Major League Soccer players expressed support for the board of governors’ decision to align with the international calendar by shifting the regular season to a summer-to-spring campaign beginning in 2027.
The MLS regular season currently operates from February to October, with the playoffs held in November and December.
“It globalizes the league a little bit,” New England Revolution and U.S. men’s national team goalkeeper Matt Turner said to ESPN. “The transfer windows are the same, people are doing business at the same time, and the timing of the contracts ending and beginning is the same.
“It’s weird if I sign a contract that ends on July 31st, MLS is midseason. I don’t want to sign a contract in January in Europe, like teams aren’t necessarily looking, the budget is different in January than it is in the summer.
“I think you’ll start to see that player movement will have a lot more fluidity,” he added. “When I was trying to get over to Europe, it was so frustrating that it was the opposite calendar.
“I signed for Arsenal in January, but I didn’t go until June. And then I played a six-month season and then went into a preseason.
“Like it was hard, it was difficult, because then I never had a break, I never had a breather,” he said. “This last off season [with the New England Revolution] was my first breather in five years.”
The changes to the calendar would see the MLS regular season kick off in mid-July and run through the spring, with Decision Day being played in April and the playoffs held in May.
The league also accounted for a winter break to “prioritize player recovery” by pausing action from mid-December to early or mid-February.
Chicago Fire player Philip Zinckernagel emphasized the positive impact on player fitness and mentality by rearranging the way MLS approaches a break in the season, insisting the new calendar works better for athletes.
“For me, it’s way better to go into this change of calendar just because you have a smaller break in the summer and then you have a break in the winter. So, it’s not like this long two-month break,” Zinckernagel said to ESPN.
“Fitness wise, it’s fine, but it’s also boring. I’ve been in Europe for my whole life, and you don’t get those like two months where you are just completely off, and then you have another month and a half to two months for preseason, so it’s probably going to be a little bit different.
“If MLS wants to become one of the best leagues in the world, they had to do it at some point.”
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The league’s decision to make the shift to a summer-to-spring calendar also allows MLS to coincide with the international transfer windows. The current calendar has the MLS primary transfer window running from Jan. 31 to April 23, while most international leagues handle player transfers during a traditional summer window.
“It can definitely help open doors to go overseas but also attract guys from overseas to come to MLS. It’s a smart decision, and something a lot of people agree with,” Vancouver Whitecaps player Sebastian Berhalter said to ESPN.
MLS will continue to play from February to December in 2026 before implementing the calendar shift.
In 2027, the league will run a shortened season from February to May, when the MLS Cup champion will be crowned before the league officially shifts to a summer/spring calendar.
