Garber: MLS won't rush 'seismic' calendar shift

MLS commissioner Don Garber reiterated that a change to the league's calendar will not likely come until after the 2026 World Cup, insisting that a "seismic" shift like that would take time to implement.

Garber teased the possibility of aligning MLS with the FIFA calendar, seeing a fall to spring schedule instead of the current February to December timeline the league has employed since it first began play in 1996.

"We continue to evaluate the potential for a transition to the FIFA International Match calendar," Garber told media ahead of the MLS All-Star Game. "We're not making any announcements today, but we continue to do an enormous amount of work with our fans, with our partners, with all of our chief soccer officers and with our clubs to get ourselves closer to the point we're able to make that decision. But we believe that that alignment is something that makes sense.

"If it's going to happen, it's going to happen after the 2026 World Cup. So making this change is seismic. It's not something we should do lightly. We obviously have teams across multiple climate zones, multiple time zones, unlike any other league in the world. So I would rather get it right and take our time than get it wrong and do it quickly, because life's a long time when it comes to something like your schedule."

Garber added that league officials will continue to rethink the calendar while considering a new roster strategy and possible changes to the competition format. Several club owners and general managers previously expressed frustration over the league's strict roster restrictions, claiming the rules hinder the league's growth and competition on an international setting.

The MLS commissioner addressed the potential of different regulations put in place to appease teams and facilitate more ambitious squads.

"As we're going into CBA negotiations, it is time for us to rethink as we're developing the future of our league, what our roster strategy should be," Garber said. "We're looking at an evolution of our competition format that looks at a different structure to our regular season. Think of different structures for conferences to think of a different playoff format that we think will be something that will maximize the competitiveness of our league, make it more that every regular season game counts even more than it does today and engage our fans.

"We have rules because we're looking at data. We're evaluating where we fit and how our allocation of resources can help our league move forward. Now, if the objective is to win the Club World Cup, which it is, we just have to figure out how to manage that within the overall economic environment that exists today. So what I would say is all revenue and costs are related and strategy and decision making is, strategy should drive decision making and we will continue to evolve in ways that will move this leap forward."

When asked if the league would consider employing a two-tournament season, like the Liga MX Clausura and Apertura format, Garber said it was too early to discuss the specifics.

"It's too early to talk about that [possibility of divisions or a Clausura/Apertura structure]," Garber said. "We've got a really exciting format that will be ready to present once we go through all the formalities of it and we'll talk about that sometime either before or at the end of the year press conference, but it'll be great.

"And it's gonna make the regular season more meaningful. It'll be more aligned with the rest of the world in terms of how they play their competition."

MLS currently plays a 34-game regular season followed by a playoff tournament, where the top seven teams from each conference advance directly to compete in a first round best-of-three series before moving on to a knockout format to reach the final. The teams ranked eighth and ninth in each conference compete in a playoff series to qualify for the playoffs.

Garber also revealed that MLS Cup will be on Dec. 6 this year, with the match to be hosted by the highest seed to come out of the two conferences.