How Long Does it Take to Hire a Coach in MLS?

279 days and counting. That is how long Sporting Kansas City have been without a permanent head coach. Of course, that’s a bit disingenuous since Kerry Zavagnin was the interim coach until the team announced on December 2nd he would depart officially after not landing the permanent head coaching job.

If you want to look at it that way, the team is just at 33 days and counting. But certainly, the fans don’t look at it that way. No, Sporting KC fans are rightfully feeling all the feelings with preseason set to start in a week. Anxious. Nervous. Upset. Angry.

It’s understandable. David Lee was hired as the President of Soccer Operations and General Manager back on September 30th. 96 days ago, if you are counting, and clearly that’s what we’re doing today. The fans were promised a new direction. Managing co-owner Mike Illig said the team was “stepping into a new era.”

It feels like that “era” has sputtered out of the gate. Not that the hiring of a coach and the signing of (quite a few) players can’t change things in a hurry.

But with a week to go until preseason starts, does this new coach (whenever they do formally get announced) have time to hire a staff, plan for a preseason, finish building a roster, and on and on? It can have even the most optimistic fan, writer or podcast host struggling to see how it comes together anytime soon.

Length of Coaching Vacancies

With all the talk of how long the Sporting KC coaching search has been going on, curious Reddit poster, jasontalks, put together a list of the last two years of MLS coach firings and hirings.

I’m often inspired by Reddit and today is no different. Reddit gets a bad name for its hyperbolic takes in the Sporting KC subreddit. But as someone that’s written thousands of articles and recorded endless hours of podcasts, I’ve been known to have some bad takes too. So, I can hardly criticize.

Below is Jason’s data (with a minor fix) and I want to give him a shout for the idea and the research!

Fastest hire in the last two years*: Inter Miami – 4 days

Slowest hire in the last two years^: CF Montreal – 242 days

*Technically Chicago hired Gregg Berhalter before moving Frank Klopas to a different position
^Sporting KC have gone longer than this, but haven’t officially made a hire

Where Sporting KC Fit in Recent History

As you can see, the duration without a coach runs the gamut. Plenty of coaches were fired early in the season and decisions were made after that respective season ended. Sporting KC’s just stands out because Vermes was hired so early in the season and a new hire has yet to be announced.

In the last two years, 200+ day vacancies are fairly rare. Sporting KC are joined by Atlanta United (2024), St. Louis City and CF Montreal.

In terms of the lateness of a hire, Sporting KC haven’t quite hit the high mark there yet. David Lee hired Pascal Jansen for NYCFC on January 6th of 2024. That’s Tuesday if he wants to beat or meet that. Toronto FC made a hire on January 10th, and the Vancouver Whitecaps hired Jesper Sørensen on January 14th last year and they made the MLS Cup Final.

That Sørensen stat is one I’ve used before. But to compare it to Kansas City is a bit misleading. He inherited an almost fully built team. That’s true of some of these other rosters as well. Sporting KC have just 17 players signed. It’s an uphill climb.

If we want to stretch back to the 2023 season, Minnesota United FC did something very unique. After parting ways with Adrian Heath on October 6th of the prior season, they didn’t make a permanent head coaching hire until announcing Eric Ramsay on February 22nd. That’s mere days before the season had started! Of course, they had an interim coach. Ramsay didn’t even join the team to coach a game until March 16th. Sporting KC won’t let it come to that. Though it sure seems MNUFC got that hire right.

And that’s what matters most. Sporting KC has to get this hire right. I’m still personally quite optimistic about the David Lee hire. I’m not expecting perfection out of the gate, but a few steps in the right direction in the next week would be a welcome sign.