Here’s what we’ve heard about the rest of the 2020 MLS regular season

As the MLS is Back Tournament finishes up on August 11th, many are shifting their attention towards the rest of the regular season. Head Coach Robin Fraser and several Colorado Rapids players talked about taking the lessons they had learned in the tournament and getting to work once they got back to Colorado, even though they weren’t sure what was next.

Since then, rumors have been coming out from reliable sources (mainly Sam Stejskal and Jeff Rueter) about when the season might resume and what it might look like. Here’s what we’ve heard so far.

• The regular season may start up again on August 22nd.
• In Phase One, teams would play six games between August 22nd—September 13th. The three Canadian teams would stay in Canada and only play against each other during this phase (Canada has shut down its borders).
• In Phase Two, teams would play 12 games from September 16th—November 8th.
• Clubs would play teams within their own conference to minimize travel.
• This would come to a total of 23 games for the regular season.
• Nashville SC and FC Dallas would play an additional three games against each other to make up for missing the Group Stage in the tournament.
• Nine teams per conference would make it to the playoffs starting on November 20th and the MLS Cup Final would be on December 12th.
• Fans would be allowed to attend games based on guidelines from state and local governments.

Read more about this on The Athletic: Revealed: MLS’s tentative plan for resuming season in home markets and Why MLS deserves credit for its bubble, skepticism for its regular season plans.

A tentative schedule has also been released, per Steven Goff:

There has yet to be any official word from MLS or any news on who the Rapids’ first opponent might be.