The MLS season in 2026 is the final season before the league moves to a summer-to-spring schedule to mirror European Leagues in 2027, and we now know what that schedule will look like. The MLS regular season will kick off on February 21 with St. Louis City SC hosting Charlotte FC and run until Nov. 7. With the FIFA World Cup taking place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the league will pause for the tournament, which is expected to feature a host of talent from MLS.
Diego Luna, Miles Robinson, Sebastian Berhalter, Alex Freeman, and Cristian Roldan have all been making major contributions to Mauricio Pochettino’s squad, while Son Heung-Min captains South Korea and Lionel Messi captains Argentina. This is before even getting into the contributions to the Canadian national team and beyond. As talent levels have risen around the league the need to pause for FIFA breaks has also risen, so the World Cup will offer a perfect time to pause.
Key dates
The full MLS schedule can be found here.
- Season kick off: Feb. 21, 2026
- Inter Miami’s first game at Miami Freedom Park: Apr. 4, 2026
- MLS World Cup break: May 25- July 16
- MLS All-Star Game: July 29
- Decision Day 2026: Nov. 7
Miami Freedom Park to open
We already saw Lionel Messi sign a contract extension to stay with the Herons at the construction site for the new stadium, and it now has a date for its first game. The Herons will play their first match at Miami Freedom Park on April 4. While the team will look a little different at that stage following the retirement of Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, but with Messi leading the way, the goal will be to bring silverware to the new stadium. With Miami in the Eastern Conference semifinals taking on FC Cincinnati, there is a chance that they can end things in Chase Stadium with a trophy as well to close out the current era on a high.
Shifting the playoffs
Currently, the MLS Cup playoffs see teams observe the November international break after the first round of play is complete. That has meant that a team like the Philadelphia Union will spend 21 days without playing a match before the Eastern Conference semifinals. That won’t be the case next season as the league will begin the playoffs after the November international break. There hasn’t been an announcement of if there will be changes to the current format, but they could be coming as the league will announce the full competition structure at a later date.
All-Star festivities in Charlotte
After Austin was the site for the midseason party this year, the MLS All-Star game will take place in Charlotte. The Skills Challenge will take place on July 28, with the All-Star game being on July 28. For the past few seasons, MLS has faced the Liga MX All-Stars, but the opponent will be announced at a later date.
