Should MLS follow a Winter or Summer Schedule?

Oh, I agree it would not be easy, or cheap to put a roof on the cold weather club's stadiums, just that MLS will really need to account for it as a result of this calendar change.

As far as BC places retractable roof, here's a video of it closing for anyone that hasn't seen it. It, again, would not be cheap or easy to add to existing stadiums (and it wasn't for BC Place either), but it is an option I think cold weather clubs will consider over having a dome, or just a partial roof like Red Bull Arena and others have.

 

Anyone who can spare $800 million can have one just like BC Place.

 

That $800 million went to a lot more than just the roof.

 

Well, it's not a full roof, so partial works? Heh. Regardless. You are 100% correct. Cold weather clubs will have to modify their stadium (some more than others) to account for the cold games and/or their fans will have to adjust to going to cold games (or not).

I somehow missed that RBA changed its name.

 

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I am pretty sure if MLS has been looking at this for a couple years, they have done their homework.
Their numbers said do it, so they did it.

 

I'll give an example. I went to college in the Adirondack Mountains in Northern New York State. 25+ years ago (GD I'm getting OLD!!!) it was normal for the HIGH temperature to not get above zero from late January to mid/late February. There we weeks where the LOE yemperature was -30F. With highs in the single negative digits. Fast forward to present day, this is no longer the case there. Sure it's still cold that time of year, however, the average temps (highs and lows) are significantly warmer today then they were 25-30 years ago.

https://www.paulsmiths.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/REPORTNo.1ADIRONDACKCLIMATE2024.pdf

I grew up just outside of Syracuse, ny. It was common growing up to get between 100"-130" of snow each winter. Nowadays it's more like 75" each winter. With snow events followed by thaw events. Instead of snow just piling up until spring.

I've lived outside of Philly for the past 20 years, and it's been probably a decade since we have had a significant snow event. It rarely snows here (I'm not complaining just making an observation).

You're both right. My armchair observations: it looks like the midwest is colder and snowier in the winter, and some of the "northern south east" states are colder, wetter, and snowier in the winter now. The Northeast is warmer and wetter, with less snow. The extreme events are more extreme. The Philly area has had as many Tornadoes in the past few years than they had in previous 50 years combined. Winters are shorter now, or at least they seem shorter. We see more days in the Fall with high temps in the range of 80-90 degrees than in the past. The West, specifically CA, WA, OR are seeing more extreme weather events than I remember from my younger days.

 

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Agree with almost all of this /\
This is why the league needs to take SUMMER into consideration just as much as WINTER.
The players prefer cool/cold (not frigid), but I don't know many prefer 100 degrees+ humid + water breaks etc.
Fans of course are a different issue.
Good fans of the game and their team will adjust.
The league just needs to work on minimizing the extremes.

The sad part is, I really dislike the Leagues Cup. I know MLS thinks it's important.
But dropping that tournament and a rearranged playoff format (not dragged out over weeks) should also make for more flexibility in the scheduling. The league really hasn't said what they are doing, but I am prepared for yet
another weird schedule to accommodate all these various games.

 

The playoffs are dragged out because a. of the FIFA break and b. to give every team a home match, though I think that's just a consequence of a.

The playoffs could over with in 3 weeks without an international break.

 

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USL had the proper playoff- 16 teams, 4 rounds , highest seed home to the end
Final is next week and closes out the year before Thanksgiving.

 

Yup just perfect..... played through the international window like a proper first division league too!

 

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I don't think they have quite the same problem with that
Would love to know if there are stats out there how many players from USL-C and USL-1 for that matter get calls to their respective national teams say compared to MLS.
What little media I see of USL it almost seems like a major deal when one of their players gets a call up.

 

Teams in the lower leagues in Europe can ask to sit out the international break if they have too many players called up. Notts County sat out the October break because we had 4 first teamers called up but not the November one.

Haiti had 4 USL players in their most recent squad, Guatemala 2, and I'm not going to go through the rest.

 

During the summer, only competition is baseball (which is going to be in arbitrary hell in 2027, and would have left a void), racing (which largely doesn't have a lot of overlap unless it's Formula One), and the WNBA, which is starting to get an audience at last. The fall to winter schedule is much more compact with established sports.