MLS divisional shift could spell trouble for two faltering franchises

It's an interesting setup...and one that won't affect each franchise in the same way. Some will benefit immensely from the change; some will lose important pieces of their identity along the way.

Midwestern region steals the show

On paper, no proposed region looks more interesting than the Midwest: the Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, FC Cincinnati, St. Louis City, Sporting Kansas City and Minnesota United. It's got two recent trophy winners in Columbus and Cincy, two MLS originals in Columbus and Kansas City, two rapidly-improving teams in Chicago and Minnesota, a fascinating new franchise in St Louis, and two of the league's best cross-state rivalries in Ohio's Hell is Real and Missouri's Darbecue.

Plenty of attention has gone to MLS's sexy coastal franchises like Miami and San Diego in recent years, but the Midwest has quietly become the beating heart of the league while people looked the other way. This region is the clear winner in MLS's proposed divisional rebrand: it's got a little bit of everything, plus (arguably) the highest average level of performance of any region. It will be fascinating to watch these six teams develop in proximity to one another. Miami and San Diego, who?

San Jose, D.C. face paradigm shift

The San Jose Earthquakes and D.C. United played out MLS's first-ever game in 1996. (San Jose won it with a late Eric Wynalda goal, but D.C. went on to win the inaugural MLS Cup later that year.) They're two of the league's most storied franchises, but they've stumbled into hard times in the 2020s. San Jose was the worst team in the league in 2024; D.C. was the worst team in the league in 2025.

MLS was never going to make every team happy with its divisional rebrand, but it seems to have saved the majority of its bad news for its two original clubs. Both are set to be stripped away from their classic rivals and placed into new competitive regions that mean little to their fanbases. San Jose will shift to the Pacific Northwest and lose its Cali Clasico with the L.A. Galaxy; D.C. will shift to the Southeast region and find itself separated from the New York Red Bulls and the Philadelphia Union.

If MLS was going to disappoint any teams, it makes sense for it to disappoint these two; they've disappointed the league right back with their questionable performances over the years, after all. But still, it hurts to see MLS turning its back on the classic franchises (and the classic rivalries) that established it in the American sports ecosystem.

MLS will kick off its 30th season in late February; it will flip to this new divisional model in August of 2027.