Major League Soccer is the most recent in a series of men's premier professional national soccer leagues established in the United States and Canada. The predecessor of MLS was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which existed from 1968 until 1984.[6] MLS was founded in 1993 as part of the United States' successful bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup.[7]
The inaugural season took place in 1996 with ten teams.[8] MLS experienced financial and operational struggles in its first few years, losing millions of dollars and folding two teams in 2002.[9] Since then, developments such as the proliferation of soccer-specific stadiums around the league, the implementation of the Designated Player Rule allowing teams to sign star players such as David Beckham, and national TV contracts have made MLS profitable.[10]
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In 2022, with an average attendance of over 21,000 per game, MLS had the fourth-highest average attendance of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, behind the National Football League (NFL) with over 69,000 fans per game, Major League Baseball (MLB) with over 26,000 fans per game, and the Canadian Football League (CFL) with over 21,700 fans per game.[11][12] MLS was the eighth-highest attended professional soccer league worldwide by 2018.[13]
The MLS regular season typically starts in late February or early March and runs through mid-October, with each team playing 34 games;[14][15] the team with the best record is awarded the Supporters' Shield. Eighteen teams compete in the postseason MLS Cup Playoffs in late October and November, culminating in the league's championship game, the MLS Cup.[16]
Instead of operating as an association of independently owned clubs, MLS is a single entity in which each team is owned by the league and individually operated by the league's investors.[17] The league has a fixed membership like most sports leagues in the United States and Canada and Mexico's Liga MX which makes it one of the few soccer leagues that does not use a promotion and relegation process.[18]
Major League Soccer's regular season runs from late February or early March to October. Teams are geographically divided into the Eastern and Western Conferences, playing 34 games in an unbalanced schedule. With 29 teams in 2023, each team plays two games, home and away, against every team in its conference and one game against all but four or five of the teams in the opposite conference. The 2020 season was the first season in league history in which teams did not play against every other team in the league.[19] At the end of the regular season, the team with the highest point total is awarded the Supporters' Shield and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.[20]
Teams break for the annual All-Star Game midway through the season, an exhibition game containing the league's best players. The format of the All-Star Game has changed several times since the league's inception; 2020 was the first year in which the MLS All-Stars were planned to play against an all-star team from Mexico's Liga MX, before the event's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[21][22][23]
Unlike most major soccer leagues around the world, but similar to other leagues in the Americas,[24] the MLS regular season is followed by a postseason knockout tournament to determine the league champion.[25] As of 2023[update], eighteen teams participate in the MLS Cup Playoffs in October and November, which concludes with the MLS Cup championship game in early December.[26] The 2023 playoff format includes a pair of single-elimination play-in matches for the two lowest-ranked teams in each conference ahead of a best-of-three round; the round is followed by more single-elimination rounds that lead up to the MLS Cup final.[27]
Major League Soccer's spring-to-fall schedule results in scheduling conflicts with the FIFA calendar and with summertime international tournaments such as the World Cup and the Gold Cup,[28] causing some players to miss league matches.[29] While MLS has looked into changing to a fall-to-spring format, there are no current plans to do so. Were the league to change its schedule, a winter break would be necessary to accommodate teams located in harsh winter climates.[30][31][32] It would also have to compete with the popularity and media presence of the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL), which all run on fall-to-spring schedules.[32]
MLS teams also play in other international and domestic competitions. Each season, up to ten MLS teams play in the CONCACAF Champions Cup (CCC) against other clubs from the CONCACAF region. Four MLS teams qualify based on regular-season results from the previous year: the Supporters' Shield champion, the team with the highest point total from the opposite conference, and the next two clubs in the Supporters' Shield rankings. The fifth MLS team to qualify is the reigning MLS Cup champion. An additional U.S.-based MLS team can qualify by winning the U.S. Open Cup.[33] In 2024, the league will send eight teams to participate in the U.S. Open Cup instead of every U.S.-based club, with MLS Next Pro teams as representatives for some teams. MLS had announced their intention to remove itself from the tournament entirely,[34] but reached a compromise with U.S. Soccer to send representatives from clubs that were not participating in the Champions Cup, with the exception of the defending Open Cup champions.[35][36] The last three teams to qualify are the champion, runner-up, and third-place finisher of the Leagues Cup.[37] Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver compete against other Canadian sides in the Canadian Championship for the one CONCACAF Champions Cup berth allocated to Canada.[38] All three Canadian clubs may also qualify through MLS or the Leagues Cup. If an MLS team qualifies through multiple methods, the berth is reallocated to the next best team in the overall table. If the U.S. Open Cup winner qualifies through multiple methods, the runner-up fills the slot; should the runner-up qualify, the next best team in the overall table earns the slot. If the Leagues Cup champion wins the MLS Cup, the MLS Cup runner-up qualifies to the round of 16; should a Leagues Cup slot already qualify, MLS is awarded with one additional slot given to the next best non-qualified team in the overall table.[39] Seattle Sounders FC became the first MLS team to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup under the competition's updated format in 2022.[40][41]
Since 2018, the reigning MLS Cup champion plays in the Campeones Cup, a Super Cup-style single game against the Campen de Campeones from Liga MX, hosted by the MLS team in September.[42] The inaugural edition saw Tigres UANL defeat Toronto FC at BMO Field in Toronto in 2018.[43]
Another inter-league competition with Liga MX, the Leagues Cup, was established in 2019.[44] The 2020 edition of the tournament was originally planned to pair eight MLS clubs against eight Liga MX clubs in a single-elimination tournament hosted in the United States, reviving an inter-league rivalry that previously took place in the now-defunct North American Superliga, before its cancelation.[23] Beginning with the 2023 edition all MLS and Liga MX teams participate in the competition, which functions as the regional cup for the North American zone of CONCACAF.[45]
The 29 teams of Major League Soccer are divided between the Eastern and Western conferences. MLS has regularly expanded since the 2005 season, most recently with the addition of St. Louis City SC for the 2023 season.[46] San Diego FC is planned to enter the league in 2025.[47]
The league features numerous rivalry cups that are contested by two or more teams, usually geographic rivals.[48] Each trophy is awarded to the team with the best record in matches during the regular season involving the participating teams. The concept is comparable to rivalry trophies played for by American college football teams.[49]
Major League Soccer is the most recent of a series of men's premier professional national soccer leagues established in the United States and Canada. The predecessor of MLS was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which existed from 1968 until 1984.[52] The United States did not have a truly national top-flight league with FIFA-sanctioning until the creation of the NASL. The first league to have U.S. and Canadian professional clubs, the NASL struggled until the mid-1970s when the New York Cosmos, the league's most prominent team, signed a number of the world's best players including Pel and Franz Beckenbauer.[53] Pel's arrival attracted other well-known international stars to the league including Johan Cruyff, Gerd Mller, Eusbio, Bobby Moore, and George Best. Despite dramatic increases in attendance (with some matches drawing over 70,000 fans such as Soccer Bowl '78, the highest attendance to date for any club soccer championship in the United States) over-expansion, the economic recession of the early 1980s, and disputes with the players union ultimately led to the collapse of the NASL following the 1984 season, leaving the United States without a top-level soccer league until MLS.[54][55]
In 1988, in exchange for FIFA awarding the right to host the 1994 World Cup, U.S. Soccer promised to establish a Division 1 professional soccer league.[56] In 1993, U.S. Soccer selected Major League Professional Soccer (the precursor to MLS) as the exclusive Division 1 professional soccer league.[56] Major League Soccer was officially formed in February 1995 as a limited liability company.[56]
After its first season, MLS suffered from a decline in attendance.[62] The league's low attendance was all the more apparent in light of the fact that eight of the original ten teams played in large American football stadiums.[61]One aspect that had alienated fans was that MLS experimented with rules deviations in its early years in an attempt to "Americanize" the sport. The league implemented the use of shootouts to resolve tie games. MLS also used a countdown clock and halves ended when the clock reached 0:00. The league realized that the rule changes had alienated some traditional soccer fans while failing to draw new American sports fans, and the shootout and countdown clock were eliminated after the 1999 season.[63]The league's quality was cast into doubt when the U.S. men's national team, which was made up largely of MLS players, finished in last place at the 1998 World Cup.[61] 152ee80cbc
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