Why the MLS schedule makes my head hurt

A three week break for any club right now isn’t exactly ideal.

Photo via FC Dallas

I know the main points of this post are going to sound like I am complaining that FC Dallas is off from competitive play for three weeks. It’s going to sound equally weird after I wrote recently about how it is a good thing that they exited from the Leagues Cup tournament early, too.

I get all of that.

In all honesty, the more I thought through things, the more I’ve come to dislike how this schedule shaped up for FC Dallas and other MLS clubs in 2024.

It’s only now that I’ve realized that the current MLS schedule, as it stands, isn’t ideal.

Schedules are a complicated thing

Making a league schedule involves ridiculous calculus. I won’t pretend to understand it or get something like ChatGPT to explain it to me like I am a five-year-old (though I do try that sometimes. It is humorous).

Here are some main factors that are involved in coming up with a schedule:

Venue availability: With soon-to-be 30 venues, the league has to still factor in those venues that share the stadium with NFL teams (see Seattle, New England, Atlanta, and Charlotte as examples), or a baseball team (we’re still looking at you NYCFC), or a local college (see Portland), women’s soccer (several MLS venues are on that list here) and weirdly enough, sharing it with the local high schools (yes, see FC Dallas for that lovely nugget). You can also toss in other non-sporting events that take place at these stadiums as well.

Weather: A good chunk of the league sits North of the ol’ Mason-Dixon Line¹ and has to deal with winter weather sometimes well into April. The southern part of the league has the summer months to deal with, like here in Texas (though the heat is starting to be a thing everywhere in the summer). You can also factor in the swapping out of types of grass at some stadiums throughout the year as part of this, too.

Rivalries: The league still loves its Rivalry Weekends, even if it does a pretty poor job of scheduling some on back-to-back weekends early in the year.

FIFA Windows: There are many of these, and the league has to contend with almost all of them. In recent years, clubs have had a bit of a say in when they want to skip a window or be on break during it.

All that to say, MLS has a lot to deal with when making the annual schedule.

The early part of the season is part of the problem

For the first couple of months in the new season, most MLS clubs had one game a week. Either every Saturday night or they’d go Saturday to Sunday to Saturday again. Either way, it was one game a week and no midweek games until May.

Part of the issue here is that MLS tends to also (and rightfully so) favor the few clubs involved in the late stages of the Concacaf Champions Cup tournament. Those clubs already have a fairly front-loaded schedule with that tournament, so the trickle-down effect may happen elsewhere.

For everyone else, though, the early part of the season may not be congested enough. You can see it on the FC Dallas schedule, as well as just about any other team. June and July are consistently congested. Six to eight games in a calendar month is rough. It's especially rough when you factor in that a lot of those games are going on in summer temperatures in parts of the country like Dallas.

The Leagues Cup break still sucks

Even if the league were to spread out the schedule a bit better in the early months of the season, the Leagues Cup is still a pain in the ass for nearly everyone involved. Yes, there is a lot on the line in terms of money and Concacaf Champions Cup qualification for the top teams in the tournament.

The fact remains that unless your club ends up in the final eight, it could be looking at a minimum of two weeks off.

Two weeks may not sound like a lot, but in terms of momentum for some clubs, it could mean a lot. You get out of the rhythm and flow of regular games and could come back to the regular season very rusty (something I do think FC Dallas will deal with later this month).

Photo via FC Dallas

So, how many games is too much for a MLS team?

I’ve been asked this a few times over the years, and even more so since the inception of the Leagues Cup and the changes to the MLS Cup Playoff format. We know the MLS rosters need to expand beyond 30 players for the teams to be able to handle more games. But what is the ‘magic number’ of games for each club in a season that doesn’t involve burnout, loads of injuries and fatigue?

Let’s look at FCD’s busiest seasons as examples here. In 2016, they played a 34-game regular season schedule, plus two playoff games, plus five US Open Cup games, and finally, plus eight Concacaf Champions League games. That is 49 games.

Say FC Dallas managed to go all the way in this year’s USOC and Leagues Cup tournaments and made it to the semifinals of the playoffs. That would be 34 games in the regular season, plus five USOC games, seven Leagues Cup games, plus four playoff games. That’s 50 games.

If you want to say, go all the way to the MLS Cup, that is just one more game, 51.

That is if you go all the way in every competition.

MLS teams should be able to handle at least 40 games a season (i.e., 34 games, plus one or two USOC games, a pair of Leagues Cup games, and a pair of playoff games).

So, how could MLS improve this?

As much as I want to say “get rid of the Leagues Cup” here, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. In non-World Cup years², the Leagues Cup is going to be very much in our lives.

No, the best way to help the schedule out comes down to a couple of things:

Fix the early part of the season: I think this is the most doable for MLS. They need to adjust their summer midweek games to be earlier in the season. So, a club’s regular season schedule in March and April wouldn’t be four games; it would be five or six. That way, once June or July roll around, they’re not playing six to eight games in a calendar month.

Don’t quit the USOC: While the US Open Cup could add to a club’s congestion, MLS really should not be in the business of quitting the tournament the way they looked to do before the 2024 season. I’d still take USOC games over the Leagues Cup any day of the week.

A full revamp to the Leagues Cup structure: I get that all of the parties involved want to get to a fun, exciting Knockout Round-style tournament as quickly as possible, but why not make the group stage a little longer? With San Diego coming on board next year, you’ll have 46 clubs, a nice even number.

You could then go from 15 groups of three clubs down to 11 groups of four. Each team would play three group games, with the top two teams advancing along with the best eight third-place teams, joining the two teams that earned a bye into the Knockout Round from winning MLS or Liga MX the year prior.

The downfall of this plan is that it adds an additional game to the tournament. Currently, an MLS team that goes all the way to the final (or third-place game) will potentially play seven games. This structure would be eight games.

But for teams that don’t make it to the Knockout Round, they would at least get an additional group stage game to play. I’ll admit, it isn’t a great solution.

Split seasons: I know there are some that want to see MLS go full Euro here and switch to a Fall to Spring schedule instead of the current Spring to Fall one. Yeah, if it hasn’t happened after almost 30 years of the league being around, I don’t see it happening any time soon. However, with the deeper connection to Liga MX, I could see a format shift that is similar to Liga MX, which is divided into two tournaments – "Apertura" and "Clausura." I’m not sure if MLS would stick to a 34-game setup in this way because a 17-game schedule also hurts my head a bit.

But say they went this route, two 17-game ‘tournaments’ that are going from late February to early or mid-October like our current calendar. That month-long break for the Leagues Cup or the World Cup would still make a ton of sense. Then you could easily do the playoffs in the fall like you are now.

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Okay, you stayed with me for all of that. Good on you. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how MLS could adjust its schedule.

1. Yes, that is still how I determine which clubs are considered “North” or “South.” You can blame it on my West Virginian roots.

2. I tried to find a source on this one, but I believe the original plan with this version of the Leagues Cup was to always take a break during World Cup years.