Photo courtesy Philadelphia Union Communications

There are only  nine games left in Philadelphia’s 2026 regular season. Those nine are primarily against teams that would currently qualify for the 2026 postseason playoffs, so the final run-in will increase the challenges Ryan Richter’s men will face. 

Quite rightly Union fans are focused on their club’s recovery from a disastrous opening half of the season. In the counterfactual event that the playoffs were to start tomorrow, Philadelphia would be the seventh seed. Colleague Alex Hayden points out that Richter’s points per game average, 2.6, is the highest of any coach in the history of MLS who has coached ten games or more.

But the approaching end of one season means planning for the next has already begun (see photo of the man supervising that planning). And this year “next season” will not be the same as its predecessors. It will pose a unique set of one-time challenges because it is a special transition.

Background recapped

The end of calendar 2026 means the beginning of MLS’s schedule transition to its new Summer-Fall-Winter-Spring sequence of games with a significant break in the winter from mid December through all of January until mid-February. The new schedule rhythm will harmonize with Europe south of northern Scandinavia, and with Mexico as well.

The transition also necessitates changes in mid-contract to previously negotiated legal agreements among three groups: the leagues’ owners, the leagues’ players, and the leagues’ broadcasters and live streamers. They must all agree, and they must do so under the pressure of time. So far nothing beyond broad outlines have been made public.

Most readers will already know there will be a so-called “sprint season” from February of calendar 2027 through and including May. The sprint seasons’s simplified, streamlined playoffs will produce the participants required for the 2028 Concacaf Champions Cup. Then the new MLS schedule rhythm will commence, running from July of 2027 through May of 2028 including the previously identified winter break.

We have taken those known parameters and guessed — repeat, guessed — what the sprint season’s calendar might — repeat, might — look like. We have made one massive assumption. We assume that schedule congestion during the sprint season should be avoided by shrinking the off-season between MLS Cup 2026 on December 18th and the beginning of the 2027 sprint season’s preseason’s activities.

We choose to maintain a usual players’ workload during the sprint season as opposed to preserving time off during the off season to better protect player health and safety. All three interested parties have strong self-interest invested in such health and safety.

• Fourteen of the league’s teams do not make the playoffs and will have plenty of time for an offseason.
• More teams are eliminated from the playoffs as they progress, with admittedly less time off the further they progress, but with decent opportunities for an off-season break.
• Only two teams make it to MLS Cup and they can receive special consideration from the schedulers at the beginning of the sprint season.

We are guessing that the problems inherent in the scheme outlined above will be judged lesser than those potentially created by heavy schedule congestion during the sprint season itself.

Our calendar 

Here is our guess at a detailed, Philadelphia Union, sprint season calendar.

Philadelphia has never drafted anyone from the off-season waiver draft. They have not drafted anyone from the stage one re-entry draft since 2013 (Corben Bone). They have not drafted anyone from the stage two re-entry draft since 2012 (Connor Casey). And in 2024 they traded away all their 2027 Superdraft picks to Colorado. Therefore, we predict continued non-participation in these drafts and omit them from the following guess at Philadelphia Union’s 2027 sprint season calendar. 

1. Preseason physicals and testing will occur Wednesday, January 6th and Thursday, January 7th.
2. The weekend of Friday, January 8th through Sunday January 10th will be spent “in-market.” In and around daily practices players not residing permanently in greater Philadelphia will settle and prepare to be away for the next three weeks.
3. There will be one three-week phase of preseason, not two of two weeks each. 
4. It will occur in either Marbella, Grenada, Spain or Clearwater, Florida, USA. Instinct chooses Clearwater because it would be simpler being longer therefore better known; logic chooses Marbella because of greater scrimmage opponent quality and variety, potentially. 
5. Monday, January 11th will be spent traveling. Marbella would take all day; Clearwater would allow an evening practice.
6. Preseason will last from Tuesday, January 12th until Wednesday or Thursday January 26th or 27th.
7. If Philadelphia opens at home, preseason will end Wednesday the 26th and Media Day will be Thursday the 27th. If they open away, we cannot predict Media Day, only that it will have to be squeezed into the calendar somewhere. 
8. The sprint season will open on the last weekend of January — Friday, January 28th to Sunday, January 30th. 
9. The sprint season will last 14 full weeks for the player health and safety reasons mentioned above.
10. Sprint season playoffs will be single elimination games hosted by the higher seeded surviving team and will begin on the weekend of Friday, May 7th through Sunday, May 9th with the conference quarterfinals. 
11. Conference semifinals will occur Saturday, May 15th or Sunday, May 16th.
12. Conference finals will occur Saturday, May 22nd.
13. Sprint season MLS Cup will occur Saturday, May 29th.

To reiterate, the 13 points above are all guesses that prioritize play health and safety above all else given how much both owners and video providers have invested in their continued health and success.

Portland would want to protect Diego Chara (40 years old). Miami would want to protect both Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez (39).LA FC would protect Hugo Loris (39); NYC FC, Maxi Morales (39); Charlotte, Tim Ream (38); Chicago, Robert Lewandoski (38); Vancouver,  Thomas Mueller (37). For that matter Philadelphia might want to protect Alejandro Bedoya (39) should he want to return for the sprint season. 

A league that depends in part for its quality and credibility on older superstars should prioritize player health and safety.