The 2020 season, which began February 29th, marks Major League Soccer’s (MLS) 25th year and will showcase a product that now consists of 26 teams.
This campaign, MLS fans will witness the inaugural seasons of two new franchises: Inter Miami CF, and Nashville SC. Both franchises will be joined in subsequent years by teams in the Austin, Charlotte, Sacramento, and St. Louis markets as the league pushes for a 30-team competition. The Austin and Charlotte teams are set to compete in the 2021 season followed by Sacramento and St. Louis in 2022.
How does this stack up amongst the other major professional sports leagues? With the scheduled expansion the MLS will join the ranks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) in having a 30-team competition. Consequently, this leaves the MLS two teams short both the National Football League (NFL), with 32 teams, and the mid-expansion National Hockey League (NHL) which will introduce their 32nd team at the start of their 2021 season.
*Nick A. Del Monaco (JD Candidate at Suffolk University law School, 2020) is an intern at Wilmelsport