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Season (sports)

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In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of September.[1] In other team sports, like association football or basketball, it is generally from August or September to May although in some countries - such as Northern Europe or East Asia - the season starts in the spring and finishes in autumn, mainly due to weather conditions encountered during the winter.

A year can often be broken up into several distinct sections (sometimes themselves called seasons). These are: a preseason, a series of exhibition games played for training purposes; a regular season, the main period of the league's competition; the postseason, a playoff tournament played against the league's top teams to determine the league's champion; and the offseason, the time when there is no official competition.

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Sports league

Sports league

A sports league is a group of individual athletes, sports teams or clubs who form a league to compete against each other and gain points in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an international professional league making large amounts of money and involving dozens of teams and thousands of players.

Year

Year

A year is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons are generally recognized: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In tropical and subtropical regions, several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons; but in the seasonal tropics, the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked.

Sport

Sport

Sport pertains to any form of physical activity or game, often competitive and organised, that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, through casual or organised participation, improve participants' physical health. Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals. In certain sports such as racing, many contestants may compete, simultaneously or consecutively, with one winner; in others, the contest is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other. Some sports allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure one winner and one loser. A number of contests may be arranged in a tournament producing a champion. Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs.

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. Formed in 1876 and 1901 respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903. They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.

Team sport

Team sport

A team sport includes any sport where individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win or cooperate to entertain their audience. Team members act together towards a shared objective. This can be done in a number of ways such as outscoring the opposing team. Team members set goals, make decisions, communicate, manage conflict, and solve problems in a supportive, trusting atmosphere in order to accomplish their objectives. Examples are basketball, volleyball, rugby, water polo, handball, lacrosse, cricket, baseball, and the various forms of football, and hockey. Team sports require internal coordination between members of the team in order to achieve success.

Association football

Association football

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposite team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is considered the world's most popular sport.

Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball through the defender's hoop, while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.

Preseason

In association football, many clubs tour and then they have a series of exhibition games for training purposes.

In baseball, many clubs go to spring camp and then they have spring training. The National Football League preseason is a highly structured three-game series of games in which teams are afforded a larger roster limit and play games that do not count toward the record. It is used to evaluate and prepare talent for the upcoming regular season.

In the highest levels of professional tennis, the preseason (November–December) consists of extensive period of training on and off the court (gym/fitness work as well as working on tennis-specific skills like for example improving the accuracy of serve).

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Exhibition game

Exhibition game

An exhibition game is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or the team's rankings is either zero or otherwise greatly reduced. In team sports, matches of this type are often used to help coaches and managers select and condition players for the competitive matches of a league season or tournament. If the players usually play in different teams in other leagues, exhibition games offer an opportunity for the players to learn to work with each other. The games can be held between separate teams or between parts of the same team.

Spring training

Spring training

Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives established players practice time prior to competitive play. Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warm climates of Arizona and Florida to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play.

Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball validly will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.

Regular season

In sport, the term "regular season" or "home and away season"[2] refers to the sport's league competition. The regular season is usually similar to a group tournament format: teams are divided into groups, conferences and/or divisions, and each club plays a set number of games against a set number of opponents. In most countries the league is played in a double round-robin format, where every team plays every other team twice, once at their home venue, and once away at the opposition's venue as visitors. The results over all games are accumulated and when every team has completed its full schedule of games, a winner is declared.

In North America, the scheduling is different. Rather than every team playing all others twice, teams usually play more games against local rivals than teams in other parts of the country. For example, the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers will play the Los Angeles Clippers (a team within their division, a subdivision of the conference) four times in a regular season, while both will only play the Toronto Raptors, who are in the opposite Eastern Conference, twice. Part of this is due to the vast geographic distances between some teams in North America — measured in a straight line, Los Angeles is 3,494 kilometres from Toronto, for instance — and a desire to limit travel expenses. In the scheduling system used in the NFL, it is possible for two teams to only meet every four years, and to only have 2 common opponents in a season. Major League Baseball has the most uneven schedules of all the four major North American sports. In MLB, the conferences are called leagues instead, but have exactly the same effect as conferences (as with all North American major leagues, leagues, conferences, and division are not based on skill, but instead geography, history, and rivalries). Teams play 19 games against each of the teams in their own division each year but will only play 20 games total against all of the teams in the other league. Because each of the inter-league match-ups is part of a 3-game series or a 2-game series, teams will play no games at all against most teams from the other league. They play 6 of the 15 teams in the other league, a historically high number (until 1997, interleague play was limited to exhibition matches and the postseason World Series, and thus MLB teams did not play the other league's teams at all).

In Australia, the two largest football leagues, the AFL (Australian rules football) and NRL (rugby league), both grew out of competitions held within a single city (respectively Melbourne and Sydney) and only began expanding to the rest of the country when inexpensive air travel made a national league possible. These leagues use a single table instead of being split into divisions. The term "home and away season" is sometimes used instead of regular season.

Many football leagues in Latin America have a very different system. Because most Latin American countries never had a football cup competition, they instead split their season into two parts, typically known as the Apertura and Clausura (Spanish for "opening" and "closing"). Most countries that use this system, Argentina being one notable example, crown separate league champions for each part of the season, using only league play. A few others, such as Uruguay, crown one champion at the end of a playoff involving top teams from each half of the season. Mexico operates its Apertura and Clausura as separate competitions that both end in playoffs. Brazil has a different system, the season starts with the state championships in January (every Brazilian state have his own championship), these state championships ends in April. The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A itself starts in May and ends in early December, and is played in a double round-robin format in the same way as the European championships.

A system similar to the Apertura and Clausura developed independently in Philippine professional basketball, with formerly two, now three tournaments (called "conferences") in one season, with each conference divided into an "elimination round" (the single round-robin group stage) and the playoffs in the North American sense. Winning the playoffs is the ultimate goal of every team for every conference; while there is no season championship, winning all conferences within a single season is rare and has only happened five times since 1975, with the two most recent examples occurring in 1996 and 2013–14. The qualifying round and playoffs setup has permeated down to the local level and in most team sports, although seasons are not divided into conferences.

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National Basketball Association

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in Northern America composed of 30 teams. It is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier men's professional basketball league in the world.

Los Angeles Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their home games at Crypto.com Arena, an arena shared with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association, and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA, and have won 17 NBA championships, tied with the Boston Celtics for the most in NBA history.

Los Angeles Clippers

Los Angeles Clippers

The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clippers play their home games at Crypto.com Arena, which they share with NBA team Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Clippers plan to move into their own arena, the Intuit Dome, in nearby Inglewood by 2024.

Eastern Conference (NBA)

Eastern Conference (NBA)

The Eastern Conference is one of two conferences that make up the National Basketball Association (NBA), the other being the Western Conference. Both conferences consist of 15 teams organized into three divisions.

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. Formed in 1876 and 1901 respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903. They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball. MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada.

Athletic conference

Athletic conference

An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conferences often, but not always, include teams from a common geographic region.

Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada

Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada

The major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada commonly refer to the highest men's professional competitions of team sports in those countries. The four leagues traditionally included in the definition are Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL). Other prominent leagues include Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Interleague play

Interleague play

Interleague play in Major League Baseball refers to regular-season baseball games played between an American League (AL) team and a National League (NL) team. Interleague play was first introduced during the 1997 Major League Baseball season. Prior to that, matchups between AL teams and NL teams occurred only during spring training, the All-Star Game, other exhibition games, and the World Series. Unlike modern interleague play, none of these contests, except for the World Series, counted toward official team or league records.

Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League (AFL) is a company operating the premier and only fully professional competition of Australian rules football and the AFL Women's and other competitions. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season in 1897. It changed its name to Australian Football League in 1990 after expanding its competition to other Australian states in the 1980s. The AFL publishes its Laws of Australian football, which are used, with variations, by other Australian football organisations.

Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval ball between the central goal posts, or between a central and outer post.

National Rugby League

National Rugby League

The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and media giant News Corporation-controlled Super League, in the aftermath of the 1990s Super League war, in which both ran parallel to each other in 1997. The partnership was dissolved in 2012, with control of the NRL going to the re-constituted ARL, which was re-structured with an independent board of directors and renamed the Australian Rugby League Commission.

Apertura and Clausura

Apertura and Clausura

The Apertura [apeɾˈtuɾa] and Clausura [klawˈsuɾa] tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is divided in two sections per season, each with its own champion. Apertura and Clausura are the Spanish words for "opening" and "closing". In French-speaking Haiti, these are known as the Ouverture and the Fermeture, while in English-speaking Belize, they are respectively the Opening and Closing seasons. When used in the United States and Canada, they are known as the Spring and Fall seasons.

Postseason

Many sports leagues have playoffs or "finals" that occur after the regular season is complete. A subset of the teams enter into a playoff tournament, usually a knockout tournament, generally a pre-determined number with better overall records (more wins, fewer losses) during the regular season. There are many variations used to determine the champion, the league's top prize. In many of these leagues, winning the league's top prize at the conclusion of the postseason is more important than winning the regular season. This includes the five major U.S. and Canada sports leagues (Super Bowl, Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals, World Series and MLS Cup), the major Australian sports (BBL Grand Final, NBL Grand Final, A-League Grand Final, AFL Grand Final and NRL Grand Final) and the CFL's Grey Cup.

European leagues have also started holding playoffs after a double round-robin "regular season". The Football League started its promotion playoffs in 1987, with the third up to the sixth-ranked teams participating for the final promotion berth (the two top teams are automatically promoted). Elsewhere, relegation playoffs are also held to determine which teams would be relegated to the lower leagues. One prominent top-level football league, the Eredivisie of the Netherlands, uses two different playoffs—one for relegation purposes, and the other to determine one of the league's entrants in the following season's UEFA Europa League. In Superleague Greece, which currently has two places in the UEFA Champions League and three in the Europa League, the teams that finish second through fifth in the regular season enter a home-and-away "playoff" mini-league. Since one Europa League place is reserved for the country's cup winner, only three of the four teams are guaranteed a place in the next season's European competitions (unless both the cup winner and runner-up are already qualified for Europe by other means). The playoff determines the country's second Champions League participant, and the points at which the two or three Europa League entrants join that competition. Conversely, some leagues like the Premier League do not hold a postseason, and therefore these leagues' champions and relegation are instead based on the regular season records.

Although rugby union did not become professional until 1995, that sport has a long history of playoffs, primarily in France and the Southern Hemisphere. The French national championship, now known as Top 14, staged a championship final in its first season of 1892, first used more than one round of playoffs in 1893, and has continuously operated a playoff system (except during the two World Wars) since 1899. South Africa's Currie Cup has determined its champions by playoffs since 1968, and New Zealand's National Provincial Championship, the top level of which is now known as the Mitre 10 Cup, has used playoffs since its creation in 1976. Argentina's Nacional de Clubes has determined its champion by playoffs since its inception in 1993. Currently, two separate competitions feed into the Nacional, the Torneo de la URBA (for Buenos Aires clubs, held since 1899) and Torneo del Interior (for the rest of the country); both use playoffs to determine their champions. Super Rugby, involving regional franchises from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa and national franchises in Argentina and Japan, has used playoffs to determine its champions since its creation as Super 12 in 1996.

By contrast, other European countries were slow to adopt playoffs in rugby union. The English Premiership only began playoffs in 1999–2000, and did not use them to determine the league champion until 2002-03. The Celtic League, now known as Pro14, resisted a playoff system even longer; its champions were determined solely by league play from its inception in 2001–02 until playoffs began in 2009–10.

When the UEFA Champions League reformatted in 1993, it added a "knockout stage" involving four teams that finished at the top two places in their respective groups. Like North American sports leagues, this setup prevented some participants from facing each other, necessitating a two-round knockout stage to determine the champions. It has since been expanded to the 4-round knockout stage today. The Copa Libertadores has applied a knockout stage since the 1988 tournament, expanding to the current four-round format next season. All intercontinental club football competitions now feature a knockout stage.

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Playoffs

Playoffs

The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a tournament, and may use a single-elimination system or one of several other different playoff formats. Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to the next round of a competition or tournament.

Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada

Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada

The major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada commonly refer to the highest men's professional competitions of team sports in those countries. The four leagues traditionally included in the definition are Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL). Other prominent leagues include Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Super Bowl

Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game is played on the second Sunday in February. Prior Super Bowls were played on Sundays in early to mid-January from 1967 to 1978, late January from 1979 to 2003, except 2002, and the first Sunday of February from 2004 to 2021. Winning teams are awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named for the coach of the Green Bay Packers who won the first two Super Bowls. Due to the NFL restricting use of its "Super Bowl" trademark, it is frequently referred to as the "big game" or other generic terms by non-sponsoring corporations. The day the game is played is often referred to as "Super Bowl Sunday" or simply "Super Sunday".

Stanley Cup Finals

Stanley Cup Finals

The Stanley Cup Finals in ice hockey is the National Hockey League's (NHL) championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, North America's oldest professional sports trophy.

NBA Finals

NBA Finals

The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awarded the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, which replaced the original Walter A. Brown Trophy in 1977, though under the same name.

MLS Cup

MLS Cup

The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference Final. The MLS Cup winner is awarded the title of league champion.

NBL Grand Final

NBL Grand Final

The NBL Grand Final is the annual championship series of the National Basketball League (NBL). The entrants are determined by the victors of the two Semi Finals series, who engage in a best-of-five game series to determine the league champion. The winners of the Grand Final series are awarded the Dr John Raschke Trophy.

AFL Grand Final

AFL Grand Final

The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. From its inception until 1989, it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league at that time was the Victorian Football League. Played at the end of the finals series, the game has been held annually since 1898, except in 1924. It is traditionally staged on the afternoon of the last Saturday in September, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

NRL Grand Final

NRL Grand Final

The NRL Grand Final determines the champions of the National Rugby League club competition. It is a major sport event in Australia. Since 1999, it has been contested at Stadium Australia in Sydney. The first year it was held at Stadium Australia, it set a new record for attendance at an Australian rugby league game, with 107,999 people attending.

Canadian Football League

Canadian Football League

The Canadian Football League is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a city in Canada. They are divided into two divisions: four teams in the East Division and five teams in the West Division.

Grey Cup

Grey Cup

The Grey Cup is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners of the CFL's East and West Divisional playoffs and is one of Canadian television's largest annual sporting events. The Toronto Argonauts have the most Grey Cup wins (18) since its introduction in 1909, while the Edmonton Elks have the most Grey Cup wins (11) since the merger in 1958. The latest, the 109th Grey Cup, took place in Regina, Saskatchewan on November 20, 2022, when the Toronto Argonauts defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24–23.

Eredivisie

Eredivisie

The Eredivisie is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. As of the 2020–21 season, it is ranked the sixth-best league in Europe by UEFA.

Off-season

The off-season, vacation time, or close season is the time of year when there is no official competition. Although upper management continues to work, the athletes will take much vacation time off. Also, various events such as drafts, transfers and important off-season free agent signings occur. Generally, most athletes stay in shape during the off-season in preparation for the next season. Certain new rules in the league may be made during this time, and will become enforced during the next regular season.

As most countries which have a league in a particular sport will operate their regular season at roughly the same time as the others, international tournaments may be arranged during the off season.

For example, most European football league club competitions run from July or August to May, subsequently major international competitions such as the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Football Championship are organised to occur in June and July.

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Offseason (film)

Offseason (film)

Offseason is a 2021 supernatural horror film written and directed by Mickey Keating. It stars Jocelin Donahue, Joe Swanberg, Richard Brake, and Melora Walters. The film premiered at South by South West in March 2021 before a theatrical release by RLJE Films on March 11, 2022.

Annual leave

Annual leave

Annual leave is a period of paid time off work granted by employers to employees to be used for whatever the employee wishes. Depending on the employer's policies, differing number of days may be offered, and the employee may be required to give a certain amount of advance notice, may have to coordinate with the employer to be sure that staffing is the employee's absence, and other requirements may have to be met. The vast majority of countries today mandate a minimum amount of paid annual leave by law.

Free agent

Free agent

In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is allowed to solicit offers from other teams. In some circumstances, the free agent's options are limited by league rules.

FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested among the senior men's national teams of the 211 members by the sport's global governing body - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The tournament has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War. The reigning champions are Argentina, who won their third title at the 2022 tournament.

Seasons by league

The table represents typical seasons for some leagues by month. Blank or white denotes off-season and pre-season months and solid colors mark the rest of the year. Leagues in the same sport use the same color.

  • "E" denotes exhibition/preseason games.
  • "Q" denotes pre-competition qualifiers.
  • "S" denotes the start of the regular-season.
  • "P" denotes playoff(s)/postseason/knockout stages.
  • "F" denotes Final(s).
League Sport Countries/Regions Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
ABL Baseball Australia P F               S    
A-League Association football Australia New Zealand       P F         S    
ACB Basketball Spain[nb 1]         P P F     S      
AFC Champions League Association football Asia   Q S           P P F
AFL Australian rules football Australia     S           P F      
AIHL Ice hockey Australia       S       P F        
ATP World Tour Tennis Worldwide S                   F  
ANZ Premiership Netball New Zealand         S   P F          
AUDL Ultimate Frisbee United States Canada       S       P F        
Asia Series Baseball Asia                     P F  
Bangladesh Premier League Cricket Bangladesh                     S P F
Basketbol Süper Ligi Basketball Turkey         P P F     S      
Big Bash League Cricket Australia   P F                   S
CAF Champions League Association football Africa   Q Q S             P F  
Bundesliga Association football Germany               S        
Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Association football Brazil         S              
CFL Canadian football Canada         E E S         P F  
Caribbean Premier League Cricket Barbados Guyana Jamaica Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Trinidad and Tobago           S P F          
Chinese Super League Association football China     S                  
CEV Champions League Volleyball Europe P P P F         Q Q S
CONCACAF Champions League Association football North America   P P P F                
CONCACAF League Association football North America               P P P F    
Copa Libertadores Association football South America S P P F            
Copa Sudamericana Association football South America               S P P F
County Championship Cricket England Wales         S      
CPBL Baseball Taiwan     S             F    
DTM Motorsport Germany       S                
Euro Beach Soccer League Beach soccer Europe           S P F      
European Rugby Champions Cup[nb 2] Rugby union Europe       P F         S    
European Tour[nb 3] Golf Europe[nb 4]                     F S
Formula One Motorsport Worldwide     S                  
GFL American football Germany S         P F
Greek Basket League Basketball Greece         P P F       S    
Handball-Bundesliga Handball Germany                 S      
HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Rugby sevens (union) Worldwide                   S    
Indian Premier League Cricket India       S P F            
IndyCar Series Motorsport United States[nb 5]     S                  
J1 League Association football Japan     S                  
KBL Basketball South Korea     P F           S    
KBO Baseball South Korea       S           P F    
KHL Ice hockey Belarus China Finland Kazakhstan Latvia Russia[nb 6]     P P F         S      
La Liga Association football Spain               S        
LBPRC Baseball Puerto Rico P F                 S    
Lega Basket Serie A Basketball Italy         P P F       S    
LCS Esports United States S     P F   S     P F      
LIDOM Baseball Dominican Republic P F                 S    
Liga MX Association football Mexico[nb 7] S       P   F     S     P P   F
Ligue 1 Association football France[nb 8]               S        
LMB Baseball Mexico     E S       P F[nb 9]      
LMP Baseball Mexico P F                 S    
LPGA Tour Golf United States[nb 10] S                      
LVBP Baseball Venezuela P F                 S    
MLB Baseball United States Canada   E E S         P P F F[nb 11]  
PLL Lacrosse United States Canada           S     P F      
MLR Rugby union United States Canada S P F
MLS Association football United States Canada     S             P P F  
Grand Prix motorcycle racing Motorsport Worldwide     S                  
NASCAR Motorsport United States Canada Mexico Europe[nb 12]   E S             P[nb 13] P P F  
NBA Basketball United States Canada       P P F     E E S    
NBL Basketball Australia New Zealand   P P F           S    
NFL American football United States[nb 14] P F           E S      
NHL Ice hockey United States Canada       P P F F     E S    
NHRA Drag racing United States Canada   S             P[nb 15] P P F  
NLL Lacrosse United States Canada         P F             S
NRC Rugby union Australia Fiji[nb 16]               S   P F  
NRL Rugby league Australia New Zealand     S           P F    
NCAA basketball Basketball United States     P P F             S  
NCAA football American football United States P F               S   P[nb 17] P F[nb 17]
NPB Baseball Japan     S             P F  
NWSL Association football United States     S           P F[nb 18]      
Overwatch League Esports Worldwide S             P P F
PGA Tour Golf United States[nb 19]               P P   F S  
PBA Basketball Philippines[nb 20] P P   F   S   P   F F S P   F   S    
Premier League Association football England[nb 21]               S        
Premier Soccer League Association football South Africa               S        
Primera División (Argentina) Association football Argentina[nb 22]               S        
Premiership Rugby Rugby union England         P F[nb 23]     S      
Primera División Association football Venezuela S P P P P F
Serie A Association football Italy               S        
Serie del Caribe Baseball Caribbean   P F                    
Serie Nacional de Béisbol Baseball Cuba P F                   S  
Sheffield Shield Cricket Australia     F             S    
Suncorp Super Netball Netball Australia   S       P F            
Super League Rugby league England France Canada[nb 24]   S             P P F    
Supercars Championship Motorsport Australia[nb 25]   S                    
Superleague Greece Association football Greece       P P F   S        
Süper Lig Association football Turkey               S        
Super Rugby Rugby union Australia New Zealand South Africa Argentina Japan[nb 26]   S       P[nb 27] P F[nb 28] P F[nb 29]        
Top 14 Rugby union France         P F[nb 23]   S        
Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Basketball Europe       P P F       S      
UEFA Champions League Association football Europe   P P P F   Q Q S      
UEFA Women's Champions League Association football Europe P P P P F     Q S P P P P
UEFA Europa League Association football Europe   P P P F   Q Q S      
Ultimate Kho Kho Kho-kho India S P F
URC Rugby union Ireland Italy Scotland South Africa Wales[nb 30]         P F       S      
WNBA Basketball United States         E S     P F[nb 31]    
WNBL Basketball Australia   P P F             S    
WRC Motorsport Worldwide S                      
WTA Tour Tennis Worldwide                   F S  
World TeamTennis Tennis United States S P F
  1. ^ A team from Andorra, BC Andorra, has competed in the league since the 2014–15 season.
  2. ^ Replaced the former European club competition, the Heineken Cup, effective in 2014–15.
  3. ^ The current scheduling, in which the season starts in January, took effect in 2012. In 2010 and 2011, the schedule began late in the previous calendar year.
  4. ^ The bulk of the tour's sole-sanctioned events are in Europe, with some in the Persian Gulf countries. It co-sanctions many other events with tours in Asia, Africa, and Australia. Along with the PGA Tour, the European Tour co-sanctions the major championships and the World Golf Championships; one of the majors is held in the UK, one of the WGC events is held in China, and the rest of these events are in the US.
  5. ^ Since the 2015 season, the only series race held outside the U.S. is hosted by Canada. Australia, Brazil, and Japan have hosted races in the past.
  6. ^ As of the upcoming 2019–20 season, there are 19 teams in Russia and one each in Belarus, China, Finland, Kazakhstan, and Latvia.
  7. ^ Like many football leagues in Latin America, Mexico divides its season into two phases with separate champions in each phase. Unlike most leagues in that sport, Liga MX uses a knockout playoff, involving the top eight teams after league play, to determine its champions.
  8. ^ The current 2019–20 season features one team from Monaco in AS Monaco, which has been in the league on numerous occasions, most recently since the 2013–14 season.
  9. ^ The Serie del Rey usually ends in September.
  10. ^ Most LPGA events are held in the US, but it also sole-sanctions official money events in Thailand, Singapore, Mexico, China, Canada, Malaysia, and Taiwan, as well as an unofficial event in Brazil. Since 2013, two of its majors, one in the UK and the other in France, have been co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour. The LPGA also co-sanctions events with the Korean LPGA and Japan LPGA in those countries and the ALPG Tour in Australia.
  11. ^ The World Series usually ends in late October, but can extend into early November.
  12. ^ Since the 2013 season, the top two NASCAR touring series, the Cup Series and Xfinity Series, race only in the US. The third-level Truck Series has a race in Canada. The Xfinity Series has previously held races in Canada and Mexico. NASCAR also operates national series in Canada and Mexico and a European series, plus many regional developmental series in the US.
  13. ^ NASCAR has used a playoff-style system to determine the champion of the Cup Series since 2004; in 2016, it extended this system to its other two U.S. national touring series. The playoffs in the Xfinity and Truck Series are shorter than that of the Cup Series.
  14. ^ The NFL currently takes at least one regular-season game outside the US (London since 2007). The Jacksonville Jaguars are nearing the end of an eight-year period (2013–2020) in which one home game is in London. The 2019 season is the fourth consecutive season for a scheduled game in Mexico City, though the game originally scheduled for Mexico City in 2018 was moved to Los Angeles. For several years in the early 21st century, the Buffalo Bills played one home game per season in Toronto.
  15. ^ The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series uses a playoff system known as the Countdown to the Championship to determine the champion of each of the four drag racing classes.
  16. ^ The competition was established in 2014 as a solely Australian affair; the Fijian Drua joined in 2017.
  17. ^ a b The NCAA has never recognized an official champion in the top-level Division I FBS. Although the four-team College Football Playoff began in 2014, it is not an official NCAA championship event. All other NCAA divisions determine officially recognized champions in playoff tournaments that start in November. The playoffs in Divisions II and III end in December. Since the 2010 season, the Division I FCS playoffs end in January.
  18. ^ The schedule listed here is that for the most recently completed 2018 season. In some years, the playoffs are held in October. In addition, the NWSL season is disrupted twice in a four-year cycle—first by the FIFA Women's World Cup, and then the following year by the Summer Olympics. In those years, fewer regular-season games are played, and the league takes a break for the stated event.
  19. ^ The vast majority of the PGA Tour's sole-sanctioned events are in the US proper, but the tour also has events in Malaysia, Mexico, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Along with the European Tour, the PGA Tour co-sanctions the major championships and the World Golf Championships; one of the majors is held in the UK, one of the WGC events is held in China, and the rest of these events are in the US.
  20. ^ Calendar shown was for the 2011–12 season. It has been frequently adjusted since 2012–13 for multiple reasons, therefore the start and end of each conference and season varies from month to month.
  21. ^ While all teams in the current 2019–20 season are based in England, two teams from Wales (Cardiff City and Swansea City) have featured at different times in the 2010s.
  22. ^ The 2016–17 season marked the completion of Argentina's transition from its former calendar-year Apertura and Clausura season format to a single league season spanning two calendar years.
  23. ^ a b Depending on the calendar, the final may fall on the last weekend of May in some seasons.
  24. ^ Super League was founded in 1996 with teams in England and France; France had no presence in the league from 1998–2005. The next season in 2020 will be the first to feature a Canadian team.
  25. ^ Currently, one race is held in New Zealand. Bahrain, China, the United Arab Emirates, and the USA have staged races in the past. Longer-term plans call for additional races in Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, and South Korea.
  26. ^ Argentine and Japanese teams joined the competition in 2016, though the Japanese team will be axed after the 2020 season. The Japanese team divides its "home" matches between Tokyo and Singapore.
  27. ^ The playoffs, or "finals" as they are officially called, begin in late June in Rugby World Cup years.
  28. ^ During World Cup years, the final match is held in July; in other years, the finals begin in July.
  29. ^ In non-World Cup years, the final match is held in August.
  30. ^ The league originally involved only the three Celtic nations; Italy joined beginning in the 2010–11 season, and South Africa in 2017–18.
  31. ^ During Summer Olympic years, the WNBA Finals run into late October. During years in which the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup is held, the season is compressed, with the WNBA Finals ending in September. In other years, the WNBA Finals end in early October.

Summary

Sport Duration
American football Originally football was played only in the fall, but for many years the season has extended from late summer through early to mid-winter.
  • The 17-game NFL regular season currently begins the first Thursday in September (after a month of exhibition games) and ends 18 weeks later around New Year's Day. The playoffs culminate with the Super Bowl on the second Sunday in February.
  • The college season begins the last week in August. The regular season ends in late November, with playoff and bowl games throughout December and early January.
  • Indoor football, past professional leagues such as the USFL and XFL, and some women's and amateur leagues play in the February to August season.
Association football Usually August to May in the Northern Hemisphere, and February to November in the Southern Hemisphere. Exceptions are generally for one of two reasons:
  • In some northern countries with severe winter weather (such as the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden), the season is contested within a calendar year (roughly March to November) to avoid the worst weather.
    • However, other leagues use winter breaks to avoid most of the coldest days to prevent players suffering from hypothermia.
  • Some countries, primarily in Latin America, use a split season, known as Apertura and Clausura. The traditional association football season from August to May is divided in two sections per season, each with its own champion. Apertura and Clausura are the Spanish words for "opening" and "closing". In French-speaking Haiti, these are known as the Ouverture and the Fermeture, while in English-speaking Belize, they are respectively the Opening and Closing seasons. The now-defunct second version of the North American Soccer League (NASL) adopted a split season in 2013; the season was divided into a Spring Championship and Fall Championship.
  • In some countries where soccer competes with locally more popular football codes (i.e. Major League Soccer in the U.S., A-League in Australia), the season is arranged so as to minimize the time that it is in conflict with the more popular code(s). This arrangement also eases scheduling concerns regarding venues used for multiple football codes. However, in the case of the United States' MLS, their regular seasons can conflict with major tournaments such as the Gold Cup and FIFA World Cup due to the demand of the league's best national players to participate in the national squad.

(See Domestic association football season for details.)

Australian rules football March to late August, with finals series extending up to late September or early October.
Baseball March or April to early October, with playoffs extending up to early November. The Australian Baseball League runs from November to early February, with playoffs extending up to late February.
Basketball In most countries, late October to mid-April, with playoffs extending up to mid-June. The three major exceptions to this rule are:
  • The U.S. college basketball season begins in mid-November. The regular season ends in the first days of March, followed by conference tournaments and then national championship tournaments that run into early April.
  • The Philippine Basketball Association has a unique calendar. Its season runs from varying periods since the 2012–13 season, and is divided into "conferences"—not the North American concept of subgroupings within a larger competition, but rather separate competitions involving the same set of teams, similar to football's Apertura and Clausura in Latin America. Due to frequent adjustments to the calendar beginning in 2012, the months when each season begins and ends differ; it last ran from early October to August in 2011–12. The season was divided into three conferences from 1975 to 2003. It then transitioned to a two-conference season in 2004, and also changed to a season spanning two calendar years, with the transition completed in the 2004–05 season. The PBA returned to a three-conference season effective in 2010–11. The season starts with the Philippine Cup, restricted to Filipino players, followed by two other tournaments in which teams can field one non-Filipino, the Commissioner's and Governors' Cups.
  • The WNBA season is scheduled during the offseason of its parent league, the NBA. When the league was launched, all of its teams were owned by NBA teams and generally played in the same arenas as their NBA counterparts; however, this has changed over time. The scheduling also allows many WNBA players to participate in overseas leagues, primarily in Europe, Australia, and China, during the traditional basketball season.
Canadian football July to late October, with playoffs extending into November.
Cricket Year-round. Domestic seasons typically held in the driest period of the year—summer in temperate climates, dry season in tropical climates.
Golf Year-round
Ice hockey Early October to mid-April, with playoffs extending up to early June. The three major exceptions to this rule are:
  • The U.S. men's college hockey season begins in early October. The regular season ends in late February or early March, followed by conference tournaments and then a national championship tournament that runs into mid-April. The women's season typically begins and ends two or three weeks earlier than the men's.
  • The KHL regular season begins in early September and ends in late February. The playoffs run from March to mid-April.
  • The Australian Ice Hockey League's season runs from April to mid-August, with playoffs extending up to late August.
Motor racing Year-round, but generally concentrated from March to October. NASCAR runs from mid-February to late September, with playoffs extending up to late November.
Rugby league Late February to October in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Rugby union September to late May, sometimes the first weekend in June, in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, Super Rugby starts in February and ends in early July in World Cup years and mid-August in other years. Domestic competitions in New Zealand and South Africa overlap slightly with the Super Rugby season, starting in July and ending in October or November. In Australia, the domestic competition does not overlap at all with Super Rugby, instead beginning in August and ending in early November.
Swimming Year-round
Tennis Year-round

Discover more about Seasons by league related topics

Exhibition game

Exhibition game

An exhibition game is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or the team's rankings is either zero or otherwise greatly reduced. In team sports, matches of this type are often used to help coaches and managers select and condition players for the competitive matches of a league season or tournament. If the players usually play in different teams in other leagues, exhibition games offer an opportunity for the players to learn to work with each other. The games can be held between separate teams or between parts of the same team.

Australian Baseball League

Australian Baseball League

The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it shares some history of the original league with the Claxton Shield awarded to winners of both competitions, it is considered to be a separate competition.

Baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team, called the batter, tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate.

Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi), Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

Association football

Association football

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposite team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is considered the world's most popular sport.

Basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball through the defender's hoop, while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one, two or three one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.

AFC Champions League

AFC Champions League

The AFC Champions League is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition in Asian football, played by the national league champions of their national associations.

Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League (AFL) is a company operating the premier and only fully professional competition of Australian rules football and the AFL Women's and other competitions. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season in 1897. It changed its name to Australian Football League in 1990 after expanding its competition to other Australian states in the 1980s. The AFL publishes its Laws of Australian football, which are used, with variations, by other Australian football organisations.

Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval ball between the central goal posts, or between a central and outer post.

Australian Ice Hockey League

Australian Ice Hockey League

The Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) is Australia's top-level ice hockey league. Established in 2000, the AIHL is sanctioned by Ice Hockey Australia. The league is run by its own board of directors led by the AIHL commissioner. The AIHL is considered a semi-professional league with players receiving a variety of benefits such as a weekly stipend, travel expenses, motor vehicles and accommodation. The AIHL champion is awarded the Goodall Cup, the world's third oldest ice hockey trophy, having been first awarded in 1909. The AIHL is currently contested by eight franchised teams from five Australian states and territories. The most successful team in AIHL history is the Newcastle Northstars, which has claimed six AIHL championships. The current champions, from 2022, are the CBR Brave.

Ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a closed, vulcanized, rubber disc called a "puck" into the other team's goal. Each goal is worth one point. The team which scores the most goals is declared the winner. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, one of whom is the goaltender. Ice hockey is a full contact sport, and is considered to be one of the more physically demanding sports.

Association of Tennis Professionals

Association of Tennis Professionals

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of professional tennis players, and Drysdale became the first president. Since 1990 the association has organized the ATP Tour, the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the organization's name. It is the governing body of men's professional tennis. In 1990 the organization was called the ATP Tour, which was renamed in 2001 as just ATP and the tour being called ATP Tour. In 2009 the name of the tour was changed again and was known as the ATP World Tour, but changed again to the ATP Tour by 2019. It is an evolution of the tour competitions previously known as Grand Prix tennis tournaments and World Championship Tennis (WCT).The ATP's global headquarters are in London. ATP Americas is based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida; ATP Europe is headquartered in Monaco; and ATP International, which covers Africa, Asia and Australasia, is based in Sydney, Australia.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Michael Shapiro (August 12, 2019). "MLB 2020 schedule release: Cubs host Red Sox, Trout to Philly".
  2. ^ Rodney D. Fort; John Fizel (2004). International Sports Economics Comparisons. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 316–. ISBN 978-0-275-98032-0.

Source: "Season (sports)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 22nd), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season_(sports).

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