2013 Major League Soccer season

The 2013 Major League Soccer season was the 18th season of Major League Soccer. It was also the 101st season of FIFA-sanctioned soccer in the United States, and the 35th with a national first-division league.

The regular season began on March 2 and concluded on October 27. The New York Red Bulls won their first ever Supporters' Shield. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on October 31 and ended on December 7, when Sporting Kansas City won MLS Cup in a penalty shootout over Real Salt Lake. It was the third MLS Cup to be decided on penalties.

Stadiums and locations
†Actual capacity is higher; seats rationed for soccer games

Personnel and sponsorships
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Player transfers
Major League Soccer employs 12 methods to acquire players. These include: signing players on transfers/free transfers as is done in most of the world; via trades; drafting players through mechanisms such as the MLS SuperDraft, MLS Supplemental Draft, or MLS Re-Entry Draft; rarely used methods which cover extreme hardship and injury replacement; signing players as Designated Players or Homegrown Players; placing a discovery claim on players; waivers; and methods peculiar to MLS such as through allocation or a weighted lottery.

Allocation ranking
The allocation ranking is the mechanism used to determine which MLS club has first priority to acquire a U.S. National Team player who signs with MLS after playing abroad, or a former MLS player who returns to the League after having gone to a club abroad for a transfer fee. The allocation rankings may also be used in the event two or more clubs file a request for the same player on the same day. The allocations will be ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2012 season, taking playoff performance into account.

Once the club uses its allocation ranking to acquire a player, it drops to the bottom of the list. A ranking can be traded, provided that part of the compensation received in return is another club's ranking. At all times, each club is assigned one ranking. The rankings reset at the end of each MLS League season.

†On December 12, 2012, Portland Timbers acquired the number 2 ranking from Chivas USA in exchange for the number 3 ranking and an international roster spot.

On February 19, 2013, Chivas USA traded the No. 3 ranking to Seattle Sounders FC in the Shalrie Joseph trade. It was also reported that Seattle sent the No. 15 allocation ranking to Chivas USA as part of the deal, although Seattle appeared to have owned the No. 16 selection and not the No. 15 selection.


 * 1) On July 1, 2013, Chivas USA acquired the number 1 allocation ranking from Toronto FC in exchange for the #16 ranking, a first-round pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, and an international roster spot.

Weighted lottery
Some players are assigned to MLS teams via a weighted lottery process. A team can only acquire one player per year through a weighted lottery. The players made available through lotteries include: (i) Generation adidas players signed after the MLS SuperDraft; and (ii) Draft eligible players to whom an MLS contract was offered but who failed to sign with the League prior to the SuperDraft.

The team with the worst record over its last 30 regular season games (dating back to previous season if necessary and taking playoff performance into account) will have the greatest probability of winning the lottery. Teams are not required to participate in a lottery. Players are assigned via the lottery system in order to prevent a player from potentially influencing his destination club with a strategic holdout.

Below are the results of 2013 weighted lotteries:

Average attendance
Source:

Eastern Conference

 * Chicago Fire: Frank Klopas
 * Columbus Crew: Robert Warzycha
 * D.C. United: Ben Olsen
 * Houston Dynamo: Dominic Kinnear
 * Montreal Impact: Marco Schällibaum
 * New England Revolution: Jay Heaps
 * New York Red Bulls: Mike Petke
 * Philadelphia Union: John Hackworth
 * Sporting Kansas City: Peter Vermes
 * Toronto FC: Ryan Nelsen

Western Conference

 * Chivas USA: José Luis Real
 * Colorado Rapids: Óscar Pareja
 * FC Dallas: Schellas Hyndman
 * Los Angeles Galaxy: Bruce Arena
 * Portland Timbers: Caleb Porter
 * Real Salt Lake: Jason Kreis
 * San Jose Earthquakes: Mark Watson
 * Seattle Sounders FC: Sigi Schmid
 * Vancouver Whitecaps FC: Martin Rennie