Sporting KC
2026 Sporting KC Schedule Released
Sporting Kansas City will compress their 34-game season into a much tighter window in 2026 with the FIFA World Cup set to arrive in the US.
On Thursday, Sporting Kansas City, along with the rest of Major League Soccer, announced the 2026 schedule. The 34-game season will kick off on Saturday, February 21st on the road against the San Jose Earthquakes with the earliest regular season game in club history. The season will conclude on November 7th, Decision Day, also on the road in San Diego.
Sporting KC’s first home game of the 2026 calendar is a week after the opener, when the Columbus Crew come to town on February 28th.
With all of MLS breaking for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup for nearly two months this summer, the schedule will be very compressed with eight midweek games.
Unfortunately for Sporting KC fans, that includes both games with their rivals, St. Louis City SC. They head to St. Louis on Thursday, July 16th for the first game after the World Cup break. The return matchup is on Wednesday, August 19th, when SKC host STL in a nationally televised game on FOX and FS1.
All of the games in MLS this season will be available on Apple TV, with no MLS Season Pass subscription required. Simply subscribe to Apple, or be a season ticket holder, and you can watch every game. Outside of the second St. Louis game, the game on May 2nd against the Seattle Sounders is on FOX as well.
Sporting KC also face FC Cincinnati for the 3rd time in their eight years of existence, once again on the road. Cincy have yet to make the trip to Children’s Mercy Park.
For Sporting KC’s 17 MLS home games, the theme nights will be released by the team in mid-December. October 31st stands out, as Sporting KC host FC Dallas at 7:30 on Halloween night. The possibilities are endless!
For now, MLS are still playing in conferences, so the trips to the East are limited. Columbus is the home opener, but Sporting KC also face the Chicago Fire in Illinois (Sat. April 25th), host New York Red Bulls (May 23rd), away to Atlanta United (Aug 23rd), home against the Philadelphia Union (Sept 19th) and on the road against Nashville SC (Oct 14th).
The full schedule with dates and times is below.
Full 2026 Sporting KC Schedule
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME CT |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Feb. 21 | at San Jose | 9:30 |
| Friday, Feb. 28 | COLUMBUS | 7:30 |
| Friday, March 7 | SAN DIEGO | 7:30 |
| Friday, March 14 | at LA Galaxy | 8:30 |
| Friday, March 21 | COLORADO | 7:30 |
| Friday, April 4 | at Real Salt Lake | 3:30 |
| Friday, April 11 | SAN JOSE | 7:30 |
| Thursday, April 17 | at Vancouver | 9:30 |
| Friday, April 25 | at Chicago | 7:30 |
| Friday, May 2 | SEATTLE | 1:30 |
| Friday, May 9 | at Portland | 9:30 |
| Tuesday, May 13 | LA GALAXY | 7:30 |
| Friday, May 16 | at Austin | 7:30 |
| Friday, May 23 | RED BULL NEW YORK | 7:30 |
| Wednesday, July 16 | at St. Louis | 7:30 |
| Tuesday, July 22 | MINNESOTA | 7:30 |
| Friday, July 25 | at Los Angeles FC | 9:30 |
| Friday, Aug. 1 | HOUSTON | 7:30 |
| Friday, Aug. 15 | at Colorado | 8:30 |
| Tuesday, Aug. 19 | ST. LOUIS | 7:00 |
| Saturday, Aug. 23 | at Atlanta | 6:00 |
| Friday, Aug. 29 | VANCOUVER | 7:30 |
| Saturday, Sept. 5 | at Dallas | 7:30 |
| Wednesday, Sept. 9 | at Seattle | 9:30 |
| Saturday, Sept. 12 | LOS ANGELES FC | 7:30 |
| Saturday, Sept. 19 | PHILADELPHIA | 7:30 |
| Saturday, Sept. 26 | at Houston | 7:30 |
| Friday, Oct. 10 | PORTLAND | 7:30 |
| Tuesday, Oct. 14 | at Nashville | 7:30 |
| Friday, Oct. 17 | REAL SALT LAKE | 7:30 |
| Friday, Oct. 24 | AUSTIN | 7:30 |
| Tuesday, Oct. 28 | at MInnesota | 7:30 |
| Friday, Oct. 31 | DALLAS | 7:30 |
| Friday, Nov. 7 | at San Diego | 6:00 |
Current Sign All-American Suliafu
Who should Sporting KC select in the 2026 MLS Draft? Part One
Juice Boxes and Post Game Stats: Another Split Weekend for KC
Salloi Provides Peek Behind the Scenes in Sporting KC Offseason Vlog
For the Glory KC: Mailbag and News Roundup
Official: Sporting KC Trade for Goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland from Austin FC
The Insane Ticket Costs of the World Cup in Kansas City
What are Sporting KC’s Biggest Areas of Opportunity from Last Season?
No More Children’s Mercy Park, New Kit Release Date and Sporting KC Preseason
I’m sorry, but this is bogus from the MLS schedulers to put both of our rivalry match ups midweek. I looked at all of the other major rivalries in MLS, and only one Hell Is Real and one of the Cascadia Cup games is midweek. Even COL v RSL are both on weekends. I get that we were both trash this year, but the games never disappoint. We should’ve been able to get at least one weekend rivalry game. I also don’t like that they happen just a month apart. There’s so much more excitement when you have one at the beginning of the year and one at the end because it makes the matchups feel more meaningful. The same thing happened this year when we played them in April and again in May. It felt like we didn’t have any big match ups to look forward to for the rest of the season because it all happened at once.
I don’t normally like to be all negative in a post, but this is just very frustrating to me. It feels like we are not prioritized at all by the league.
I’m frustrated too. It makes me wonder, can I trust them to handle this summer to spring schedule when they keep screwing up things like this?
I know making a schedule is a complicated puzzle. Available dates in arenas, etc. But rivalry games belong on the weekends, particularly close ones where fans will travel. I imagine the team is frustrated with this too, because there could be 100s or thousands of fans making the journey across the state and that’s surely going to be diminished on a weeknight.
I also had this conspiracy thought… did MLS make as bad of a schedule as they could so the 2027-28 schedule looks better? 😀 Probably other teams didn’t get screwed as much, but I don’t pay attention to the other teams.