FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA – DECEMBER 06: Lionel Messi #10 of Inter Miami CF lifts the Champion’s trophy after winning the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Final match between Inter Miami CF and Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Chase Stadium on December 06, 2025 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images)
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On Thursday morning, a report from The Guardian detailed a potential new MLS Cup Playoff format that could debut as soon as the 2027 sprint season.
Longtime American soccer reporter Pablo Maurer’s story outlines a potential 20-team competition that expands the postseason field by two while also adding incentives for teams to finish higher in the table. (For example, the top eight seeds can lose their first match and remain alive in the tournament, while the lower seeds face single-elimination from the start.)
Maurer doesn’t entirely spell out every detail – and MLS told him it has not finalized any postseason structure for 2027 – but this appears to be the most likely scenario:
- Play-in round: Seeds 13-16 vs. seeds 17-20 (4 matches)
- Double-elimination Round: Seeds 1-4 vs. seeds 5-8 (4 matches)
- Round of 16: Seeds 9-12 vs. 4 play-in winners (4 matches)
- Round of 12: 4 double-elimination losers vs. 4 round-of-16 winners (4 matches)
- Quarterfinals: 4 double-elimination winners vs. 4 round-of-12 winners (4 matches)
- Semifinals: Quarterfinal winners (2 matches)
- Final: Semifinal winners (1 match)
Early online reactions have been mostly negative, reacting primarily to the implementation of yet another new format and another playoff field expansion. But look even a little closely, and this proposal does a lot to address many of the most pressing issues with current MLS regular season and postseason competition.
Here are five reasons this proposal actually works.
Increased regular season importance
Arguably the biggest criticism of the current 18-team format is that there was too little reward for teams who demonstrated regular season excellence.
Yes, the top four seeds in each conference got home-field advantage in a best-of-three first round, and the top seven avoided a play-in round. But that was not enough to make many mid-table MLS matches feel inconsequential.
In the new format, the reward system is far more stratified based on regular season table finish.
- Seeds 1-4: Allowed 1 playoff loss, host first playoff match
- Seeds 5-8: Allowed 1 playoff loss
- Seeds 9-12: Avoid play-in round
- Seeds 13-16: Host play-in round game
- Seeds 17-20: Qualify for play-in round game
Additionally, teams will be reseeded for every round, adding another benefit of strong regular season performance.
More Familiar Than You Think
The sources informing Maurer chose to reference the playoffs in the Australian Football League, the world’s top Australian rules football competition, as a parallel.
It’s an accurate assessment. But it also sounds foreign and exotic to casual American sports fans who already find the idea of following soccer regularly a little bit unusual.
The good news is there’s another far more relatable example that is also similar: The NBA play-in tournament used to decide the final two seeds in each conference for the NBA Playoffs.
Each spring, the play-in tournament in the NBA’s Eastern and Western Conferences play out like this:
- Game 1: 7th plays 8th, winner receives 7th seed
- Game 2: 9th plays 10th, loser eliminated
- Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. winner Game 2, winner receives 8th seed
Selling the new MLS format as building on NBA play-in principles should be a relatively easy way to explain it to casual fans and gain support for it.
Steady Inventory, Higher Stakes
The current playoff format with its best-of-three series for the first round was created as a response to demands by worldwide streaming partner Apple TV for a larger inventory of postseason matches.
The format more than doubled the total number of playoff matches, from 13 previously to an average of 29 in the first three seasons. However, it undeniably diminished the urgency of many of those matches.
Of the 87 playoff matches contested between 2023 and 2025, only 39 were win-or-go-home matches for both teams. In 24 matches, neither team faced elimination.
While the new proposal slightly lessens the total match inventory, a far greater percentage of those games – 19 of 23 each season – will be true single-elimination encounters. The remaining four will give the winner a one-round bye directly to the quarterfinals.
Continued Incentives for Mid-Table Teams
While many critics have lamented yet another expansion of the playoff format, the reality is that to create a compelling regular season, the league needs to keep the majority of its teams engaged for the majority of the schedule.
While MLS critics point to the single-table European leagues as an example of more-compelling competition than the MLS system, they often cite promotion and relegation as the reason. But that’s a much smaller part of the story than the argument suggests, and ignores that the majority of the competitive stakes in major European divisions are driven by the quest for continental competition.
For example, look at the 2025-26 final Premier League table. While Arsenal clinched the league with matches left to play, eight teams ultimately qualified for Europe based on their league form, while only three suffered relegation based on the same form.
Because MLS is a closed system, and because Concacaf’s continental competitions aren’t nearly as lucrative, the only real way to keep a similar number of clubs engaged through a whole season is with a large playoff field. This new format manages to continue to do that, while also adding much stronger incentives for teams to try and climb beyond the first rung of simply getting into the field.
16 Teams Still Get Home Playoff Matches
For MLS ownership, the biggest benefit of the current playoff format was that it guaranteed 16 clubs at least one home playoff match.
That guaranteed game is often sold ahead of time in full and partial regular-season ticket packages, essentially adding to a majority of clubs’ matchday revenues before having to worry about selling playoff tickets on short notice.
The new format appears to keep that guarantee. And that becomes arguably more important with the flipped schedule that begins in the summer of 2027, particularly in the northern markets where late April or early May are often the best times to watch the sport.
While this format won’t guarantee a home match for every club during that window the way a split table second phase might have, it will make it a realistic prospect.