Major League Soccer teams will not compete in the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the league announced Friday. Instead, MLS will have its developmental teams, which play in third-division MLS Next Pro, partake in the nation’s oldest ongoing tournament, which was first held in 1914.
The league will reassess its first teams’ involvement after the 2024 season to determine whether this change will become the new standard for participation.
Among the chief drivers of this decision was an aim to decrease schedule congestion after Los Angeles FC played a record 53 competitive games in 2023.