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.
Teams, stadiums, and personnel
Stadiums and locations
| Chicago Fire | Chivas USA/ Los Angeles Galaxy | Colorado Rapids | Columbus Crew | D.C. United | FC Dallas |
| Toyota Park | StubHub Center | Dick's Sporting Goods Park | Crew Stadium | RFK Memorial Stadium | Toyota Stadium |
| Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 27,000 | Capacity: 18,086 | Capacity: 20,145 | Capacity: 19,467† | Capacity: 21,193 |
| Houston Dynamo | Montreal Impact | New England Revolution | New York Red Bulls | Philadelphia Union | Portland Timbers |
| BBVA Compass Stadium | Saputo Stadium | Gillette Stadium | Red Bull Arena | PPL Park | Providence Park |
| Capacity: 22,000 | Capacity: 20,341 | Capacity: 22,385† | Capacity: 25,189 | Capacity: 18,500 | Capacity: 20,323 |
| Real Salt Lake | San Jose Earthquakes | Seattle Sounders FC | Sporting Kansas City | Toronto FC | Vancouver Whitecaps FC |
| Rio Tinto Stadium | Buck Shaw Stadium | CenturyLink Field | Sporting Park | BMO Field | BC Place |
| Capacity: 20,213 | Capacity: 10,525 | Capacity: 38,500† | Capacity: 18,467 | Capacity: 21,859 | Capacity: 21,000† |
†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.| Team | Head coach | Captain | Shirt sponsor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chicago Fire |  sortname|Frank|KlopasManagerial changesPlayer transfersMajor 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 rankingThe 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.
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