Conception and fundraising When Major League Soccer had its inaugural season in
1996, the league resembled its contemporary North American leagues. After the regular season, the campaign culminated with the
MLS Cup Playoffs, en route to the postseason championship match, the
MLS Cup. The club with the best regular season record received nothing more than the top seed in the playoffs. In 1997, soccer fan Nick Lawrus on a
listserv proposed the notion of a "Supporters'
Scudetto", as a result of the Tampa Bay Mutiny earning the best regular season record but failing to win the
1996 MLS Cup Final. A committee composed of members of all MLS teams' supporters changed the name to "Supporters' Shield" but, due to disagreements between members of the committee, the proposal failed to come to fruition. The following year, another group led by soccer enthusiast Sam Pierron tried to revive the idea by giving an award to the regular season champions. The process to create and purchase the Supporters' Shield was not completed until the last weeks of the 1999 season. Although D.C. United were the first MLS club to win the award, the first-place finishes between 1996 and 1998 have all been awarded the honor retroactively, with their names included on the shield at the time of its creation. Throughout the early to mid-2000s, the Shield received little praise or recognition from MLS or the general public, as the league awarded the MLS Cup winner and runner-up with spots in continental tournaments.
First Shield incentives arrive In February 2006, USSF decided that the Supporters' Shield winner and the MLS Cup winner would represent the United States in the
CONCACAF Champions Cup. If the Supporters Shield winner also wins the MLS Cup, the U.S. Open Cup, or if either spot is won by a Canadian team, the U.S.-based team with the second-highest regular season point total qualifies as well. When the Champions Cup became the CONCACAF Champions League, the United States Soccer Federation gave both the Supporters' Shield winner and the MLS Cup winner direct Group stage spots. On eight occasions (1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2008, 2011, 2017, and 2022) the winner of the Supporters' Shield also won the MLS Cup that same year, becoming the overall champion of the MLS season. In 2011, the league announced that the Shield winner's opponent in the MLS Cup quarterfinals would be the lowest-seeded team remaining.
Redesign As the Shield began to become more prized and grow in significance along with "supporter culture" growing throughout the league, the idea of creating a new Supporters' Shield began at the MLS Supporters Summit during the
2010 MLS Cup in Toronto. The idea continued to gain traction at the then recently formed Independent Supporters Council (ISC) the following two years in
Los Angeles and
Portland, Oregon. The Supporter's Shield Foundation was created out of the ISC meeting in Portland in 2012 with a mission to fund the creation of a new shield and to promote and manage the trophy going forward. The cost of the new Shield was quoted at $18,000 with a majority of the funds raised through the "I Support the Shield"
scarf drive that culminated in the sale of 2000 supporter scarves. With the fundraising complete, in early 2013 the new Supporter's Shield was created. The new shield weighs and is made of sterling silver and stainless steel. The outside of the shield contains a
Telstar football design while the middle of the shield pays homage to the chevron design of the original trophy. The middle of the trophy was designed to be expandable as its winners' names are added to it annually around the chevron. The newly designed shield was first awarded to the
New York Red Bulls on the final day of the
2013 MLS season. This decision caused a great amount of backlash from the MLS community, and was criticized by several members of MLS clubs, including
Toronto FC head coach
Greg Vanney (whose team was top of the Supporters' Shield standings at the time of the decision). Following these negative responses, on October 23 the Supporters' Shield Foundation announced they had reversed their original decision, and the Shield was reinstated for the 2020 season. The
Philadelphia Union won the Supporters' Shield, but were unable to use the actual shield due to a delay in shipping from Los Angeles. A temporary replacement was fashioned from a repurposed
Captain America shield with a vinyl cover by the Union's fabricator shop and lifted by the players. == Winners ==