A new era in Sporting Blue is just three months away. Under the guidance of new President of Soccer Operations & General Manager David Lee, Sporting Kansas City will kick off the club’s 31st season in Major League Soccer on Feb. 21, 2026.
Sporting’s 2026 schedule features 34 regular season matches spanning opening weekend on Feb. 21 through Decision Day on Nov. 7. Sporting will also make a welcome return to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 2026 – U.S. Soccer's domestic cup competition that the club has won on four occasions (2004, 2012, 2015 & 2017).
Season tickets for Sporting’s 2026 campaign are available now by calling 888-4KC-GOAL. Sporting has also launched the My 5 ticket contest for fans to enter to win a ticket package to the five home matches they are most excited to attend in 2026.
Major League Soccer released Sporting Kansas City's full 2026 regular-season schedule on Thursday and here are five essential things for fans to know as the club turns the page into the new year.
1. NEW ERA KICKS OFF THIS FEBRUARY
All eyes are on late February as Sporting kicks off their 2026 campaign with a road match against the San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park on Saturday, Feb. 21 – a fixture where Sporting romped to a 5-3 victory in their last visit to NorCal on April 19, 2025.
The earliest MLS opener in club history – breaking the record set at the start of 2025 when Sporting visited Austin on Feb. 22 – is immediately followed by the club's first-ever regular-season home match in the month of February when Sporting faces the Columbus Crew in the club’s home opener on Saturday, Feb. 28.
Sporting will prepare for the new campaign by splitting preseason between a pair of warm-weather climates. After reporting for entrance physicals in Kansas City on Jan. 10, the squad will head to Florida for a three-week training camp in January before participating in the Coachella Valley Invitational in Palm Springs, California in early February.
2. SKC RETURNS TO THE U.S. OPEN CUP
In welcome news for the club and fans alike, Sporting Kansas City is set to return to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup once again in 2026 after being precluded from the tournament in 2025. Four-time champions (2004, 2012, 2015, 2017) and finalists in 2024, Sporting will enter the 2026 edition in the Round of 32 on April 14.
The single-elimination competition will continue with the Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Final as the winner secures entry into the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Entering its 111th edition, the U.S. Open Cup – U.S. Soccer's National Championship – is open to all professional and amateur teams affiliated with U.S. Soccer, excluding MLS teams that finished in the top nine of their conference the previous season and/or qualified for another cup competition such as the Concacaf Champions Cup.
U.S. Soccer has crowned a champion annually since 1914 (excluding 2020 and 2021) and the Open Cup is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States and the world's third-longest-running open soccer tournament.
3. RENEWING RIVALRY WITH ST. LOUIS
One of the top rivalries in MLS will resume in 2026 as Sporting and St. Louis come to blows on a pair of occasions over the summer.
Fans will have the opportunity to travel 260 miles east on the day MLS returns from the league’s World Cup hiatus as we visit our foes in pink at Energizer Park on Thursday, July 16 – ending an extended drought of MLS action as the league pauses for the world’s biggest sporting event in late May.
Just over a month later, Sporting will look to make it four straight years of unhappy trips home for the pink squad when St. Louis visits Kansas City on Wednesday, Aug. 19. St. Louis has never savored the sweet taste of victory in KC across five attempts – while Sporting famously dumped their cross-state rivals out of the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs by sweeping the Roune One Best-of-3 series, including a 4-1 humiliation at Energizer Park.
4. ENHANCED VIEWING ACCESS ON APPLE TV
New in 2026, all MLS matches will be available to stream for Apple TV subscribers at no additional cost. Entering year four of the broadcast agreement between MLS and Apple, fans can watch every regular-season match, the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, the MLS All-Star Game and more – all included with an Apple TV subscription (previously Apple TV+).
The standalone MLS Season Pass subscription that fans previously needed to access all of their team’s matches will be discontinued at the conclusion of the 2025 season. As part of the transition, an Apple TV subscription will be included as part of 2026 full-season ticket packages with MLS clubs.
In addition to Apple TV, select matches throughout the season will be broadcast nationally in the United States. Two Sporting Kansas City matches will be available on national linear television in 2026: May 2 vs. the Seattle Sounders on FOX and Aug. 19 vs. St. Louis on FS1.
5. ATTENTION SHIFTS TO 2026 WORLD CUP NEXT SUMMER
It may feel like a dream, it may have snuck up on you, but pinch yourselves and realize that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is coming to KC in just seven months.
Kansas City is set to host four Group Stage matches (June 16, 20, 25 and 27), a Round of 32 match (July 3) and a Quarterfinal match (July 11) at Arrowhead Stadium, which will be known as Kansas City Stadium during the tournament.
Major League Soccer will pause during World Cup festivities, with Sporting poised to go just under two months between the club’s home match against Red Bull New York on May 23 and their return to action at St. Louis on July 16. Sporting will play 14 regular-season matches from Feb. 21 through May 23 before playing their final 20 games from July 16 through Nov. 7.
