MLS Sets 14-Game Sprint Season Before Calendar Shift
MLS released its 2027 sprint-season schedule on October 29, with all 30 teams playing 14 games from February to May before a single-elimination playoff and MLS Cup.
Major League Soccer’s 2027 regular season will be cut to 14 games per team as the league prepares to move to a summer-to-spring calendar. The sprint season begins the weekend of February 19-21 and ends May 8, with each club facing every opponent in its conference once, split evenly between home and away matches.
The shorter schedule means 210 regular-season games across the league, compared with the usual 510. Inter Miami is set to open the campaign at home against FC Cincinnati on February 19. Philadelphia Union’s first game is at home against Chicago on February 20, while Atlanta United opens against Toronto that day.
Eight clubs from each conference earn spots in a single-match knockout playoff. The MLS Cup final is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, May 28-31, with its specific date still to be set. The sprint season will also determine places in the 2028 CONCACAF Champions Cup and Leagues Cup.
All matches will stream on Apple TV, without local blackouts. The league has not yet set the playoff format for the full season that follows.
The sprint schedule is a bridge to MLS’s new calendar, which begins with the 2027-28 season in July 2027 and runs through May 2028. The shift is intended to bring the league’s playing schedule closer to those of major European competitions and better fit the international and summer transfer calendars.