2018 Major League Soccer season

The 2018 Major League Soccer season was the 23rd season of Major League Soccer, top division of soccer in the United States and Canada. The regular season began on March 3, 2018 and concluded on October 28, 2018. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 31, 2018 and concluded with MLS Cup 2018 on December 8, 2018. The league took a nine-day hiatus in early June for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, reduced from previous breaks.Los Angeles FC joined the league as an expansion franchise, while D.C. United debuted their new soccer-specific stadium, Audi Field. Toronto FC were the defending Supporters' Shield champions and defending MLS Cup champions. New York Red Bulls won their third Supporters' Shield, with a league record 71 points, while Atlanta United FC won their first MLS Cup in their second year in the league.

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2019 Major League Soccer season

The 2019 Major League Soccer season was the 24th season of Major League Soccer. The regular season began on March 2, 2019 and ended on October 6. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 19 and concluded with MLS Cup 2019 on November 10, under a new format that included 14 teams and consisted only of single-match rounds.FC Cincinnati joined the league as an expansion franchise, bringing the total number of clubs to 24. Minnesota United FC opened their first soccer-specific stadium, Allianz Field, on April 13.Atlanta United FC were the defending MLS Cup champions, while New York Red Bulls were the defending Supporters' Shield winners.Los Angeles FC won their first Supporters' Shield with an MLS single-season record 72 points, while Seattle Sounders FC won their second MLS Cup title.

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2020 Major League Soccer season

The 2020 Major League Soccer season was the 25th season of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. The regular season began on February 29, 2020, and was originally planned to end on October 4, 2020. The MLS Cup Playoffs were planned to begin later that month and would end with MLS Cup 2020 on November 7. On March 12, 2020, the season entered a lengthy suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North America, following the cancellation of several matches. On May 1, the league announced that players would be allowed to resume individual outdoor training at MLS facilities on May 6. The COVID-19 pandemic was the first interruption of regular season play since the 2001 MLS season, in which many late regular season games were canceled due to the September 11 attacks. On June 10, MLS announced that a bracket format dubbed the "MLS is Back Tournament" would begin July 8 at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Walt Disney World, and end with the final on August 11. The tournament was eventually won by the Portland Timbers, who as a result earned a berth in the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League. The regular season later resumed a day after the tournament finished, and concluded on November 8. The playoffs began on November 20, 2020, with MLS Cup 2020 now being played on December 12.The 2020 season saw the addition of two expansion clubs, Inter Miami CF and Nashville SC, which took Major League Soccer to 26 total teams.

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2021 Major League Soccer season

The 2021 Major League Soccer season was the 26th season of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. The 2021 season included the addition of Austin FC as an expansion club, which took the league to 27 teams. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the season was originally scheduled to begin on April 3, as opposed to the normal late February or early March start. This was later pushed back to April 16, which is the latest ever start to an MLS season. The regular season concluded on November 7. The 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs began on November 20, and concluded with MLS Cup 2021 on December 11. At the beginning of the season, COVID-19 cross-border restrictions imposed by the Canadian government has also made the Canadian teams to play their home matches in the United States from the start of the season, while also sharing stadiums with other American MLS teams. On July 14, MLS announced that a select Toronto FC and CF Montréal matches would be played in Canada while working with the Canadian government on how the matches were to be held. Nearly a week later, the MLS announced that the Canadian teams would play home matches in Canada in August 2021.The Columbus Crew were the defending champions, having defeated Seattle Sounders FC in MLS Cup 2020 but was eliminated from playoffs during the regular season, while the Philadelphia Union were the defending Supporters' Shield winners. The New England Revolution won their first Supporters' Shield, in the process breaking the record for most regular season points collected.

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2022 Major League Soccer season

The 2022 Major League Soccer season is the 27th season of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. It saw the addition of 28th club Charlotte FC. The regular season began on February 26 and will conclude on October 9. The MLS Cup Final is scheduled to occur on November 5, sixteen days prior to the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. New York City FC entered the season as defending champions, having defeated the Portland Timbers in MLS Cup 2021. The New England Revolution entered the season as the reigning Supporters' Shield winners.

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Expansion of Major League Soccer

Expansion of Major League Soccer has occurred several times since the league began play in 1996. Major League Soccer was established as the top level of professional soccer in the United States in 1993 with 10 teams and began play in 1996. It has expanded several times since 1998 into new markets across the United States and, since 2006, Canada. Charlotte FC became the 28th team in the league in 2022. The league planned to reach 30 teams with the addition of Sacramento Republic FC and St. Louis City SC in 2023; however, Sacramento's addition was put on indefinite hold. It may expand to 32 teams at a later date. Expanding and establishing a larger national reach is seen as essential to securing television rights fees needed to reach MLS's initially stated goal of becoming one of the top leagues in the world by 2022.In 2013, New York City FC agreed to pay a record $100 million expansion fee for the right to join MLS in 2015. This record was surpassed by the ownership groups of FC Cincinnati and Nashville SC, which each paid $150 million to join MLS (FC Cincinnati in 2019 and Nashville in 2020). The same amount was paid as an effective entrance fee by a group that bought Columbus Crew SC in 2018, which led to that team's previous operator receiving a new team in Austin, Texas, that joined MLS in April 2021.

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List of Major League Soccer stadiums

Major League Soccer (MLS) is the premier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. The league has 28 teams in 28 stadiums as of the 2022 season: 25 in the United States and 3 in Canada. At the time of the league's inauguration in 1996, MLS teams used multi-purpose stadiums, often shared with National Football League (NFL) or college football teams. Because of lower attendance, these stadiums had rows of seats covered in tarps to limit capacity. Starting in 1999 with the Columbus Crew's construction of Historic Crew Stadium, the league has constructed soccer-specific stadiums which are tailor-made for soccer and which have smaller capacity. Today, the majority of MLS stadiums are soccer-specific stadiums. While the league's early stadiums relied heavily on public financing, several modern soccer-specific stadiums have been majority-funded by clubs and their owners.The league's soccer-specific stadiums, with the exception of Providence Park in Portland, Oregon, have grass playing surfaces. The remaining stadiums with artificial turf surfaces are mostly used by teams sharing their venues with other sports, including American football.As with the other major North American sports leagues, the majority of MLS stadiums have sold their naming rights to corporations. BC Place, Soldier Field, and Yankee Stadium are the only current MLS stadiums without a corporate-sponsored name.

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Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 28 teams—25 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada—and will expand to 29 teams for the 2023 season. The league is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. Major League Soccer is the most recent in a series of men's premier professional national soccer leagues established in the United States and Canada. The predecessor of MLS was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which existed from 1968 until 1984. MLS was founded in 1993 as part of the United States' successful bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The inaugural season took place in 1996 with ten teams. MLS experienced financial and operational struggles in its first few years, losing millions of dollars and folding two teams in 2002. Since then, developments such as the proliferation of soccer-specific stadiums around the league, implementation of the Designated Player Rule allowing teams to sign star players such as David Beckham, and national TV contracts have made MLS profitable. With an average attendance of over 20,000 per game, MLS has the fourth-highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the U.S. and Canada after the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB), and Canadian Football League (CFL) and was the seventh-highest attended professional soccer league worldwide by 2013.The MLS regular season typically starts in late February or early March and runs through mid-October, with each team playing 34 games; the team with the best record is awarded the Supporters' Shield.

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Major League Soccer All-Star Game

The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from Liga MX. MLS initially adopted a traditional all-star game format used by other North American sports leagues where the Eastern Conference squared off against the Western Conference. This eventually evolved into the current system where the league annually invites a club from abroad to play against a league all-star team in a friendly match. The MLS All-Stars hold a 9–7 record in the competition marking the season's midpoint. Players are awarded rosters spots through a combination of fan voting and selections by the appointed manager and league commissioner. In case of a tie after full-time, the game does not use a 30-minute extra time period; instead it goes straight to a penalty shoot-out. The match is preceded by a skills challenge tournament, which was introduced in 2018 and features three-player teams competing in various events. The All-Star Game also runs parallel to the Major League Soccer Homegrown Game, which debuted in 2014.

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Major League Soccer attendance

Major League Soccer is the premier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. Competition began in 1996 and MLS attendance has grown rapidly since the early 2000s, making it one of the fastest-growing sports leagues in the world. The average attendance of 21,692 in 2016 was a 57% increase over the 13,756 average in 2000. The total attendance of 7,375,144 in 2016 is more than triple the 2,215,019 total of 2002. Similar to Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League, attendance is based on the number of tickets distributed.

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