“When does the schedule come out?”
One of our most frequently asked questions – “when is the schedule for _____ released?” – shows that pro sports leagues aren’t super sympathetic to your travel plans.
Schedule release dates generally occur anywhere from two to four months before a season starts – whereas travellers, on average, begin planning their itinerary at least four to six months from the start of their trip.
You can see that this creates a problem (that we tried to address with our world sports calendars): You know you’re going to be in a city at a certain time, you know that a sport will have games happening during that time, but they aren’t listed on Sports Where I Am yet.
Here’s our solution: Schedule release dates by league
We compiled this list by looking at each league’s schedule release date for the previous three or four seasons and listed their averages below.
As always, if you see something on this page that needs to be edited (or added), please let us know.
You can also join our email list to be informed whenever a new season is released & added to Sports Where I Am.
Schedule release dates for sports in the USA & Canada
*Note that College sports generally don’t have a set “release date” where games from all schools across the USA are dropped at once. They are released in stages, usually by conference/division, etc., and they can also be shifted to suit TV broadcast schedules. The dates listed above are when the fixtures usually start being released.
| League | Schedule release |
| NBA | August |
| NFL | May |
| MLB | August/September |
| NHL | July |
| NCAA Football | April* |
| NCAA Basketball | September* |
| MLS | December |
| NASCAR | May |
Schedule release dates for sports in Europe
| League | Schedule release |
| Premier League (UK) | June |
| La Liga (Spain) | July |
| Bundesliga (Germany) | Late June |
| Serie A (Italy) | June |
| Primeira Liga (Portugal) | July |
| Basketball leagues (Misc.) | June-July |
| Autumn Internationals Rugby | April |
Join our mailing list to stay up-to-date
As you can probably tell, schedule release dates can be influenced by many factors, including draft & free agency outcomes, TV broadcast deals and postseason results. This post will likely be updated many, many times.
The best way for you to be aware when each league has tickets available is to join the Sports Where I Am email list, which you can do at our website.
