The Major League Soccer will get its 30th team sooner than later. According to MLS commissioner Don Garber, the league hopes to announce its next expansion team by the end of 2023, with Las Vegas and San Diego being among the top candidates to get an MLS franchise.
Speaking at the kickoff event for the 2023 MLS season, Garber said that the league “needs more teams.”
“We say we’re going to stop at 30, but [some of] the other major leagues are larger than that. I never say never in Major League Soccer,” he shared. “There are many other markets that are opportunities for us. I think San Diego and Las Vegas are the most likely opportunities for 30.”
Besides Las Vegas and San Diego, the league is also interested in having teams in Detroit, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Tampa.
The league is already preparing itself for the expansion by introducing a new playoff format for 2023. Unlike 14-team postseason like in previous years, the MLS plans to have nine teams from each conference in the playoffs. It also introduced a wild-card round and best-of-three series for the first round.
The inaugural season of MLS was played in 1996, with 10 teams taking part. The same number of teams participated in 2004, after which a rapid expansion started. There are now 29 teams, with five of them joining in since 2020.
