Expansion of Major League Soccer

Major League Soccer is the top level of professional soccer in the United States. It began play in 1996 with 10 teams and has expanded several times since 1998. From 2005 to 2025, the league expanded rapidly and has added an average of one new team per season. The league has 30 teams as of the 2025 season with the debut of San Diego FC.

Expanding and establishing a larger national reach is seen as essential to securing television rights fees needed to reach MLS's initially stated goal of becoming one of the top leagues in the world. As of December 2024, there are no pending expansion teams but the league may expand to 32 teams at a later date.

In 2007, Toronto FC became the first of three Canadian teams to join the league. In 2013, New York City FC agreed to pay a record $100 million expansion fee for the right to join MLS in 2015. This record was surpassed by the ownership groups of FC Cincinnati and Nashville SC, which each paid $150 million to join MLS (FC Cincinnati in 2019 and Nashville in 2020). The same amount was paid as an effective entrance fee by a group that bought Columbus Crew SC in 2018, which led to that team's previous operator receiving a new team in Austin, Texas, that joined MLS in April 2021. Before Sacramento's group withdrew its franchise acquisition, MLS also announced that the ownership groups of the 28th and 29th teams would each pay a $200 million entrance fee and that of the 30th had to pay $325 million.

Major League Soccer considers several criteria when determining where to award expansion franchises:

• Owners that are committed to MLS and have the financial wherewithal to invest in a team
• A stadium or approved plans for a stadium (preferably a soccer-specific stadium) that allows the team to control revenue streams such as parking and concessions
• The size of the market of the metropolitan area
• An established local fan base.