2015 Major League Soccer season

The 2015 Major League Soccer season is the 103rd season of FIFA-sanctioned soccer in the United States and Canada, the 37th with a national first-division league, and the 20th season of Major League Soccer. The season features 20 total clubs (17 based in the United States, 3 based in Canada). The regular season is held from March 6 through to October 25, whereas the MLS Cup playoffs will be held from October 28 to early December. The defending MLS Cup champions are the LA Galaxy, while Seattle Sounders FC are the defending Supporters Shield winner. It is the first season for expansion teams Orlando City SC and New York City FC, who both join the Eastern Conference, while both Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City move from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference.

Franchises and realignment
The 2015 MLS season features the addition of two expansion sides, New York City FC and Orlando City SC. New York City FC became the second MLS team in the New York metropolitan area (joining the New Jersey-based New York Red Bulls), as well as the first based within New York City itself (the team will play its inaugural season at Yankee Stadium). Orlando is a new market for MLS, which returns to Florida for the first time since folding their Miami and Tampa Bay franchises before the 2002 season; the Lions' ownership previously owned Orlando's USL Pro team from 2010–2014, a team that will relocate to Louisville for 2015.

While MLS added two teams, the league also folded one franchise, Chivas USA, which had called the Los Angeles area home since 2005 and shared the StubHub Center with the LA Galaxy. The Goats had been owned by Mexican club C.D. Guadalajara, who sold the club back to MLS in 2014. The league folded Chivas in October 2014, after the conclusion of the regular season, though it plans to add a second LA-area club in 2017.

With the addition and subtraction of the above-mentioned teams, the 2015 season saw a realignment of MLS' Eastern and Western conferences, which each have 10 teams: NYCFC and Orlando City joined the East, while Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City moved from the East to the West.

Each team plays 34 regular season matches: two or three against conference rivals and once against teams from the opposite conference.

The MLS Cup Playoffs will have 12 teams, up from 10 the last 3 seasons. The top six teams per conference will qualify. The first round per conference has the third-seed hosting the sixth-seed, and the fourth hosting the fifth. In the Conference Semifinals, the top seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the second plays the next-lowest.

The regular season will conclude with all teams playing at the same schedule time, a league first.

Television
The 2015 season saw the launch of a new United States television and media rights deal with English-language ESPN and Fox Sports and Spanish-language Univision Deportes. The deal continues MLS' relationship with ESPN and Univision, while it reestablishes one with Fox Sports, whose Fox Soccer channel carried MLS games until 2011 (NBC Sports carried MLS broadcasts from 2012–2014). The deal, formally announced in May 2014, sees regular weekly game broadcasts on ESPN2 (Sunday afternoons) and Fox Sports 1 (Sunday evenings), as well as a regular Friday night match on UniMás and/or Univision Deportes Network. The networks will share coverage of the MLS Cup Playoffs, while ESPN and Fox will alternate English language carriage of the MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup championship match each year. As part of the deal, the networks also share coverage of the US Soccer men's and women's national teams.

The league reached a four-year agreement with Sky Sports to televise league matches live in the United Kingdom. At least two regular season matches each week, the MLS All-Star Game, and every MLS Cup Playoff match will be aired on the Sky family of networks. MLS also reached a four-year agreement with Eurosport to air live matches in many other European countries.

Overview
The 2015 season began on Friday, March 6. The opening weekend saw an average attendance of 25,838 — buoyed by strong attendances in Orlando (62,510), NYCFC (43,507) and Seattle (39,782) — with seven of the weekend's ten matches selling out. Additionally, MLS saw strong TV ratings on ESPN2 (539,000 viewers), Unimas (341,000 viewers), and Fox Sports 1 (289,000 and 278,500 viewers). The San Jose Earthquakes played their first MLS regular-season game at their new Avaya Stadium on their March 22 home opener, defeating the Chicago Fire 2–1 before a sellout crowd of 18,000.

Personnel and sponsorship
Note: All teams use Adidas as kit manufacturer.

Allocation ranking
The allocation ranking is the mechanism used to determine which MLS club has first priority to acquire a U.S. National Team player who signs with MLS after playing abroad, or a former MLS player who returns to the league after having gone to a club abroad for a transfer fee. The allocation rankings may also be used in the event two or more clubs file a request for the same player on the same day. The allocations will be ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2014 season, taking playoff performance into account.

Once the club uses its allocation ranking to acquire a player, it drops to the bottom of the list. A ranking can be traded provided that part of the compensation received in return is another club’s ranking. At all times each club is assigned one ranking. The rankings reset at the end of each MLS season.

†On January 15, 2015, Los Angeles Galaxy acquired the then-number 3 allocation ranking (original ranking number 5) and allocation money from Colorado Rapids in exchange for the then-number 18 allocation ranking (original ranking number 20), Marcelo Sarvas, and an international roster slot.

On January 27, 2015, New York Red Bulls acquired the then-number 1 allocation ranking (original ranking number 3) and Felipe from Montreal Impact in exchange for the then-number 14 allocation ranking (original ranking number 17), Ambroise Oyongo, Eric Alexander, allocation money, and an international roster slot for the 2015 season.

Conference tables

 * Eastern Conference


 * Western Conference

Average home attendances
Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.

Source: MLS Soccer
 * Updated to games played on 22 March 2015

Top scorers
Source:

Scoring

 * First goal of the season: Jose Villarreal for LA Galaxy against Chicago Fire 65 minutes (March 6, 2015)

Discipline

 * First yellow card of the season: Shaun Maloney for Chicago Fire against LA Galaxy, 22 minutes (March 6, 2015)
 * First red card of the season: Bobby Burling for Colorado Rapids against Philadelphia Union, 68 minutes (March 7, 2015) - Second yellow card
 * First straight red card of the season: Aurélien Collin for Orlando City SC against New York City FC, 83 minutes (March 8, 2015)