The 2024 Major League Soccer season will be the 29th season of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

(MLS), the top professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

league in the United States and Canada, and the 46th season overall of a national first-division league in the United States. This will be the second season that Apple and MLS will be part of a ten-year partnership for the broadcast and streaming rights to all MLS and Leagues Cup games, as well as select

MLS Next MLS Next (stylized as MLS NEXT) is a youth soccer league in the United States and Canada, that is managed, organized and controlled by Major League Soccer. It was introduced by the league in 2020. It is a successor to the U.S. Soccer Developmen ...

and MLS Next Pro games, on the

MLS Season Pass MLS Season Pass is a soccer streaming television, streaming service operated by Apple Inc. which will include live matches from Major League Soccer. The service will be available in over 100 countries at launch and will feature every MLS regular s ...

service within the Apple TV app. The league's 29 teams are divided into the Eastern and Western conferences. For the first time since the 2016 season, no new

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

s will be joining MLS in 2024; San Diego FC is scheduled to join the league in 2025. Pre-season matches run from January 19 through February 17. The regular season is scheduled to begin on February 21 and end on October 19. It will be paused from mid-July to mid-August for the

2024 Leagues Cup The 2024 Leagues Cup is the upcoming fourth edition of the Leagues Cup, an international club soccer tournament contested by Major League Soccer (MLS) and Liga MX clubs in North America. It is scheduled to take place between July 26 and August ...

, which comprises all MLS and

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

teams. The 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs are scheduled to begin in October and conclude with

MLS Cup 2024 The 2024 Major League Soccer season will be the 29th season of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top professional Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada, and the 46th season overall of a national first-division league ...

on December 7. MLS announced in December 2023 that it would not send teams to the

2024 U.S. Open Cup The 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is the 109th edition of the U.S. Open Cup, the knockout domestic cup competition of American soccer. Houston Dynamo FC were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the round of 32 by Detroit City FC. ...

and instead replace them with MLS Next Pro affiliates. It would have been the first MLS season to not include U.S. Open Cup participation since the league's inception. The United States Soccer Federation later rejected this proposal and will require MLS clubs to participate. FC Cincinnati are the reigning

Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 19 ...

holders; the Columbus Crew are the reigning MLS Cup champions.

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and sponsorships

Coaching changes

Regular season

Format

The regular season will comprise 34 matches for each team, split evenly between home and away games. The opening match is scheduled for February 21, the earliest in league history; the regular season will end with Decision Day on October 19, which will comprise simultaneous intra-conference matches. Matches will be paused from July 26 to August 25 for the

, a knockout tournament that includes teams from MLS and

. The league will not pause matches for the

2024 Copa América The 2024 Copa América will be the 48th edition of the Copa América, the quadrennial international men's football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. Argentina are the defending champions. Host country ...

, which will be played in the United States from June to July. Most matches will be played on Saturdays and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. local time. The 29 teams are divided into two conferences: the Eastern and Western. The 15 teams in the East will play a round-robin format with intra-conference teams and six matches against six opponents from the West. The 14 teams in the West will play a round-robin with intra-conference teams, an additional one or two intra-conference matches, and six to seven matches against opponents from the East. The top teams in each conference will advance to the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs, which culminates with the final on December 7.

Conference standings

Overall table

The leading team in this table will win the

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2024_Major_League_Soccer_Season

Major League Soccer seasons