The 2012 Major League Soccer regular season will look considerably different from the 2011 campaign.
The league on Sunday officially announced it is switching from a balanced schedule (where every team plays each other twice, home and away) to a conference-based schedule starting next year.
The introduction of the Montreal Impact as the league’s newest expansion franchise, which will bring the total number of teams in the league to 19, is the reason why MLS is going to an unbalanced schedule.
Starting next year, 10 clubs will compete in the Eastern Conference and nine in the Western Conference. Each team will still play 34 regular-season matches, and the regular season will continue to run from mid-March through October.
The new format will see teams in the Western Conference play each other three times. Clubs in the West will also play each of the 10 East clubs once. Five of those games will be at home and five will be on the road.
Clubs in the East will play seven other conference opponents three times each, and the remaining two conference opponents twice each. East teams will also play the nine West teams once each.
Also, the MLS Cup final will no longer be a neutral-site game. Instead, the league’s championship match will be hosted by the finalist that finished the regular season with the most points in the standings.
Toronto’s BMO Field hosted the MLS Cup last year.
The playoffs will see 10 teams qualify, like last year. However, the top five teams in each conference will qualify for the post-season without any crossover wild card spots.
The No. 4 team will then host the No. 5 team in a single-elimination game. The winner will then face the conference’s top seed in the semifinals. The conference semifinals will be decided by a two-game series (same as 2011).
The Conference Championships will change from a single game to a two-leg, home-and-away series.
The new regular season and playoff formats were approved by the MLS Board of Governors on Saturday.
“We have established a fair and compelling format for the 2012 season,” MLS executive vice president Nelson Rodriguez said in a statement. “This regular season will include more games between regional rivals and less total travel than we have seen in recent years.
“Because of the wide geographic distribution of MLS clubs, this structure should improve the quality of play, while continuing to give every club an equal chance of qualifying for the MLS Cup Playoffs.”