MLS

同

microphthalmia with linear skin defects

WordNet

1. the 13th letter of the Roman alphabet (同)m

PrepTutorEJDIC

1. Mach number / mark[s] / Monsieur
2. Medieval Latin

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出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2016/02/03 13:16:32」(JST)

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MLS

• アメリカ合衆国およびカナダのプロサッカーリーグ、メジャーリーグサッカー (Major League Soccer) の略称。
• 図書館学修士 (Master of Library Science)
• M系列 (en:Maximum length sequence) の略称、もしくはそれを利用したスピーカーの測定手法の一つ。
• 名古屋市にある高層ビル、ミッドランドスクエアの略称。
• マイクロ波着陸装置 (Microwave Landing System)
• イタリアの政党、社会主義労働運動 (Movimento Lavoratori per il Socialismo)

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"MLS" redirects here. For other uses, see MLS (disambiguation).

Major League Soccer

Country	United States
Other club(s) from	Canada
Confederation	CONCACAF
Founded	December 17, 1993
Conferences	Eastern Conference Western Conference
Number of teams	20
Level on pyramid	1 (US), 1 (CAN)
Relegation to	None
Domestic cup(s)	U.S. Open Cup Canadian Championship
International cup(s)	CONCACAF Champions League
Current MLS Cup	Portland Timbers (1st title) (2015)
Current Supporters' Shield	New York Red Bulls (2nd shield) (2015)
Most MLS Cups	LA Galaxy (5 titles)
Most Supporters' Shields	D.C. United & LA Galaxy (4 shields)
TV partners	United States ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN Deportes Fox Sports 1/Fox Sports 2 UniMás/Univision Deportes Canada TSN/TSN2 RDS TVA Sports
Website	mlssoccer.com
2016 MLS season

Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional soccer league, sanctioned by U.S. Soccer, that represents the sport's highest level in both the United States and Canada. MLS constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada. The league is composed of 20 teams—17 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. The MLS regular season runs from March to October, with each team playing 34 games; the team with the best record is awarded the Supporters' Shield. The post season includes twelve teams competing in the MLS Cup Playoffs through November and December, culminating in the championship game, the MLS Cup. MLS teams also play in other domestic competitions against teams from other divisions in the U.S. Open Cup and in the Canadian Championship. MLS teams also compete against continental rivals in the CONCACAF Champions League.

Major League Soccer was founded in 1993 as part of the United States' successful bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The first season took place in 1996 with ten teams. MLS experienced financial and operational struggles in its first few years: The league lost millions of dollars, teams played in mostly empty American football stadiums, and two teams folded in 2002. Since then, MLS has expanded to 20 teams, owners built soccer-specific stadiums, average MLS attendance exceeds that of the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Basketball Association (NBA), MLS secured national TV contracts, and the league is now profitable.

Instead of operating as an association of independently owned teams, MLS is a single entity in which each team is owned and controlled by the league's investors. The investor-operators control their teams as owners control teams in other leagues, and are commonly (but inaccurately) referred to as the team's owners. The league has a fixed membership, like most sports leagues in the United States and Canada, which makes it one of the world's few soccer leagues that does not use promotion and relegation, a practice that is uncommon in the two countries. MLS headquarters is located in New York City.

Competition format

See also: Supporters' Shield, MLS Cup and MLS Cup Playoffs

Major League Soccer's regular season runs from March to October. Teams are divided into the Eastern and Western Conferences. Teams play 34 games in an unbalanced schedule: 24 matches against teams within their conference, plus 10 matches against teams from the other conference. Midway through the season, teams break for the annual All-Star Game, a friendly game between the league's finest players and a major club from a different league. At the end of the regular season, the team with the highest point total is awarded the Supporters' Shield.

Unlike European soccer leagues, the MLS regular season is followed by the 12-team MLS Cup Playoffs in November, ending with the MLS Cup championship final in early December. Although some commentators have argued that playoffs reduce the importance of the regular season, Commissioner Don Garber has explained "Our purpose is to have a valuable competition, and that includes having playoffs that are more meaningful."

Major League Soccer's spring-to-autumn schedule results in scheduling conflicts with the FIFA calendar and with summertime international tournaments such as the World Cup and the Gold Cup, causing several players to miss some MLS matches. While MLS has looked into changing to an autumn-to-spring format, there are no current plans to do so. If the league were to change its schedule, a winter break would be needed, especially with several teams in colder climates, which some believe would lead to a disadvantage. It would also have to compete with the more popular National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), and National Basketball Association (NBA).

Other competitions

See also: MLS performance in Champions League

MLS teams also play in other competitions. Every year, up to five MLS teams play in the CONCACAF Champions League against other clubs from the CONCACAF region (Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean). Two U.S.-based MLS teams qualify based on MLS regular-season results: the winner of the Supporters' Shield and the winner of the other conference. The third U.S. team to qualify is the winner of the MLS Cup. A fourth U.S.-based MLS team can qualify via the U.S. Open Cup, where U.S. based teams compete against lower division U.S. clubs. Canadian MLS clubs play against lower division Canadian clubs in the Canadian Championship for the one Champions League spot allocated to Canada. No MLS club has won the Champions League since it began its current format in 2008, with Mexican clubs dominating the competition, but MLS teams have twice reached the final: Real Salt Lake in 2011 and the Montreal Impact in 2015.

Teams

See also: Expansion of Major League Soccer and List of Major League Soccer coaches

Revolution

NYCFC

Red Bulls

Impact

Union

United

Orlando

Toronto

Rapids

Sporting

Crew

Dallas

Dynamo

Fire

Real

Sounders

Earthquakes

Galaxy

Whitecaps

Timbers

MLS's 20 teams are divided between the Eastern and Western Conference. Each club is allowed up to 30 players on its first team roster. All 30 players are eligible for selection to each 18-player game-day squad during the regular season and playoffs.

Since the 2005 season, MLS has added many new clubs. During this period of expansion, Los Angeles became the first two-team market, and the league pushed into Canada in 2007. The league will expand from 20 teams today to 22 teams in 2017 with the additions of Atlanta and either Los Angeles or Minnesota, and then to 23 teams in 2018 with the addition of Minnesota or Los Angeles, depending which team joins the league the preceding year. The league plans to have 24 teams by 2020.

In the history of MLS, twenty-three different clubs have competed in the league, with ten having won at least one MLS Cup, and ten winning at least one Supporters' Shield. The same club has won both trophies six times.

Several teams compete annually for secondary MLS rivalry cups that are typically contested by two teams, usually geographic rivals (e.g., Portland vs. Seattle vs. Vancouver). Each cup is awarded to the team with the better regular-season record in games played between the two teams. The concept is comparable to minor trophies played for by American college football teams.

Beginning with the 2015 season, teams are aligned as follows:

1. Shared facility; not a soccer-specific stadium
2. Team plans to move into a soccer-specific stadium

History

Main article: History of Major League Soccer

See also: Soccer in Canada and Soccer in the United States

Major League Soccer is the most recent of a series of men's premier professional national soccer leagues established in the United States and Canada. The predecessor of MLS was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which played from 1968 until 1984.

Establishment

In 1988, in exchange for FIFA awarding the right to host the 1994 World Cup, U.S. Soccer promised to establish a Division 1 professional soccer league. In 1993, U.S. Soccer selected Major League Professional Soccer (the precursor to MLS) as the exclusive Division 1 professional soccer league. Major League Soccer was officially formed in February 1995 as a limited liability company.

MLS began play in 1996 with ten teams. The first game was held on April 6, 1996, as the San Jose Clash defeated D.C. United before 31,000 fans at Spartan Stadium in San Jose in a game broadcast on ESPN. The league had generated some buzz by managing to lure some marquee players from the 1994 World Cup to play in MLS—including U.S. stars such as Alexi Lalas, Tony Meola and Eric Wynalda, and foreign players such as Mexico's Jorge Campos and Colombia's Carlos Valderrama. D.C. United won the MLS Cup in three of the league's first four seasons. The league added its first two expansion teams in 1998—the Miami Fusion and the Chicago Fire; the Chicago Fire won its first title in its inaugural season.

After its first season, MLS suffered from a decline in attendance. The league's low attendance was all the more apparent in light of the fact that eight of the original ten teams played in large American football stadiums. One aspect that had alienated fans was that MLS experimented with rules deviations in its early years in an attempt to "Americanize" the sport. The league implemented the use of shootouts to resolve tie games. MLS also used a countdown clock and halves ended when the clock reached 0:00. The league realized that the rule changes had alienated some traditional soccer fans while failing to draw new American sports fans, and the shootout and countdown clock were eliminated after the 1999 season. The league's quality was cast into doubt when the U.S. men's national team, which was made up largely of MLS players, finished in last place at the 1998 World Cup.

Major League Soccer lost an estimated $250 million during its first five years, and more than $350 million between its founding and 2004. The league's financial problems led to Commissioner Doug Logan being replaced by Garber, a former NFL executive, in August 1999. MLS announced in January 2002 that it had decided to contract the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion, leaving the league with ten teams.

Despite the financial problems, though, MLS did have some accomplishments that would set the stage for the league's resurgence. Columbus Crew Stadium was built in 1999, becoming MLS's first soccer-specific stadium. This began a trend among MLS teams to construct their own venues instead of leasing American football stadiums. In 2000, the league won an antitrust lawsuit, Fraser v. Major League Soccer, that the players had filed in 1996. The court ruled that MLS's policy of centrally contracting players and limiting player salaries through a salary cap and other restrictions were a legal method for the league to maintain solvency and competitive parity.

Resurgence

The 2002 FIFA World Cup, in which the United States unexpectedly made the quarterfinals, coincided with a resurgence in American soccer and MLS. MLS Cup 2002 drew 61,316 spectators to Gillette Stadium, the largest attendance in an MLS Cup final. MLS limited teams to three substitutions per game in 2003, and adopted International Football Association Board (IFAB) rules in 2005.

MLS underwent a transition in the years leading up to the 2006 World Cup. After marketing itself on the talents of American players, the league lost some of its homegrown stars to prominent European leagues. For example, Tim Howard was transferred to Manchester United for $4 million in one of the most lucrative contract deals in league history. Many more American players did make an impact in MLS. In 2005, Jason Kreis became the first player to score 100 career MLS goals.

The league's financial stabilization plan included teams moving out of large American football stadiums and into soccer-specific stadiums. From 2003 to 2008, the league oversaw the construction of six additional soccer-specific stadiums, largely funded by owners such as Lamar Hunt and Phil Anschutz, so that by the end of 2008, a majority of teams were now in soccer-specific stadiums.

It was also in this era that MLS expanded for the first time since 1998. Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA began play in 2005, with Chivas USA becoming the second club in Los Angeles. By 2006 the San Jose Earthquakes owners, players and a few coaches moved to Texas to become the expansion Houston Dynamo, after failing to build a stadium in San Jose. The Dynamo became an expansion team, leaving their history behind for a new San Jose ownership group that formed in 2007.

Arrival of Designated Players

The 2010 season also brought the opening of the New York Red Bulls' soccer-specific stadium, Red Bull Arena.

In 2007 the league expanded beyond the United States' borders into Canada with the Toronto FC expansion team. Major League Soccer took steps to further raise the level of play by adopting the Designated Player Rule, which helped bring international stars into the league. The 2007 season witnessed the MLS debut of David Beckham. Beckham's signing had been seen as a coup for American soccer, and was made possible by the Designated Player Rule. Players such as Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Chicago Fire) and Juan Pablo Ángel (New York Red Bulls), are some of the first Designated Players who made major contributions to their clubs. The departures of Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore, coupled with the return of former U.S. national team stars Claudio Reyna and Brian McBride, highlighted the exchange of top prospects to Europe for experienced veterans to MLS.

By 2008, San Jose had returned to the league under new ownership, and in 2009, the expansion side Seattle Sounders FC began play in MLS. The 2010 season ushered in an expansion franchise in the Philadelphia Union and their new PPL Park stadium. The 2010 season also brought the opening of the New York Red Bulls' soccer-specific stadium, Red Bull Arena, and the debut of French striker Thierry Henry.

The 2011 season brought further expansion with the addition of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, the second Canadian MLS franchise, and the Portland Timbers. Real Salt Lake reached the finals of the 2010–11 CONCACAF Champions League. During the 2011 season, the Galaxy signed another international star in Republic of Ireland all-time leading goalscorer Robbie Keane. MLS drew an average attendance of 17,872 in 2011, higher than the average attendances of the NBA and NHL. In 2012, the Montreal Impact became the league's 19th franchise and the third in Canada, and made their home debut in front of a crowd of 58,912, while the New York Red Bulls added Australian all-time leading goalscorer Tim Cahill.

2013–present

In 2013, MLS introduced New York City FC as its 20th team, and Orlando City Soccer Club as its 21st team, both of which would begin playing in 2015. In 2013, the league implemented its "Core Players" initiative, allowing teams to retain key players using retention funds instead of losing the players to foreign leagues. Among the first high-profile players re-signed in 2013 using retention funds were U.S. national team regulars Graham Zusi and Matt Besler. Beginning in summer of 2013 and continuing in the run up to the 2014 World Cup, MLS began signing U.S. stars based abroad, including Clint Dempsey from the English Premier League to Seattle, DaMarcus Beasley from the Liga MX to Houston, Jermaine Jones from the German Bundesliga to New England and Michael Bradley who returned from Italy to join Toronto who also signed England International Striker Jermain Defoe. By the 2014 season, fifteen of the nineteen MLS head coaches had previously played in MLS. By 2013, the league's popularity had increased to the point where MLS was as popular as Major League Baseball among 12- to 17-year-olds, as reported by the 2013 Luker on Trends ESPN poll, having jumped in popularity since the 2010 World Cup.

In 2014, the league announced Atlanta United FC as the 22nd team to start playing in 2017. Even though New York City FC and Orlando City were not set to begin play until 2015, each team made headlines during the summer 2014 transfer window by announcing their first Designated Players – Spain's leading scorer David Villa and Chelsea's leading scorer Frank Lampard to New York, and Ballon d'Or winner Kaká to Orlando. The 2014 World Cup featured 21 MLS players on World Cup rosters and a record 11 MLS players playing for foreign teams – including players from traditional powerhouses Brazil (Júlio César), playing for Toronto FC on loan from Queens Park Rangers FC, and Spain (David Villa), on loan to Melbourne City FC from New York City FC; in the U.S. v. Germany match the U.S. fielded a team with seven MLS starters.

On September 18, 2014, MLS unveiled their new logo as part of the "MLS Next" branding initiative. In addition to the new crest logo, MLS teams display versions in their own colors that are displayed on their jerseys at every game. This change represents the first time that the MLS logo has been changed since the league's inception. Chivas USA folded following the 2014 season, while New York City FC and Orlando City SC joined the league in 2015 as the 19th and 20th teams. Sporting Kansas City and the Houston Dynamo moved from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference in 2015 to make two 10-team conferences.

In early 2015, the league announced that two teams — Los Angeles FC and Minnesota United — would join MLS in either 2017 or 2018. The 20th season of MLS saw the arrivals of several players who have starred at the highest levels of European club soccer and in international soccer: Giovanni Dos Santos, Kaká, Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Didier Drogba, David Villa, and Sebastian Giovinco. On December 6, 2015, MLS announced its intent to expand to 28 teams.

League championships

See also: List of American and Canadian soccer champions

MLS Cup titles and Supporters' Shield Wins

Team	MLS Cups	Year(s) won	Supporters' Shields	Year(s) won	MLS Seasons
LA Galaxy	5	2002, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014	4	1998, 2002, 2010, 2011	20
D.C. United	4	1996, 1997, 1999, 2004	4	1997, 1999, 2006, 2007	20
San Jose Earthquakes	2	2001, 2003	2	2005, 2012	18
Sporting Kansas City	2	2000, 2013	1	2000	20
Houston Dynamo	2	2006, 2007		–	10
Columbus Crew	1	2008	3	2004, 2008, 2009	20
Chicago Fire	1	1998	1	2003	18
Portland Timbers	1	2015		–	5
Colorado Rapids	1	2010		–	20
Real Salt Lake	1	2009		–	11
New York Red Bulls		–	2	2013, 2015	20
Seattle Sounders FC		–	1	2014	7
Miami Fusion*		–	1	2001	4*
Tampa Bay Mutiny*		–	1	1996	6*

*Franchise folded after completion of the 2001 season

Organization

Ownership

See also: Major League Soccer owners

Major League Soccer operates under a single-entity structure in which teams and player contracts are centrally owned by the league. Each team has an investor-operator that is a shareholder in the league. In order to control costs, MLS shares revenues and holds players contracts instead of players contracting with individual teams. In Fraser v. Major League Soccer, a lawsuit filed in 1996 and decided in 2002, the league won a legal battle with its players in which the court ruled that MLS was a single entity that can lawfully centrally contract for player services. The court also ruled that even absent their collective bargaining agreement, players could opt to play in other leagues if they were unsatisfied.

Having multiple clubs owned by a single owner was a necessity in the league's first ten years. At one time Phil Anschutz's AEG owned six MLS clubs and Lamar Hunt's Hunt Sports owned three franchises. In order to attract additional investors, in 2002 the league announced changes to the operating agreement between the league and its teams to improve team revenues and increase the incentives to be an individual club owner. These changes included granting owners the rights to a certain number of players they develop through their club's academy system each year, sharing the profits of Soccer United Marketing, and being able to sell individual club jersey sponsorships.

As MLS appeared to be on the brink of overall profitability in 2006 and developed significant expansion plans, MLS announced that it wanted each club to have a distinct operator. The league has attracted new ownership that have injected more money into the league. Examples include Red Bull's purchase of the MetroStars from AEG in 2006 for over $100 million.

The league now has 20 investor-operators for its 20 clubs. Hunt Sports owns only one team (FC Dallas). AEG owns the LA Galaxy and retained a 50% interest in the Houston Dynamo until December 2015. For the 2014 season, the league owned the former Chivas USA club, which had suffered from mismanagement and poor financial results under its individual operator relationship. The league eventually dissolved the team, in favor of awarding rights to a second soccer club in the Los Angeles area to a new ownership group on October 30, 2014.

Player acquisition and salaries

David Beckham was the league's first Designated Player in 2007.

The average salary for MLS players is $283,000, lower than the average salaries in England's second-tier Football League Championship ($344,000 in 2011), Holland's Eredivisie ($445,000), or Mexico's Liga MX ($418,000). The league's minimum player salary will increase in 2016 from $60,000 to $62,500 for most players, and roster players #25–28 will see their minimum salary increase from $50,000 to $51,500.

MLS salaries are limited by a salary cap, which MLS has had in place since the league's inception in 1996. The purpose of the salary cap is to prevent the team's owners from unsustainable spending on player salaries—a practice that had doomed the North American Soccer League during the 1980s—and to prevent a competitive imbalance among teams. The salary cap survived a legal challenge by the players in the Fraser v. Major League Soccer lawsuit. The 2016 salary cap is increasing from $3.49 million to $3.66 million per team.

Teams may augment their squads by signing players from other leagues. MLS has two transfer windows—the primary pre-season transfer window lasts three months from mid February until mid May, and the secondary mid season transfer window runs one month from early July to early August. All MLS teams have a limited number of international roster slots that they can use to sign non-domestic players. However MLS teams regularly obtain green cards for their non-domestic players in order to qualify them for domestic status and free up international roster slots. In 2015 48.97% of MLS players were born outside of the U.S. and Canada, with players from 58 countries represented.

MLS has also introduced various initiatives and rules intended to improve quality of players while still maintaining the salary cap. Rules concerning Designated Players, Generation Adidas players, home grown players, and allocation money all allow for additional wage spending that is exempt from the salary cap. These initiatives have brought about an increase in on-field competition.

The designated player (DP) rule allows teams to sign a limited number of players whose salary exceeds the maximum cap, each DP player only counts as $457,500 (the maximum non-DP salary) against the cap in 2016. Instituted in 2007, England's David Beckham was the first signing under the DP rule. The DP rule has led to large income inequality in MLS with top DPs earning as much as 180 times more than a player earning the league minimum. In the 2013 season 21% of the league's wage spending went to just 5 players, this stretched to 29% on the top 6 players in the 2014 season.

The league's "Core Players" initiative allows teams to re-sign players using retention funds that do not count against the salary cap. Retention funds were implemented in 2013 as a mechanism for MLS to retain key players; among the first high-profile players re-signed using retention funds were U.S. national team regulars Graham Zusi and Matt Besler. MLS teams can also obtain allocation money, which is money that the team can use on player salaries that does not count against the cap, and teams can earn allocation money in several ways, such as from the transfer fees earned by selling players to teams in other leagues. MLS teams can also use Targeted Allocation Money (often referred to as TAM), an initiative announced in 2015. Teams can use TAM funds to attract high-profile players by "buying down" contracts of players to below the Designated Player level. High-profile players for which TAM funds were used include Omar Gonzalez.

The league operates a Generation Adidas program, which is a joint venture between MLS and U.S. Soccer that encourages young American players to enter MLS. The Generation Adidas program has been in place since 1997, and has introduced players such as Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard and Michael Bradley into MLS. Players under the Home Grown Player rule are signed to Generation Adidas contracts, all players on Generation Adidas contracts are "off budget players" and their salaries do not count against the cap.

MLS has required all of its teams to operate youth development programs since 2008. MLS roster rules allow teams to sign an unlimited number players straight from their academies and bypassing the draft process. There is also supplementary salary budget made by MLS only for homegrown players that are registered using senior roster slots called homegrown player funds. One of the most prominent and lucrative examples of success in "home-grown" development was Jozy Altidore, who rose to prominence as a teenager in MLS before his record transfer fee $10 million move to Villarreal in Spain in 2008. The various MLS teams' development academies play matches in a U.S. Soccer developmental league against youth academies from other leagues such as the Division II North American Soccer League (NASL) and Division III USL Pro, the latter of which has now rebranded itself as the United Soccer League.

MLS formerly operated a reserve league which gave playing time to players who were not starters for their MLS teams. The Reserve League was formed in 2005, and operated through 2014 (with the exception of the 2009 & 2010 seasons). MLS began integrating its Reserve League with the league then known as USL Pro in 2013, and after the 2014 season folded the Reserve League, with MLS now requiring all teams to either affiliate with a USL team or field a reserve side in that league.

Stadiums

Mapfre Stadium, MLS' first soccer-specific stadium

See also: Soccer-specific stadium and List of Major League Soccer stadiums

Since 1999, the league has overseen the construction of twelve stadiums specifically designed for soccer. The development of soccer-specific stadiums owned by the teams has generated a better gameday experience for the fans. The soccer-specific stadiums have yielded positive financial results as teams were no longer required to pay to rent out facilities and gained control over revenue streams such as concessions, parking, naming rights, and the ability to host non MLS events. Several teams have doubled their season-tickets following the team's move into a soccer-specific stadium. The establishment of soccer-specific stadiums is considered the key to the league and the ability of teams to turn a profit. In 2006, Tim Leiweke, then CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group, described the proliferation of soccer-specific stadiums as the turning point for MLS.

Columbus Crew owner Lamar Hunt started this trend in 1999 by constructing Columbus Crew Stadium, now known as Mapfre Stadium, as MLS's first soccer-specific stadium. The Los Angeles Galaxy followed four years later with the opening of The Home Depot Center, now StubHub Center, in 2003. FC Dallas opened Pizza Hut Park, now Toyota Stadium, in 2005, and the Chicago Fire began playing their home games in Toyota Park in 2006. The 2007 season brought the opening of Dick's Sporting Goods Park for the Colorado Rapids and BMO Field for Toronto FC.

Near the end of the 2008 season, Rio Tinto Stadium became the home of Real Salt Lake, which meant that for the first time in MLS history a majority of MLS's teams (8 out of 14) played in soccer-specific stadiums. Red Bull Arena, the new home of the New York Red Bulls opened for the start of the 2010 season, and the Philadelphia Union opened PPL Park in June 2010, midway through their inaugural season. The following season, in 2011, the Portland Timbers made their MLS debut in a newly renovated Jeld-Wen Field, now renamed Providence Park, which was originally a multi-purpose venue but turned into a soccer-specific facility. Also in 2011, Sporting Kansas City moved to new Livestrong Sporting Park. The Houston Dynamo relocated to their new home at BBVA Compass Stadium in 2012. In the same year, the Montreal Impact joined the league in an expanded Stade Saputo, which reopened June 2012, when renovations pushed the seating capacity to over 20,000. The Impact has used Olympic Stadium for early season matches and for games that require a larger capacity. The San Jose Earthquakes, who had played at Buck Shaw Stadium from 2008 until 2014, opened their new Avaya Stadium before the 2015 season.

CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Sounders FC

The development of additional MLS stadiums is in progress. The Orlando City SC expansion team intends to begin constructing Orlando City Stadium, a soccer-specific stadium, in 2014 to be completed in 2015, while temporarily playing at the renovated Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium in their inaugural year.

Three teams have announced their desire to build a soccer-specific stadium, although these teams have not finalized the stadium site and received all necessary government approvals. D.C. United plays home games at a former NFL and Major League Baseball venue, RFK Stadium; in 2013, D.C. United announced the signing of a public-private partnership term sheet to build a 25,000-seat new soccer stadium in Washington, D.C., and a final deal was reached in late 2014. The New York City FC expansion team will play their games at Yankee Stadium, a Major League Baseball venue, although they intend to move into a soccer specific stadium in the future. The New England Revolution play home games at a National Football League venue, Gillette Stadium, but are currently in discussion with the City of Boston regarding a potential soccer-specific stadium in South Boston.

Several remaining clubs play in stadiums not originally built for MLS and have not announced plans to move. The Seattle Sounders play at CenturyLink Field, a dual-purpose facility used for both American football and soccer. The Vancouver Whitecaps FC joined the league with Portland in 2011 and temporary held matches at Empire Field before moving into the refurbished BC Place in October 2011, a retractable-roof stadium that hosts Canadian football as well as soccer.

Media coverage

Main article: Major League Soccer on television

United States

As of the 2015 season, MLS matches are broadcast nationally by ESPN networks and Fox Sports in English, and Univision networks in Spanish under an eight-year contract. Each broadcaster has a window for national regular season matches, with UniMas airing a game on Friday nights in Spanish and additional matches on Univision Deportes Network, and ESPN and Fox Sports 1 airing games on Sunday evenings in English. ESPN, FS1, and Univision will share in coverage of the playoffs, while ESPN and FS1 will alternate broadcasting the MLS Cup final in English. In total, at least 125 matches will be aired per-season across all three networks, and the three contracts have an average estimated value of $90 million per season—five times larger than the average $18 million value of the previous contracts with ESPN, Univision, and NBC Sports. 7. Matches not televised nationally are broadcast regionally, often by regional sports networks, such as the LA Galaxy and Time Warner Cable SportsNet.

From 2012 to 2014, MLS matches were previously broadcast by NBC Sports, with 40 matches per year—primarily on NBCSN, and select matches broadcast on the NBC network. The move from Fox Soccer to the more widely distributed NBCSN proved successful, with viewership numbers doubling for the 2012 season over those of Fox Soccer.

Canada

Montreal Impact hosting D.C. United (August 2012).

Coverage of MLS expanded into Canada in 2007 with the addition of Toronto FC. Currently, English-language national MLS broadcast rights in Canada are through the TSN networks with a six-year deal for the 2011–2016 seasons. TSN and TSN2 broadcast a minimum of 30 games during each season, all featuring at least one Canadian team. French-language sister networks RDS and RDS2 have similar broadcast rights. The networks also carry additional games not involving Canadian teams. GolTV Canada carries selected all-U.S. MLS matchups.

As in the United States, the individual Canadian teams also have separate broadcast deals for games not aired under the TSN/RDS national contract. TSN and Sportsnet split coverage of Toronto FC non-national games (TSN and Sportsnet's parent companies own a joint majority stake in the team through Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment), TVA Sports airs Montreal Impact games, and TSN broadcasts the Vancouver Whitecaps in a separate deal.

International

MLS signed an international television contract in 2008 through 2013 with sports media company MP & Silva. The figure is reportedly an "eight-figure deal." MP & Silva explained that high-profile, international players who were lured to MLS by the Designated Player Rule have raised the popularity of MLS in international markets. ESPN International purchased the rights to broadcast MLS in the U.K. in 2009, and other ESPN networks around the world also broadcast games. MLS also entered into a four-year contract with Sky Sports to broadcast two MLS matches per week in the UK from 2015–2019. Eurosport will also broadcast MLS between 2015 and 2019, with four matches per week being screened live to its continental audience.

Video games

Major League Soccer is a playable league in both the FIFA and the Football Manager series. The league made its first appearance in the management series Football Manager 2005.

Profitability and revenues

Average franchise valuations

Year	Value
2008	$37m
2013	$103m
2015	$157m

See also: List of professional sports leagues by revenue

Major League Soccer began to demonstrate positive signs of long-term profitability as early as 2004 with the single-entity ownership structure, salary cap, and the media and marketing umbrella Soccer United Marketing (SUM) all contributing towards MLS's financial security. As soccer-specific stadiums are built, ownership expands, and television coverage increases, MLS has seen its revenues increase while controlling costs.

Television coverage and revenue have increased since the league's early years. In 2006, MLS reached an 8-year TV deal with ESPN spanning the 2007–2014 seasons, and marked the first time that MLS earned rights fees, reported to be worth $7–8 million annually. In September 2012 the league extended its distribution agreement with London-based Media rights agency MP & Silva until 2014 in a deal worth $10 million annually. Total league TV revenues are over $40 million annually. In 2011, MLS earned $150 million when it sold a 25% stake in SUM.

Jersey sponsorships

Team	Sponsor	Annual Value
Chicago Fire	Valspar	Undisclosed
Colorado Rapids	Transamerica	Undisclosed
Columbus Crew SC	Barbasol	Undisclosed
D.C. United	Leidos	Undisclosed
FC Dallas	AdvoCare	Undisclosed
Houston Dynamo	BHP Billiton	Undisclosed
LA Galaxy	Herbalife	$4.4 million
Montreal Impact	Bank of Montreal	US$4 million
New England Revolution	UnitedHealthcare	Undisclosed
New York City FC	Etihad Airways	Undisclosed
New York Red Bulls	Red Bull	Owns club
Orlando City SC	Orlando Health	Undisclosed
Philadelphia Union	Bimbo Bakeries USA	$3 million
Portland Timbers	Alaska Airlines	Undisclosed
Real Salt Lake	LifeVantage	$3 million
San Jose Earthquakes	Sutter Health	Undisclosed
Seattle Sounders FC	Xbox	$4 million
Sporting Kansas City	Ivy Funds	$2.5 million
Toronto FC	Bank of Montreal	C$4 million
Vancouver Whitecaps FC	Bell Canada	C$4 million+

In early 2005, MLS signed a 10-year, $150 million sponsorship deal with Adidas. In 2007, MLS teams started selling ad space on the front of jerseys to go along with the league-wide sponsorship partners who had already been advertising on the back of club jerseys, following the practice of international sport, specifically soccer. MLS established a floor of $500,000 per shirt sponsorship, with the league receiving a flat fee of $200,000 per deal. As of July 2014, sixteen teams had signed sponsorship deals to have company logos placed on the front of their jerseys (and another team is directly owned by its shirt sponsor), and the league average from jersey sponsors was about $2.4 million. D.C. United had a jersey sponsorship by Volkswagen over a five-year period from 2008 to 2013.

The Los Angeles Galaxy made a profit in 2003 in their first season at The Home Depot Center, and FC Dallas turned a profit after moving into Pizza Hut Park in 2005. For each season between 2006–2009, two to three MLS clubs (generally clubs with a soccer-specific stadium) were reported as profitable by the league.

By 2012, the league had shown a marked improvement in its financial health. In November 2013, Forbes published its first valuation of MLS teams since 2008, and revealed that ten of the league's nineteen teams earned an operating profit in 2012, while two broke even and seven had a loss. Forbes estimated that the league's collective annual revenues were $494 million, and that the league's collective annual profit was $34 million. Forbes valued the league's franchises to be worth $103 million on average, almost three times as much as the $37 million average valuation in 2008. The Seattle Sounders FC franchise was named the most valuable at $175 million, a 483% gain over the $30 million league entrance fee it paid in 2009.

The trend in increased team values has continued with MLS teams seeing a strong 52% increase in franchise values from 2012 to 2014. In August 2015, Forbes released the updated list of MLS franchise values with the most profitable team weighing in at $245 million and the least at $105 million. The average value jumped from $103 to $157 million.

Rules and officials

MLS follows the rules and standards of the International Football Association Board (IFAB). The playoff extra time structure follows IFAB standards: two full 15-minute periods, followed by a penalty shootout if necessary. Away goals apply to the playoff stage of the competition, but do not apply to overtime in the second leg of any two-legged playoff series.

U.S. Soccer hired the first full-time professional referees in league history in 2007 as part of the league's "Game First" initiatives. Major League Soccer has been implementing fines and suspensions since the 2011 season for simulation (diving) through its Disciplinary Committee, which reviews plays after the match. The first player fined under the new rule was Charlie Davies, fined $1,000 for intentionally deceiving match officials.

Team names

For more information on MLS team names, see the individual team entries.

Originally, in the style of other U.S. sports leagues, teams were given nicknames at their creation. Examples include the Columbus Crew, the San Jose Clash and the Los Angeles Galaxy. Several of the club names in MLS originated with earlier professional soccer clubs, such as the 1970s-era NASL team names San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps.

D.C. United and Miami Fusion F.C. were the only two MLS teams to adopt European naming conventions during the 1990s. However, European-style names have increased in MLS, with expansion teams such as Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC, in addition to 2015 entrants New York City FC and Orlando City S.C., along with several re-brandings such as the Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) and Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City).

The beverage company Red Bull GmbH owns the New York Red Bulls as well as other sports teams.

Player records

See also: Major League Soccer records and statistics and 2015 Major League Soccer season § Statistics

Statistics below are for all-time leaders. Statistics are for regular season only. Bold indicates active MLS players.

Goals

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Landon Donovan	144
2	Jeff Cunningham	134
3	Jaime Moreno	133
4	Ante Razov	114
5	Chris Wondolowski	109
6	Jason Kreis	108
7	Dwayne De Rosario	104
8	Taylor Twellman	101
9	Edson Buddle	100
10	Roy Lassiter	88
	Carlos Ruiz	88

Assists

Rank	Player	Assists
1	Landon Donovan	136
2	Steve Ralston	135
3	Brad Davis	121
4	Carlos Valderrama	114
5	Preki	112
6	Jaime Moreno	102
7	Marco Etcheverry	101
8	Cobi Jones	91
9	Andy Williams	86
10	Chris Henderson	80
	Mauricio Cienfuegos	80

Shutouts

Rank	Player	Shutouts
1	Nick Rimando	123
2	Kevin Hartman	112
3	Joe Cannon	86
4	Jon Busch	83
5	Zach Thornton	76
6	Matt Reis	75
7	Pat Onstad	64
8	Tony Meola	62
9	Donovan Ricketts	56
10	Troy Perkins	53

Games Played

Rank	Player	Games
1	Kevin Hartman	416
2	Nick Rimando	394
3	Kyle Beckerman	379
4	Steve Ralston	378
5	Brad Davis	368
6	Jeff Cunningham	365
7	Davy Arnaud	351
8	Brian Carroll	344
9	Dwayne De Rosario	343
10	Joe Cannon	342

Updated September 27, 2015

Player records (active)

Statistics below are for all-time leaders who are still playing. Statistics are for regular season only.

Goals

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Chris Wondolowski	109
2	Kei Kamara	74
3	Robbie Keane	73
4	Conor Casey	71
5	Álvaro Saborío	67

Assists

Rank	Player	Assists
1	Brad Davis	121
2	Javier Morales	77
3	Justin Mapp	65
4	Sebastien Le Toux	50
5	Kyle Beckerman	48

Shutouts

Rank	Player	Shutouts
1	Nick Rimando	123
2	Bill Hamid	38
	Stefan Frei	38
4	Dan Kennedy	33
5	Sean Johnson	31

Games Played

Rank	Player	Games
1	Nick Rimando	394
2	Kyle Beckerman	379
3	Brad Davis	368
4	Davy Arnaud	351
5	Brian Carroll	344

Updated January 22, 2016

MLS commissioners

• Doug Logan (1996–99)
• Don Garber (1999–present)

MLS awards

At the conclusion of each season, the league presents several awards for outstanding achievements, mostly to players, but also to coaches, referees, and teams. The finalists in each category are determined by voting from MLS players, team employees, and the media.

• MLS Best XI
• MLS Coach of the Year Award
• MLS Comeback Player of the Year Award
• MLS Defender of the Year Award
• MLS Fair Play Award (individual)
• MLS Fair Play Award (team)
• MLS Goal of the Year Award

• MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Award
• MLS Golden Boot
• Landon Donovan MVP Award
• MLS Newcomer of the Year Award
• MLS Referee of the Year Award
• MLS Rookie of the Year Award
• MLS Save of the Year Award

See also

• Canadian Championship
• Canadian Soccer Association
• Generation Adidas
• List of current MLS players
• List of MLS coaches
• List of MLS drafts
• List of MLS seasons
• MLS All-Star Game
• MLS Attendance
• MLS Combine
• MLS Cup Playoffs
• MLS Hall of Fame Game
• MLS International Roster Slots
• MLS Players Union
• MLS Reserve Division
• MLS rivalry cups
• MLS SuperDraft
• MLS on television
• Pan-Pacific Championship
• Sueño MLS
• SuperLiga
• United States Soccer Federation
• United States soccer league system
• US Open Cup
• World Series of Soccer (MLS)

References

External links

• Official website (Mobile)

Preceded by NASL

Division 1 Soccer League in the United States 1996–present

Succeeded by Current League

UpToDate Contents

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• 1. 性染色体異常 sex chromosome abnormalities
• 2. 産後出血の概要 overview of postpartum hemorrhage
• 3. 小児における黄色ブドウ球菌菌血症：マネージメントおよび転帰 staphylococcus aureus bacteremia in children management and outcome
• 4. 抗菌薬感受性試験の概要 overview of antibacterial susceptibility testing
• 5. 子宮筋腫塞栓術 uterine leiomyoma fibroid embolization

English Journal

• Enhanced blood-brain barrier transmigration using a novel transferrin embedded fluorescent magneto-liposome nanoformulation.

• Ding H, Sagar V, Agudelo M, Pilakka-Kanthikeel S, Atluri VS, Raymond A, Samikkannu T, Nair MP.Author information Center for Personalized Nanomedicine, Department of Immunology, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA. Institute of NeuroImmune Pharmacology, Department of Immunology, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA.AbstractThe blood-brain barrier (BBB) is considered as the primary impediment barrier for most drugs. Delivering therapeutic agents to the brain is still a big challenge to date. In our study, a dual mechanism, receptor mediation combined with external non-invasive magnetic force, was incorporated into ferrous magnet-based liposomes for BBB transmigration enhancement. The homogenous magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), with a size of ∼10 nm, were synthesized and confirmed by TEM and XRD respectively. The classical magnetism assay showed the presence of the characteristic superparamagnetic property. These MNPs encapsulated in PEGylated fluorescent liposomes as magneto-liposomes (MLs) showed mono-dispersion, ∼130 ± 10 nm diameter, by dynamic laser scattering (DLS) using the lipid-extrusion technique. Remarkably, a magnetite encapsulation efficiency of nearly 60% was achieved. Moreover, the luminescence and hydrodynamic size of the MLs was stable for over two months at 4 ° C. Additionally, the integrity of the ML structure remained unaffected through 120 rounds of circulation mimicking human blood fluid. After biocompatibility confirmation by cytotoxicity evaluation, these fluorescent MLs were further embedded with transferrin and applied to an in vitro BBB transmigration study in the presence or absence of external magnetic force. Comparing with magnetic force- or transferrin receptor-mediated transportation alone, their synergy resulted in 50-100% increased transmigration without affecting the BBB integrity. Consequently, confocal microscopy and iron concentration in BBB-composed cells further confirmed the higher cellular uptake of ML particles due to the synergic effect. Thus, our multifunctional liposomal magnetic nanocarriers possess great potential in particle transmigration across the BBB and may have a bright future in drug delivery to the brain.
• Nanotechnology.Nanotechnology.2014 Feb 7;25(5):055101. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/25/5/055101. Epub 2014 Jan 9.
• The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is considered as the primary impediment barrier for most drugs. Delivering therapeutic agents to the brain is still a big challenge to date. In our study, a dual mechanism, receptor mediation combined with external non-invasive magnetic force, was incorporated into ferr
• PMID 24406534

• Moving Least-Squares Reconstruction of Large Models with GPUs.

• Merry B, Gain J, Marais P.Author information University of Cape Town Centre and South African Centre for High Performance Computing, Cape Town N/A.AbstractModern laser range scanning campaigns produce extremely large point clouds, and reconstructing a triangulated surface thus requires both out-of-core techniques and significant computational power. We present a GPU-accelerated implementation of the moving least-squares (MLS) surface reconstruction technique. We believe this to be the first GPU-accelerated, out-of-core implementation of surface reconstruction that is suitable for laser range-scanned data. While several previous out-of-core approaches use a sweep-plane approach, we subdivide the space into cubic regions that are processed independently. This independence allows the algorithm to be parallelized using multiple GPUs, either in a single machine or a cluster. It also allows data sets with billions of point samples to be processed on a standard desktop PC. We show that our implementation is an order of magnitude faster than a CPU-based implementation when using a single GPU, and scales well to 8 GPUs.
• IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics.IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph.2014 Feb;20(2):249-61. doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2013.118.
• Modern laser range scanning campaigns produce extremely large point clouds, and reconstructing a triangulated surface thus requires both out-of-core techniques and significant computational power. We present a GPU-accelerated implementation of the moving least-squares (MLS) surface reconstruction te
• PMID 24356367

• High prevalence of β-lactam and macrolide resistance genes in human oral Capnocytophaga species.

• Ehrmann E, Handal T, Tamanai-Shacoori Z, Bonnaure-Mallet M, Fosse T.Author information Pôle odontologie CHU Nice, Nice, France.AbstractOBJECTIVES: To determine macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin (MLS) resistance determinants in the Capnocytophaga genus and to describe the prevalence of β-lactam resistance genes in human oral Capnocytophaga species.
• The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy.J Antimicrob Chemother.2014 Feb;69(2):381-4. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkt350. Epub 2013 Sep 7.
• OBJECTIVES: To determine macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin (MLS) resistance determinants in the Capnocytophaga genus and to describe the prevalence of β-lactam resistance genes in human oral Capnocytophaga species.METHODS: Forty-eight Capnocytophaga isolates identified by analysis of 16S rRNA seq
• PMID 24013195

Japanese Journal

• 拡張現実感を利用した食品ボリュームの操作による満腹感の操作

• 鳴海 拓志,伴 祐樹,梶波 崇,谷川 智洋,廣瀬 通孝
• 情報処理学会論文誌 54(4), 1422-1432, 2013-04-15
• … の1つである食品の見た目の量に着目し,リアルタイムに視覚的な食事ボリュームを変化させてフィードバックする拡張満腹感システムを構築した.このシステムでは,デフォーメーションアルゴリズムであるrigid MLS methodを利用して食品を握る手を適切に変形することで,手のサイズは一定のまま,対象となる食品のみを拡大・縮小することができる.実験により提案システムがユーザの食品摂取量に影響を与えるかを評価した …
• NAID 110009579555

• 実環境雑音下におけるインパルス応答測定波形の最適切り出し方法の検討 (マルチメディア情報ハイディング・エンリッチメント)

• 渋澤 功,金田 豊
• 電子情報通信学会技術研究報告 : 信学技報 112(293), 51-56, 2012-11-16
• NAID 40019523520

• 実環境雑音下におけるインパルス応答測定波形の最適切り出し方法の検討 (応用音響)

• 渋澤 功,金田 豊
• 電子情報通信学会技術研究報告 : 信学技報 112(292), 51-56, 2012-11-16
• NAID 40019523186

Related Links

• 幼児・子供の英会話 教室 ： MLS - トップ

幼児・子供から大人まで五感で学ぶ「ドラマメソッド」英会話教室。 ... 台風6号が関東地方へ接近するとの予報が出ておりますが、MLS各クラスは通常通り行う予定です。充分お気を付けておいでください 。

• MLS｜モデル・ランゲージ・スタジオ

幼児・子供から大人まで五感で学ぶ「ドラマメソッド」英会話教室。 ... MLS（モデル・ランゲージ・スタジオ） 電話：03-3320-1553 FAX：03-3320-3622 受付：月～土 10:00～20:00（日・祝休み） 住所：〒151-0053 東京都渋谷区 ...

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