MIAMI (AP) — Lionel Messi and Inter Miami will play a Major League Soccer match in their new stadium for the first time on April 4, one of the highlights of the league's schedule that was revealed Thursday.
The 2026 MLS regular season starts Feb. 21 and runs through Nov. 7. It'll be the last season in the February-to-November model, with a shortened season planned for 2027 and then the new summer-to-spring calendar for the 2027-28 campaign to closer align with other global leagues.
Inter Miami will open the season with five consecutive road matches, which presumably will allow for the finishing touches to be made to Miami Freedom Park — the team's still-under-construction home near Miami International Airport. It's not clear yet if there will be preseason or other matches at the stadium before the April 4 date.
The home opener for Inter Miami will be against Austin FC, a 7:30 p.m. start inside the new 25,000-seat stadium. Messi signed a three-year extension in recent weeks to remain with the team into 2028 and getting that deal done cemented that he — as the team long hoped — would be there for the start of their run at the new facility.
Miami Freedom Park's opening will start a planned run of three new MLS stadiums in a three-season span, with New York City FC's Etihad Park set to open in 2027 and a new downtown stadium for Chicago Fire FC slated to open in 2028.
There will be a nearly two-month break for the FIFA World Cup, with no matches scheduled between May 25 and July 16.
Among the final pre-break matches: a doubleheader on FOX on May 24 with Inter Miami facing Philadelphia followed by LAFC against Seattle.
The MLS season will resume shortly before the end of the World Cup; MLS has some rivalry games scheduled for July 16 and 17, prior to the third-place match on July 18 and the World Cup final on July 19.
All 510 MLS regular season matches next season will be available on Apple TV in more than 100 countries and regions, with no blackouts and — in a change — no additional subscription required. Some MLS matches will also be available on FOX networks in the U.S., along with TSN and RDS in Canada.
There will be 15 matches on the season's opening weekend, Feb. 21 and 22. Among them: St. Louis City SC playing host to Charlotte FC on Feb. 21, before FC Cincinnati takes on Atlanta United in the return of coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino.
Also that night: Messi and Inter Miami open the season against LAFC at the iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Among the Feb. 22 slate: LA Galaxy hosting New York City FC for Sunday Night Soccer on Apple TV, followed by the Seattle Sounders FC and Colorado Rapids playing on FS1.
The MLS All-Star Game will be in Charlotte on July 29, one day after the skills challenge. The opponent for the MLS All-Star Game has yet to be announced.
The league will observe FIFA's November window before opening the playoffs, which will allow for the postseason to run without interruption starting Nov. 18.
The league has not revealed the full postseason schedule.
AP MLS: https://apnews.com/hub/mls-soccer
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi, left, points to teammate Mateo Silvetti (not shown) after scoring during the first half of Game 3 in the first round of MLS soccer's Western Conference playoffs against Nashville SC in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi, left, celebrates with forward Mateo Silvetti, right, after scoring during the first half of Game 3 in the first round of MLS soccer's Western Conference playoffs against Nashville SC in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Investigators found part of the tail of the jet that crashed in South Florida more than a mile from the crater caused when the aircraft made impact.
National Transportation Safety Board member Tom Chapman said during a news conference Tuesday that the discovery of tail parts confirms the plane was breaking apart before it hit the ground.
Chapman said the tail's elevator was broken into three parts, and without that intact, pilot would not have been able to pull the Learjet out of its nose dive.
“The function of the elevator is to control the pitch up and down," he said. "At those speeds I don’t know that it would’ve been effective even if it had still been attached to the aircraft, but knowing that it was lost is a very important piece of evidence in terms of pointing us towards other things to investigate.”
Chapman acknowledged Monday that parts of the jet likely started to break off before it struck the ground. The co-pilot, Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, told air traffic controllers minutes before the crash that ice was accumulating on the plane and that severe turbulence had thrown it up and down by more than 700 feet (210 meters).
“We’re going to die!” she said with a scream before the jet slammed into the ground and erupted in a fireball.
Family and friends of one of the pilots have been posting online about the longtime aviator, husband and father from the Philadelphia suburbs.
Jeff Gregory, 55, was one of two crew members in the cockpit of the Bahamas-bound Learjet 60 as it encountered bad weather and slammed into the ground Sunday afternoon in Greenacres, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of West Palm Beach.
As the plane plunged, a man’s voice could be heard reciting the Lord’s Prayer in the background of the copilot’s final radio transmissions to air traffic control. Friends are convinced it was Gregory, a devout Christian.
Thomas Noetzel, the director of operations at the company that operated the flight, Upper Jets, organized an online fundraiser to support Gregory’s wife and children.
Gregory was a close, personal friend and “knowing him has made me a better person,” Noetzel wrote on the fundraising website GoFundMe.
“Jeff was a devoted, conscientious, and deeply faithful man who had a genuine passion for flying and a strong love for the Lord ,” Noetzel’s father, Walter, posted on Facebook. “His journey on earth may have ended, but I like to think he is now flying among the angels, soaring peacefully in the presence of our Lord.”
Gregory held airline transport pilot and flight instructor certificates, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. He lived in Gilbertsville, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, and had previously worked for a charter company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“We are deeply saddened to learn that Captain Jeff Gregory was among those who lost their lives,” said April Honnen, the director of charter sales for East Coast Jets, Inc., where he worked in 2016 and 2017. “Our prayers go out to Jeff’s family, his fellow crew member, the passengers and everyone affected by this heart breaking tragedy.”
The Learjet hit the ground with enough force to create a crater before bursting into flames. The impact scattered plane fragments over a large area.
Images of the moment just before the aircraft made impact appear to show the elevator — a horizontal stabilizer — missing from the tail. About 600 nearby residents remain displaced, but only one injury was reported on the ground.
The plane took off from Austin, Texas. The victims included technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife, Helen Sharp, and their two young children, relatives said.
Filgueiras' stepfather, Thiago Corteleti, told the New York Post that she texted her boyfriend about 10 minutes before the crash, telling him: “I’ve got turbulence, I’ve got ice.”
The texts were sent before the situation became critical. In the last two minutes of the flight, Filgueiras shifted from calmly communicating with air traffic controllers to calling out terrifying updates as the plane plummeted.
The FAA prohibits commercial airline pilots from using cellphones at any point during a flight. The rules aren’t as strict for pilots of charter flights; they are not supposed to use cellphones during critical phases of flight, such as takeoffs and landings, but are allowed while cruising at altitude unless their company or pilot in command specifically bans it.
Tom Chapman, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said Monday that weather would be a key focus of the investigation. A preliminary report describing what happened will be released in about a month, but it will likely take more than a year to determine the cause of the crash.
This image taken from Aki Kuusisto's video shows a small jet crashing in Palm Beach County, Fla., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (Aki Kuusisto via AP)
Investigators work at the scene of a plane crash in Greenacres, Fla., Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Police stand near the scene of a plane crash in Greenacres, Fla., Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
