Everything is ready for the start of the 2025 MLS season on Saturday, February 22, with a special celebration for MLS as it seeks to become the fifth major professional league in the United States. To that end, the league officially introduces its 30th franchise, San Diego FC on its MLS is Back weekend
The kickoff will be headlined by the defending Supporters’ Shield champions,Inter Miami, against New York City FC. Sunday’s opening day will close with the presentation of San Diego FC in MLS, in an attractive visit to the home of the MLS Cup champion, LA Galaxy at 19:00 ET/16:00 PT
A nod to the inaugural MLS season
To commemorate its 30th season, the 2025 regular season schedule has scheduled some references to the league’s inaugural 1996 season schedule. The first of these will be on April 6, when the San Jose Earthquakes host DC United in a rematch of the league’s first game
In addition, on July 12, the first two MLS Cup finalists, LA Galaxy and DC United, will meet at Dignity Health Sports Park.
2025 MLS All-Star Game
The city of Austin will host the 2025 MLS All-Star Game at Q2 Stadium on Wednesday, July 23. The Skills Challenge will take place on Tuesday, July 22. In the coming weeks, details and participants for the Skills Challenge and the league’s All-Star opponent for the 2025 MLS All-Star Game will be announced
The league also included MLS Rivalry Week in two rounds: May 14-18 and includes the league’s biggest rivalries. To kick off this week, St. Louis CITY SC will host Sporting Kansas City at Energizer Park. On Saturday, May 17, six intense rivalry matches will be played, highlighted by the Big Apple derby, with the New York Red Bulls visiting New York City FC at Citi Field
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, the Portland Timbers will host Seattle Sounders FC at Providence Park where both teams will contest the Cascadia Cup
On Sunday, June 18, Orlando City SC visits Chase Stadium in the Florida derby against Inter Miami and in the Clasico del Trafico, LAFC will visit LA Galaxy
Another important date is Saturday, May 10, when the Red Bulls host the LA Galaxy in a rematch of the 2024 MLS Cup at Sports Illustrated Stadium, in the Galaxy’s first visit to Harrison, New Jersey, since May 4, 2019
The new competition format
With the addition of San Diego FC as the 30th MLS franchise, beginning this season all MLS clubs will play 34 regular season games, 17 at home and 17 on the road in the following format: each club will face its conference rivals in a reciprocal visit (28 games) and six additional games against six different opponents from the opposite conference
The season will have a break from July 29 to August 31 to participate in the Leagues Cup. However, not all MLS clubs will participate this time to give the competition greater parity
MLS Decision Day 2025
Decision Day 2025 will take place on Saturday, October 18, with a massive matchday in which all Eastern Conference games will be played at 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT and Western Conference games will be played at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. In addition, New York City FC will host the Seattle Sounders in an interconference matchup to close out the season
At the moment, the MLS Cup and playoff matches are not yet scheduled, but they will be played during the month of November, tentatively to finish in the first days of December
MLS broadcast 2025
For the 2025 season, all games (510 matches) will be available through the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV in more than 100 countries. In addition, the platform will exclusively broadcast the match of the week on Sunday Night, with enhanced production
Additionally, select matches will be available through the FOX networks in the United States and on TSN and RDS in Canada.
FOX Sports will broadcast 34 games, 15 of them on FOX and 19 on FS1, and all FOX Sports broadcasts will also have Spanish-language coverage on FOX Deportes.
Read the full article here
