Thanks to extended labor negotiations that eventually produced an amended CBA late last week, MLS will push back the start of its regular season by two weeks to the weekend of April 17-18. The shift will give clubs more time to prepare, but it will cause significant schedule congestion as MLS tries to fit 34 regular season games and four additional competitions into a seven-month window.
Prior to the shift revealed Wednesday by commissioner Don Garber, the MLS playoffs were set to begin Nov. 19 and the MLS Cup final was scheduled for Dec. 11. A change to those dates wasn’t announced, nor was a new date for the start of training camps.