilities and stadiums. The increase in expansion markets in warmer climates, though, should decrease some of the concern. The schedule also syncs pretty closely to the current MLS schedule when including playoffs. Northern markets that qualified for the playoffs have shown they are capable of staging home games in colder months — teams like the New England Revolution and Minnesota United have hosted playoff games in November in recent years, while Toronto FC hosted MLS Cup in December 2016 and 2017 and Columbus hosted MLS Cup in December 2020 and 2023.

“There are a number of key benefits to it aligning with the world standard we think is important for our brand as we try to continue to engage as one of the important, influential leagues in the world,” Garber said. “We want to align on the calendar to be able to be even more engaged on the player transfer market this year, by year end, we could have $150 million in player sales. Compare that to where we were years ago. Imagine what that will be when we’re aligned on the international calendar.

“We also have our most important games in the busiest part of the calendar, right? And I think where we are today in the winter might be very different from when the league was founded. The league continues to have its Cup later and later and later in December, and that is a challenge that has got to be addressed. And then, very importantly, how do we ensure that when we make that decision, our facilities are ready for it, our fans are ready for it, and our corporate partners are ready for it.”

MLS will also vote on changes to the regular season format.

The plan is to move the league to a single-table format, but that also includes five divisions, sources said. MLS currently plays with two conference tables. The divisions would be organized geographically, and teams would play home and away against divisional rivals. The divisions would essentially operate almost as a secondary competition and objective for teams, with no substantive impact on playoff seeding other than that division winners would be guaranteed a playoff spot. (Though it would be unlikely a team that wins the division wouldn’t already be qualified for the playoffs via the single table.)

Teams would then play the other 24 teams in the league once, either home or away, for 34 total games.

Owners are also currently still finalizing changes to the postseason format, but have not yet finalized plans for the change to the playoff structure. Several formats have been discussed, including one that runs similarly to the Australian Football League finals, where higher seeds play “qualifying games” against each other, which gives those higher seeds a second game against lower seeds if they lose the first match, while lower seeded teams play elimination games from the start.

Sources emphasized the postseason format is still being debated.

“It’ll be great, and it’s going to make the regular season more meaningful,” Garber said this summer, without confirming any details of the changes. “It’ll be more aligned with the rest of the world in terms of how they play their competition, and I think our playoff format will be really cool, really unique, very different from anything that happens in North America.”

 

Ok, just thinking this through: Five divisions....

I. Atlantic New England Revolution, NYCFC, NY Red Bulls, Philadelphia Union, D.C. United, Charlotte FC

Northeast derbies (NYCFC vs. NYRB, New England vs. NY, Philly vs. NY), Mid-Atlantic grouping.

II. Central CF Montréal, Toronto FC, Columbus Crew, FC Cincinnati, Chicago Fire FC, Nashville SC

Canadian Classique (MTL vs. TOR), Hell Is Real (CLB vs. CIN), Great Lakes/Ohio Valley core.

III. Gulf & South Atlanta United, Orlando City SC, Inter Miami CF, Austin FC, Houston Dynamo FC, FC Dallas

Sunshine Clasico (ORL vs. MIA), Texas Triangle (DAL vs. HOU vs. ATX), Atlanta as a southern anchor.

IV. Cascadia & Rocky Mtn. Seattle Sounders FC, Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Colorado Rapids, Real Salt Lake, Minnesota United FC

Cascadia Cup (SEA vs. POR vs. VAN), Rocky Mountain Cup (COL vs. RSL). Minnesota is the closest Midwest anchor.

V. Pacific LA Galaxy, LAFC, San Jose Earthquakes, San Diego FC, Sporting Kansas City, St. Louis City SC

California Clasico (LAG vs. SJ), El Tráfico (LAG vs. LAFC). SKC and STL are the two closest Midwest teams to complete the division.

Alternatively, swap RSL/COL with SKC/STL.

 

Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to include the STD cup (the Wiz vs. the Burn).

 

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This alignment (ignore the funny guesses at sponsorship) is the one I've seen most floated around. I think its a good one. The only rivalry really split up is Galaxy - EArthquakes. Protects all others.

What's nice about the planned realignment is that in division you'll play home and away but every other team in the league you'll meet once. So no more seasons where you only see the 4-5 teams from the other conference.

I like that a lot. I'm willing to sacrifice one Earthquake match a year if that's the format they go with.

I'm warming to the idea but it's easy for us sitting in beautiful SoCal to not worry about the most dire consequences facing most of the rest of the league.

 

this sounds to me like what LigaMX currently does with their Apertura/Clausura minus crowning two different Champions or what the Bundesliga does for winter break

these long breaks annoyed me when it involved the Galaxy because I would focus on other sports and things and I'd have to remind myself the Galaxy are still playing and I'd have to go back to LA Galaxy mode, this year I'll just come check the scores here and I follow MLS more than a casual fan, so I can only imagine how many fans MLS loses with these long breaks, most casual fans won't be bothered to come back as other interests take hold and from what I recall it takes three weeks to form a habit, so with this much time off, it gives fans other habits to form that don't include MLS playoffs

I'm all for positive changes to the league, however if they really want to take the next step towards the big boy leagues, they need to scrap the archaic and asisine financial constraints and open up the league so they can compete globally, I think the fear of the league folding due to lack of support and financial instability is long gone and the MLS handcuffs should go along with it.

 

Schedule format change approved. Starting summer 2027, MLS takes a break from mid-Dec to early to mid-February, with season beginning in mid-July and running to end of May

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now that it's confirmed, they should have just borrowed the Apertura/Clausura format from LigaMX, have two champions and then have each champion face off in a Super Bowl type game, to be crowned the overall champion for that year, I would definitely tune in to that.

 

Do I understand this correctly? After the 2026 MLS Cup in early December of 2026, MLS goes on a 7 month break with no games until mid-July. Does the Leagues Cup go away?

 

I still think something happened to him with that foot injury. He just was never the same player since then

 

that's a great question,
the only three options that come to mind would be start the season as they did in 2026, stop the league in June and get on the schedule as they say beginning summer of 2027 or they do a MLS Tournament like they did during that covid year just to fill in the gap or go dormant till July, which I would be mildly shocked if they did that.

 

Interesting news. I like the idea of aligning the calendar to most of the footballing world’s.

You can’t flip like this without some chaos though. The 2026 and/or 2027 season is bound to be a weird one.

 

I agree that he was never the same after he suffered the fracture in March of 2017. His best year (2015) was his first in MLS. He had another good year in 2020 but was never able to maintain/regain that level of performance for the Galaxy or another club.

 

7th and 8th stars in next 18 months

 

the duality of man, and proof I will forever be a pessimist, I was thinking that the Galaxy could pull off the first 0-14 season in history

 

Sigh I hate the way we soccer loving Americans have always felt the incessant need to constantly compare ourselves to Europe when it comes to this sport right down to the long standing wish of moving this league over to the exact same schedule as UEFA. I say if anything sync up with the schedule of Mexico and/or the South American leagues and spend the majority of the time poaching those leagues for talent during transfer windows. But hey I get it. I get it. Real Madrid is cool. Manchester United is cool. AC Milan is cool. Bayer Leverkusen is cool. That being said guys like Messi, Ronaldinho, Rodrigo DePaul, Luis Suarez and Neymar were all on this side of the pond first and could have all come here before Europe if the money was right from day one.
Oh well,...whatever,...
All I ask is that the All Star Game keep remaining a thing and that the league doesn't at some point start doing the same goofy crap that the NFL has been doing by playing multiple league games exclusively in Europe. Yes those games are scheduled as away games for the teams participating however that still means that a local stateside fan is going to be forced to watch that game on TV instead of in person no matter how you slice it.

 

Nope gotta be like UEFA because they are the bestest ever.

 

A transition season? Good grief they are ultimately going to make the switch full bore anyway. But fine; if this makes all the players and owners happy it's all whatever to me. I just wanna watch my team play.

 

For those who like to see things graphically and not in words, here is LA Galaxy's depiction of the season. I'm trying to understand how the winter break will work without break it up into two seasons. I can understand how teams with bad starts to the season can use it to regroup and bring in new players, but top teams will have trouble keeping in form during that period.

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I get your disappointment with MLS going to the European calendar but I think they have to do it if they want to become a big player in the World of Soccer, my issue is that since they're going this route, they need to shed the financial shackles to really take the next step, till they do that, they'll still be a Mickey Mouse league, the best I can hope for is they see that its beneficial for them to open up the pocket book for the long term health of the league

 

I have these same concerns, if they're going with the European calendar, they can at least tweak it and adopt the LigaMX format, they get the best of both worlds, better opportunities at getting quality players in Europe and splitting the season into two sessions to drum up interest from fanbases who have short attention spans

if the 2 session system was in place this past year, us as Galaxy fans would have only have to have suffered through one session and the way they played the second half they could have been contenders, to me that would have been far more exciting than what we as fans went through this year.

 

I wonder if the Leagues Cup gets moved to that winter window. Plenty of time to get it done.