MLS commissioner Don Garber says potential fall to spring schedule change still in discussion, adds USMNT have 'high expectations' at 2026 World Cup

A change in the scheduling format for Major League Soccer - with a move to a fall-to-spring calendar - may be coming following the 2026 FIFA World Cup. MLS commissioner Don Garber spoke on the topic ahead of the 2024 MLS Cup final in Carson, California, saying that any change would be "complicated," but that the bodies around MLS and U.S. Soccer have "ongoing work" around a potential change.

Speaking at the Sports Business Journal's Business of Soccer conference this week, Garber - along with CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani - covered a plethora of American soccer topics, and the commissioner revisited the schedule change. Logical concerns about winter in the U.S., particularly with teams in the north such as Minnesota, Montreal, and Toronto - among others - were acknowledged, but a potential change is still on the table.

“Let’s just be obvious - having playoffs in May is probably better than having them in December, where we’re competing against college football and NFL football and lots of other things,” Garber said. “So we’re going to do the work... Nelson Rodriguez runs our competition group meeting with owners and chief soccer officers and chief business officers going through the math. And once we get through all that, we’ll then have to take it to that process of governance and figuring out whether it makes sense for the enterprise.”

Although any change would not arrive until after the 2026 season, buildup to the 2026 World Cup has been a priority for both CONCACAF and MLS, with the tournament being hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“We have this opportunity with our [USMNT] - as the women have been able to achieve with so many World Cup victories - to have it be entirely about sport,” said Garber. “You have to have that. If the U.S. team doesn’t do well, it certainly is going to be a disappointment because of the high expectations.”

Montagliani, meanwhile, said that CONCACAF as a whole has an expectation to perform in the event at a competitive level, in both the Group Stage and the knockout rounds.

“I expect eight of our countries to be in there - six direct and two playoff for them to come out of the group,” said Montagliani. “Two of them to get to the quarterfinal and one of them to get to minimally the semifinal.”

Amid some worries that North America may not be prepared to host the event, Garber shrugged off the notion.

“I don’t really worry much about that,” Garber said. “I’ve been in the event business for a really, really long time. The fear and loathing of what you have to do, and then all the challenges of ensuring you’re managing your plan always happen, but it always pulls off.”

No CONCACAF nation has ever won the World Cup, and no team has ever made it past the quarterfinals. In 1970 and 1986, Mexico made it to the stage, as did the U.S. in 2002 and Costa Rica in 2014.

Matchday 5 of the 2025 MLS season kicks off Saturday, while the USMNT report back to the pitch on Sunday in the the third-place match of the CONCACAF Nations League finals.

Mauricio Pochettino's men meanwhile take on Jesse Marsch's Canada in the contest.