MLS Commissioner Don Garber confirmed the league is working with two undisclosed expansion candidates in active development, positioning the circuit to reach its stated 32-team ceiling by the end of the decade. Garber did not name the cities or provide entry-year targets.
The announcement follows a $500 million expansion fee paid by San Diego FC, which enters play in 2025. Garber's comments suggest MLS is maintaining pricing discipline while evaluating stadium economics, broadcast footprint, and ownership-group liquidity. The league has added 12 teams since 2017, each paying escalating entry fees that now fund profit distributions to legacy owners rather than league operations.
Expansion-market operators have quietly shifted strategy. Bidding cities now hire the same infrastructure consultants who structured Charlotte FC's $325 million Bank of America Stadium retrofit and St. Louis CITY SC's $458 million purpose-built venue. The new playbook: present Garber with signed public-private stadium commitments before formal bid submission, collapsing the league's due-diligence timeline from 18 months to under a year. Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Detroit have each retained stadium-deal architects in the past 14 months, though none has surfaced a signed term sheet.
The pricing dynamic matters to existing owners. Apple's 10-year, $2.5 billion broadcast deal pays clubs a baseline $12.5 million annually, but expansion fees fund one-time distributions that legacy owners have come to expect. Charlotte's $325 million fee in 2019 delivered roughly $13 million per existing club. San Diego's $500 million check means approximately $17 million per team, assuming 29 recipients. Two more entries at or near $600 million each would yield another $40 million windfall per legacy owner, offsetting stagnant local sponsorship growth in second-tier markets.
The timing also signals MLS's response to Liga MX's stalled international ambitions. Leagues Cup, the mid-summer hybrid tournament, generated $110 million in gate revenue in 2024 but has not produced the cross-border club merger Garber once floated. Expanding to 32 teams allows MLS to negotiate a standalone playoff television package when Apple's exclusive window expires in 2032, a move that requires depth of inventory. Two more clubs means eight additional nationally televised playoff matches, the minimum threshold Fox and ESPN have indicated they would bid on.
Cities deploying the stadium-first approach are watching San Diego's attendance and local media performance. SDFC's season-ticket base sits at 22,000 deposits as of mid-December 2024, outpacing St. Louis and Charlotte at the same stage. Bidding markets now treat that figure as table stakes. Las Vegas ownership groups have privately targeted 25,000 season-ticket commitments before submitting financials, according to two people familiar with stadium-naming-rights conversations.
What to watch: Garber typically announces expansion awards during MLS Cup week or the winter owners' meeting in February. Bidding cities are expected to present updated stadium term sheets in January. The league's broadcast-inventory modeling for 2032 negotiations begins in Q2 2025, which may accelerate or delay the final two awards depending on Apple's willingness to renegotiate early. Phoenix's stadium talks with ASU have a March 2025 decision deadline.
The league's 32-team ceiling is not a guarantee. It is a negotiating position with Apple, legacy owners, and bidding cities who now understand the price of entry is a fully financed stadium and a nine-figure wire.
The takeaway
MLS expansion awards hinge on stadium term sheets and Apple broadcast-inventory math, not market size.
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