In addition to significantly impacting the 2020 season, the coronavirus pandemic has another knock-on effect on MLS: delaying the entry of three of the four expansion teams lined up to join the league.
Charlotte (slated to join in 2021) and St. Louis and Sacramento (2022) have had their entry dates pushed by a year, slowing the league's rapid growth and extending the expansion to 30 teams until 2023. Austin FC will join as scheduled, becoming the league's 27th team in 2021.
The reasoning centers on the pandemic's impact on the ability for stadiums to either be built or renovated and for staffs to be assembled in the three markets that have been forced to endure the yearlong delays.