Major League Soccer will end its holdout of its teams from the US Open Cup, and will allow all 27 US-based teams to participate in the tournament next year, according to a report from Backheeled.
End of a three-year holdout
The move would bring to an end a three-year period in which MLS withheld teams from the United States’ oldest soccer competition, a single-elimination cup that has been running continuously since 1914, with only two editions skipped (2020 and 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic). Like England’s FA Cup and other similar competitions, the US Open Cup involves teams at all levels of the US men’s soccer system, including amateur and semi-pro teams. MLS teams traditionally enter at the later stages, with an MLS team winning all but one edition of the Open Cup since the first-division league started play in 1996.
Reasons for the withdrawal
However, in 2023 MLS said it would pull out all of its teams from the Open Cup and instead send its reserve teams from its third-division affiliate, MLS Next Pro. Among the reasons given by commissioner Don Garber and others at the league were concerns about the presentation and professionalism of the games, which are often held at the venues of the smaller teams – sometimes high school stadiums or public parks. Broadcasts were often handled in a patchwork manner, with inconsistent scheduling and streaming options. Fixture congestion was also cited, with the 2023 expansion of the Leagues Cup now involving every MLS team and creating a scheduling headache for squads.
Garber called the Open Cup “a very poor reflection on what it is that we’re trying to do with soccer at the highest level,” in May of 2023.
Compromise and current status
MLS’s proposal to send reserve teams was rejected by the US Soccer Federation, which oversees and administrates the Open Cup. Eventually, a deal was reached for MLS to send eight of its teams into the 2024 competition along with other clubs’ reserve teams. In 2025 and 2026, MLS entered 16 of its 30 teams into the competition – primarily those that have not qualified for one or both of the Leagues Cup or the Concacaf Champions Cup.
MLS’s decision to withdraw teams from the Open Cup created a firestorm of controversy when it was announced, and that criticism has yet to fully subside.
It remains to be seen how MLS’s shift to a fall-to-spring schedule starting in late 2027 will dovetail with teams’ return to the Open Cup in full. The 2026 edition of the Open Cup is into the semi-final stage, with MLS teams representing all four remaining squads. St Louis City play the Colorado Rapids and the Columbus Crew play Orlando City in those semi-finals on 16 September.
