2024 Major League Soccer season

The 2024 Major League Soccer season was the 29th season of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada, and the 46th season overall of a national first-division league in the United States.
The league's 29 teams were divided into the Eastern and Western conferences. This was the first season since the 2016 season to have no new expansion teams joining MLS; San Diego FC joined the league in 2025.
Pre-season matches ran from January 19 through February 17. The regular season began on February 21 and ended on October 19, with a pause from late July to late August for the 2024 Leagues Cup, which comprised all MLS and Liga MX teams. The 2024 MLS Cup playoffs began on October 22 and concluded with MLS Cup 2024 on December 7. MLS only sent eight senior squads to the 2024 U.S. Open Cup as part of a compromise with the USSF that allowed most teams to be represented by MLS Next Pro teams.
The Columbus Crew were the reigning MLS Cup champions and FC Cincinnati were the Supporters' Shield holders; St. Louis City SC were the reigning Western Conference champions. In their fifth season in the league, Inter Miami CF won the Supporters' Shield for the first time, earning an league-record 74 points. The LA Galaxy won a record sixth MLS Cup, and a first since 2014, after defeating the New York Red Bulls 2–1 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
This was the second season that Apple and MLS were part of a ten-year partnership for the broadcast and streaming rights to all MLS and Leagues Cup games, as well as select MLS Next and MLS Next Pro games, on the MLS Season Pass service within the Apple TV app.
Note: All teams used Adidas as universal kit manufacturer. As part of Apple's broadcast contract, all MLS kits included Apple TV+ as a sleeve sponsor.
The regular season consisted of 34 matches for each team, split evenly between home and away games. The opening match was played on February 21, the earliest in league history; the regular season ended with Decision Day on October 19, which comprised simultaneous intra-conference matches. Matches were paused from July 25 to August 23 for the 2024 Leagues Cup, a knockout tournament that included teams from MLS and Liga MX. The league did not pause matches for the 2024 Copa América, which was played in the United States from June to July. Most regular season matches were played on Saturdays and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. local time.
The 29 teams were divided into two conferences: the Eastern and Western. The 15 teams in the East played a round-robin format with intra-conference teams and six matches against six opponents from the West. The 14 teams in the West played a round-robin with intra-conference teams, an additional one or two intra-conference matches, and six to seven matches against opponents from the East. The top nine teams in each conference advanced to the 2024 MLS Cup playoffs, which began with a wild card round for the eighth and ninth placed teams, and was followed by a best-of-three series that was introduced in 2023. The remaining matches were single-elimination, and culminated with the MLS Cup final on December 7.
Several new rules were scheduled to be introduced for the 2024 season following trials in MLS Next Pro, including in-stadium announcements of video assistant referee decisions, a time limit for substitutions, and mandatory off-field checks for injured players. These initiatives were postponed by MLS due to an ongoing labor dispute with the Professional Soccer Referees Association, who organized a lockout of their referees. Replacement referees from outside the union, including former officials and those from lower-level leagues other than USL, were called in to officiate MLS matches. The referees' union and MLS reached an agreement in time for the regular referees to return to the field for Matchday 7, on March 30.
After the conclusion of the 2024 season, on January 28, 2025, MLS announced new competition regulations which determined which teams could enter the numerous cup competitions which MLS clubs could be in. With the exception of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, MLS teams were allowed to compete in up to two extra tournaments for the 2025 campaign. Notably, all teams that participated in the MLS Cup Playoffs were qualified retroactively for the 2025 Leagues Cup, with the exception of Vancouver Whitecaps FC, who had their place given to the expansion team San Diego FC as a result of winning the 2024 Canadian Championship (which qualified them for the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup). 16 US-based clubs who weren't in the Champions Cup qualified for the 2025 U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 based on performance, with teams not in both the Champions Cup and Leagues Cup given first priority.
The 2024 MLS All-Star Game was played between the MLS All-Stars and the Liga MX All-Stars on July 24.
The leading team in this table won the Supporters' Shield.
The higher seeded teams hosted single-elimination matches, with the MLS Cup host determined by overall points in the Supporters' Shield table. During the best-of-three round, the team with higher seed hosted the first match and the third match if necessary.
Regular season
2024 MLS Cup playoffs
Source:
(H) – Home team(A) – Away team