Thread 151929658

ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEW OVERLORDS OF FOOTBALL?

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.

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 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.

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.

>>151929658 (OP)
Is it the owners of the clubs voting on this?

>>151929687
yes, which is very surprising as half the league is northern and will see awful attendence from november through march

>>151929721
Is it possible they could make the schedule lopsided? Northern teams get more home games early and late in the season, while it shifts south during the middle?

>>151929763
sure but
>last home game mid nov next mid march
is pretty shit

>>151929658 (OP)
>Even the burger league will have a better structure than ours

>>151929763
a december to february winter break likely wont be long enough when its already snowing its some places in november, and will likely still be snowing in those places in march too.

>>151929826
sure, but since they only play once a week like NFL, it shouldn't be a huge problem. maybe they shouldn't get rid of conferences, then, and try to stagger a lot of the road games within the conference so travel isn't as harsh.

they should make the conferences their own separate leagues who only meet in the final, like how the World Series used to be
would cut down on so much travel and you can have a real, fair, legit table for eastern and western where you play everyone in your league once home and once away

>>151929858
Whats the Argentine structure like?

>>151929658 (OP)
I like this and hate it at the same time, for the simple fact that I love that I can watch my team play while all the Football is not on and I don't have to split my attention between both, they should remove salary caps and eventually put in Relegation for maximum Kino but that will be further down the line

>>151929915
absolutely retarded: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_AFA_Liga_Profesional_de_F%C3%BAtbol

>>151929658 (OP)
>my little sawker
No thanks doyle

>>151929915
Well uhhh... I couldn't even tell you who our champion was last year

>>151929875
you don't have enough southern teams though, 19 of the 30 are northern enough to be unpleasant in winter

You know, I've always wanted a USA city where literally only the mejor league soccer team is relevant.

I'd love a city with no NFL presence, without nba presente, without mlb presente and no NHL presence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer#Clubs

>Compete against football, hockey, and basketball instead of just baseball
>On a continent with some extraordinarily harsh winters
Genius

>>151929915
I could explain it but you wouldn't get it. Only advanced life forms with a colossal IQ such as pic related can fully understand it.

>>151930447
austin texas

>>151929658 (OP)
This is fucking gay

>>151929658 (OP)
>mid season break longer than the break between seasons
do JFs really?

>MLelS
holy cringe

>>151929658 (OP)
The regular season is fine the way it is with the March to September calender. The playoffs have too many teams and one single big table is retarded. MLS should follow the rest of the american leagues and have more divisions. There’s 32 MLS teams I think? Just do what NHL does and split them to divisions of 8. Only the top 2 go to playoffs and make them single elimination instead of a best of 3.

>>151933520
This is how it should be. It makes all the games more important. Right now the regular season feels like a waste of time. I love having games in the summer because it's something to do besides baseball

>>151932815
Don't forget to tip your capo

>>151933520
only 30 teams
you'd need phoenix, sacramento, vegas, okc, tampa, norleans, or detroit

>>151929865
Snow isn't the problem. Its the frigid arctic air blasts that drop temperatures 30 degrees below freezing.

>>151930699
>mls playoffs will no longer go up against the nfl on the weekends
>nba and nhl playoffs are on every day, so the attention to them isn't as strong on the weekends unlike nfl regular season games
>baseball is still early in the REGULAR season

>>151929915
They have a league with two phases, one you play everyone once, the other you play a league cup thing, then those two play eachother for the real league champion, then they also have a cup, and then they have a supercup for the two champions i think, and the relegation is decided by an average of the last 3(?) years o algo

>>151929989
>>151930065
>>151930791
>>151936347

>>151929658 (OP)
>>151929661
Well, it's an improvement. I really dislike the 2 matches vs division and 1 vs everyone else format though, the NBA has the same problem and you end up creating this very unbalanced situation where better teams who play in very strong divisions end up getting fucked in comparison to a shitty team who play in one of the shittest divisions.

IMO something like this would be better: 5 divisions of 6 teams -> 3 "tiers" -> top 8 cup with 4 from top tier, 2 from mid tier and 1 from bottom tier + last champion; but I doubt MLS franchise owners would want a tiered system kek

>>151934682
Mls playoffs are on every day, not just weekends

https://www.macrumors.com/2025/11/13/apple-tv-mls-no-extra-cost/
>Please watch our league!

>>151937308
Well I don't see any scheduled for today

>>151929658 (OP)
Waste of money. MLS should be investing every money they have into "special players" that appease to the American sports fan. Every team should have 3 dedicated yuge gorilla player spots that just outmuscles everyone else in the box and scores in basic ass tap ins. Lukaku for example. That should be the primary objective for the MLS, buy giganiggas and make commercials about it.
>you see tim smith and laquarius destine III, soccer is not actually a lady's sport, look at this giga nigga who looks like he could be in the NFL or NBA and how easily he can bully people around!!!
That or quick ngubus. Overpay stereotypes that Americans like, attract more people, then you make changes