Major League Soccer to adopt summer-to-spring schedule starting in 2027

Major League Soccer will overhaul its schedule in 2027, shifting to a summer-to-spring season that aligns with the global soccer calendar and mirrors Europe’s top leagues. The decision came Thursday at the Board of Governors meeting in Palm Beach, where commissioner Don Garber called it one of the most significant in league history.

“There was overwhelming support for this move,” Garber said, who declined to reveal the results of the Board of Governors vote. “That was positive, but it wasn’t necessary.”

MLS currently plays on a February to November calendar, but starting in 2027, the season will begin in July and run until May of 2028. It will also observe a winter break from mid-December until early February, with no matches at all during the month of January. The shifts will allow MLS to break for FIFA international windows while also aligning the league with the global market when it comes to transfers. 

“The calendar shift is one of the most important decisions in our history,” said Garber in a press release. “Aligning our schedule with the world’s top leagues will strengthen our clubs’ global competitiveness, create better opportunities in the transfer market, and ensure our Audi MLS Cup Playoffs take center stage without interruption. It marks the start of a new era for our league and for soccer in North America.”

Currently, MLS has to use the winter transfer window to prepare for the season, while the summer transfer window is in the middle of their regular season, making it difficult to move players to Europe while also ensuring that teams are still competitive. To ease this transition, MLS plans to have a 14-game regular season from February to May of 2027, which will determine qualification for tournaments such as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, Canadian Championship, Leagues Cup, and Concacaf Champions Cup. The 2026 season will run as normal.

When asked if the league is prepared to shift to a single-table competition structure when the new calendar begins in mid-to-late July 2027, Garber told reporters he’s “not yet ready to talk about that.”

MLS isn’t the only global league undergoing a change like this, as the J-League in Japan is doing something similar. They will be making the shift in the 2026-27 season while also having a transition season to prepare for that. Adding in things like the winter break will ensure that the most extreme winter conditions that the United States has to offer will be avoided, while the summer heat is already something that they work through in the current league schedule. 

It’s a big change, but it’s one that allows teams to have their best players for games while also aligning with the rest of the world. MLS has become a bigger league in the global market with the addition of stars such as Lionel Messi and Heung-min Son, and teams needing to play without them during international breaks is almost a disadvantage to having international players on a roster. Breaking for FIFA windows means that balance will no longer be an issue. This has been a two-year process for MLS to come to a decision in taking into account information from owners, executives, players, and more.

Garber mentioned that the league has worked with the MLS Players Association during this process, but there will need to be a formal transition plan agreed upon. Changes could also be coming to the regular season and the playoffs, but those are not finalized as this time.