Is the MLS Supporters Shield that big of a deal?
Don’t get me wrong, winning silverware is a fantastic achievement for any soccer club. It’s a definitive symbol that they were the best team at that moment in time. Players love winning trophies, fans love winning trophies, and club owners love winning trophies.
But some trophies are more coveted than others.
The MLS Supporters Shield is a major trophy, but the general consensus is that it plays second fiddle to the MLS Cup. Yet, it’s objectively a more difficult trophy to win.
Despite this, some people still don’t pay much attention to the winner of the Supporters Shield. For them, Major League Soccer is all about who gets into the playoffs and wins the final.
In many ways the same can be said for the clubs themselves. Their objective is to finish as high in their conference as possible. They want a spot in the playoffs, first and foremost. I doubt the main aim of any club is to win the Supporters Shield. If they are having a good season and look set to easily make the playoffs they may make a push for the best regular season record too, but it would be an afterthought. The structure of the league dictates as much.
MLS was already 3 seasons old by the time the Supporters Shield came into existence, so it is quite literally an afterthought.
In terms of prestige then, the MLS Supporters Shield isn’t the pinnacle of American soccer. It’s still a major trophy though, and clubs are quick to shout about it if they win. Clubs need hardware to build their own prestige, their own history, so in a young league like MLS it’s very important.
It is important for other reasons too, such as granting the winners qualification for the CONCACAF Champions League, as well as giving them home field advantage during the playoffs.
Formation and History
The Supporters Shield was an idea conceived by soccer fans. The clue is in the name.
A Tampa Bay Mutiny fan named Nick Lawrus came up with it in 1997. The Mutiny had achieved the most points of all teams in the inaugural MLS season, but not won the MLS Cup. He felt they deserved something for their achievement. His team was dissolved a couple of years later, but his trophy idea for the best regular season record survived.
He posted about the potential trophy on an email list (like an online forum before online forums were invented) and the idea caught on. A committee made up of fans from all MLS teams was formed to discuss the idea, but they couldn’t agree on the finer details so it fell through.
A year later, another supporter who had liked the idea formed another group and got the ball rolling again. His name was Sam Pierron, and he approached the league themselves but to no avail. They weren’t interested. So he decided that if MLS weren’t going to help he would make the award himself.
After some fund raising his group had enough money to commission the trophy, and they began awarding it in 1999.
The unofficial nature of the Supporters Shield meant that it received little attention from the MLS, the press, or the fans, but clubs gladly accepted it if they won. It was even awarded retrospectively.
Support for the trophy grew slowly but surely, then, in 2006, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) of which MLS was a member, made an announcement. They had decided the winner of the Supporters Shield would earn a place in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Now it was a legitimate trophy with meaning.
Interest really began to hot up at this point. The shield became a more prized achievement among fans and clubs, and in 2010 talks of a redesign began. Being a fan led initiative though, it took time. The Supporters Shield Foundation was formed in 2012 with the aim of funding and managing the trophy in the future. They raised the $18,000 needed to create the new trophy, and in 2013 it was ready.
It is designed to be expandable as more and more teams are added to it over the years, and the original trophy hasn’t been forgotten, with chevron in the centre paying homage.
Previous Winners
Here is a complete list of every Supporters Shield winner since the trophy came into existence:
| Year | Winning Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | D.C. United | 57 |
| 2000 | Kansas City Wizards | 57 |
| 2001 | Miami Fusion | 53 |
| 2002 | LA Galaxy | 51 |
| 2003 | Chicago Fire | 53 |
| 2004 | Columbus Crew | 49 |
| 2005 | San Jose Earthquakes | 64 |
| 2006 | D.C. United | 55 |
| 2007 | D.C. United | 55 |
| 2008 | Columbus Crew | 57 |
| 2009 | Columbus Crew | 49 |
| 2010 | LA Galaxy | 59 |
| 2011 | LA Galaxy | 67 |
| 2012 | San Jose Earthquakes | 66 |
| 2013 | New York Red Bulls | 59 |
| 2014 | Seattle Sounders | 64 |
| 2015 | New York Red Bulls | 60 |
| 2016 | FC Dallas | 60 |
| 2017 | Toronto FC | 69 |
| 2018 | New York Red Bulls | 71 |
| 2019 | LAFC | 72 |
| 2020 | Philadelphia Union | 47* |
| 2021 | New England Revolution | 73 |
| 2022 | LAFC | 67 |
| 2023 | FC Cincinnati | 69 |
| 2024 | Inter Miami CF | 74 |
*The 2020 season was cut short due to COVID
You will notice the total points scored have increased over the years. This is due to the constant addition of expansion teams to the league. Obviously, when new teams are added the number of games played per season increases, so more points are scored.
From Silverware No One Cared About to a Major Trophy
When it first came about, it’s fair to say that no one really cared about the Supporters Shield. It wasn’t prestigious, it didn’t mean a great deal to many people, and it was mostly ignored.
These days the opposite is true. There are still a few people who shrug it off, but it is officially classed as a major trophy. Not just in name either. Fans and clubs are genuinely delighted to win it. Check out FC Cincinnati celebrating their 2023 MLS Supporters Shield win with their fans:
Big night for FCC but also a big night for the Shield itself, these are some of the most lit celebrations that I can remember seeing from those who’ve won it https://t.co/VD5EeiABP1
— Charles Boehm (@cboehm) October 1, 2023
Very happy campers.
So what changed? How did it go from barely raising a smile to causing fans to have parties in the street?
Well, when the USSF legitimised the trophy in 2006 by giving the winners a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League it was a huge turning point. Even soccer fans who didn’t care about it had to acknowledge it now held significance. The advantage given to winners in the playoffs also helped.
More than anything though, the fact it has been around for over 25 years gives it a level of prestige. People like winning things. It’s hard for a fan to say they don’t care about a trophy their team has won. As the shield has been won by more and more teams over the years, it has gradually won over more and more fans. As MLS attracts new generations of fans, they accept the trophy as they find it, so that initial apathy fades away.
I think another thing that made the Supporters Shield more prestigious, is the fact that it got harder to win with every expansion club that joined the league. Having the best regular season record of 12 clubs isn’t quite as impressive as achieving the same in a league of 29 or 30 clubs. These days, anyone can see that winning the shield is no mean feat!
In a league with the structure of MLS, it’s important to recognise and reward the achievements of the regular season. It would be incredibly deflating to be the best team in the league and fall at the first hurdle of the playoffs. Fans would lose interest if there was no pay off. As time has gone on, people have realised that the Supporters Shield is more important than they perhaps first thought.
It has taken time to shed the reputation of a cheap meaningless gong no one cares about, but now, the MLS Supporters Shield is one of the most coveted trophies in American soccer.
Supporters Shield vs MLS Cup: Which is Harder to Win?
The Supporters Shield is harder to win than the MLS Cup.
To win the Supporters Shield, you need the best regular season record of both conferences across the entire season of 34 games (as of 2024). By definition then, the winners are the best and most consistent team of the year.
The MLS Cup is essentially a mini competition completely separate from the regular season. Once a club earns its place their regular season record is irrelevant. It’s like a complete reset. All that matters is getting through each stage.
An underdog can’t slip through and win the MLS Supporters Shield in the same way they can win the MLS Cup. Think about Real Salt Lake’s unexpected MLS Cup win in 2009, or the Seattle Sounders’ in 2016.
Real Salt Lake were the lowest seeded team in the playoffs in 2009, but surprised everyone by beating Columbus Crew in the Conference Semi Finals. They won the Conference Final and the MLS Cup itself on penalties. The Seattle Sounders had a more difficult playoff structure to navigate by 2016. They barely squeezed through the Conference Semi Finals and didn’t even register a shot on target in the final against Toronto FC. They too won it on penalties.
This simply couldn’t happen with the Supporters Shield.
A club can come 9th out of 15 and qualify for the playoffs. They don’t have to have a great season. In fact, they can have a below average season and still get a place. They just need to be in the top 60%. From there, a lucky run can see them winning the biggest prize in American soccer.
For example, in 2024 Atlanta finished 9th in the Eastern Conference then made it all the way to the Conference Semi Finals during the playoffs. In the MLS Supporters Shield standings they finished in 20th place out of 29 teams. This made them the worst performing team to gain a playoff spot that year. Yet they got the the final 8. Only 4 teams performed better than them in the MLS Cup, making them joint 5th I guess.
You can win the MLS Cup in 6 games. The Supporters Shield is a better test of a team’s overall quality because it is won over a much larger range of games.