The MLS Cup Playoffs Need To Be Overhauled, Not Scrapped

The current MLS Cup Playoff format is awkward, uneven and the opposite of intuitive. Round One takes up to three weekends to play. Then some teams have as many as three weeks off before the rest of the competition unfolds under a different format. Eighteen of 29 teams qualify, and Inter Miami’s recent elimination could suggest that the top regular season performers aren’t given enough of an advantage.

It's the kind of albatross that could re-ignite the argument of some soccer “purists” who believe MLS shouldn’t have any sort of postseason, and crown its regular season winner as the league champion in the fashion familiar to fans of the world’s elite leagues in Europe. Even Miami defender Jordi Alba suggested something similar after the Herons’ defeat, saying his preference would be for only the Eastern Conference and Western Conference top finishers to play for the MLS Cup trophy.

But that misses a point that is all so often misunderstood when discussing MLS. The league actually needs some sort of postseason if it is ever going to create a regular season with the same urgency as those European leagues, even if MLS also adopted a promotion and relegation system found in most leagues around the world.

While European and South American competitions don’t use playoffs to crown their champions, most Concacaf leagues do. And there’s a very obvious reason: the lack of a financially lucrative continental competition of a profile similar to Europe’s Champions League or South America’s Copa Libertadores.

The carot of qualifying for those competitions does more to promote urgency in league games throughout Europe and South America than does the race for the league title or to avoid relegation. And in practice it gives leagues a playoff-race feel, even if the playoffs themselves don’t exist.

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Financially, the prize for continental qualification can be even greater than a theoretical playoff place.

Teams that reached the 2024-2025 Champions League group stage were guaranteed a staggering minimum of $19.6 million in additional revenue. The minimum for Libertadores group phase qualifiers is orders of magnitude smaller, but the winner of the Nov. 30 final between Atletico Mineiro and Botafogo will pocket a $23-million prize, the largest awarded to the winner of any final on the planet.

Europe also has two tiers of competitions beneath of the Champions League — the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League. South America also has a second tier, the Copa Sudamericana.

All of them are more lucrative than passage into the Concacaf Champions Cup — North America’s equivalent — which paid CF Pachuca pocketed $5 million for winning the 2024 version but left many participants earning extra revenue only from selling tickets from home games outside their league schedule.

And with that kind of money and prestige on the line, it’s no wonder the races for third or fifth or seventh in top flights in Europe and South America feel important even when the league title isn’t in play.

In the English Premier League for example, the top six league table finishers are guaranteed some sort of continental competition, and in some seasons the top eight reach Europe based on what happens in England’s cup competitions. In Brazil’s Serie A this year, teams are playing for 12 total continental spots, while only six remain mathematically alive for the league championship and fewer still appear to have a realistic shot at the top spot.

Similar scenarios are repeated over and over in leagues throughout both continents. And for now, they probably aren’t replicable in Concacaf while fans in MLS and Mexico treat CCC play with far less importance.

Want evidence? Consider that some MLS clubs still regularly move early-round CCC matches to smaller venues to accommodate smaller crowds. A few coaches in recent years have even admitted to punting on the tournament in favor of preparing to begin their league seasons.

Yes, the MLS regular season needs more urgency, and there needs to be a larger competitive playoff advantage given to the top seed compared to the ninth seed, i.e. the Atlanta United team that upset Miami in Round One. But scrapping the postseason and adopting the European model without similar European incentives would make the already troubled regular season even less compelling.