MLS to Launch 2027 Spring Season With 14-Match Schedule

Major League Soccer will open its new 2027 Spring Season on the weekend of February 19, beginning an abbreviated regular-season format in which every club plays 14 matches before the playoffs.

How the 2027 Spring Season will work

Each MLS side will meet every other team in its own conference once. That produces a 14-game league programme, divided evenly between seven home fixtures and seven away fixtures for each club.

Despite the shorter schedule, the postseason will carry major sporting consequences. The MLS Cup playoffs will decide places in both the CONCACAF Champions Cup and Leagues Cup, while the eventual winners will be recognised as MLS champions.

Season timeline

1. The campaign begins during the February 19 weekend, with Inter Miami hosting FC Cincinnati in South Florida in the league’s opening match.
2. Thirteen further games will follow across Saturday and Sunday of the first round. Nashville SC, the reigning Supporters’ Shield holders, will face New York City FC, while San Diego FC meet LAFC in Los Angeles in an early California contest.
3. The regular season ends on Decision Day, May 8. Eastern Conference matches will start three hours before the final Western Conference fixtures.
4. New York City FC’s meeting with the New York Red Bulls will headline the closing day, with the compact league schedule leaving scope for playoff qualification to remain unsettled until the final round.
5. The top eight clubs from each conference will advance to the playoffs after Decision Day.
6. A single-elimination postseason will establish the Eastern and Western Conference champions, who will then contest MLS Cup on Memorial Day weekend.

MLS has not yet published the complete playoff calendar.

2026 season still to finish

The league must first conclude its 2026 campaign before attention moves to the revised spring competition. Every team has two regular-season matches remaining ahead of the MLS Playoffs in November.