MLS Cup 2000 was the fifth edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS), which took place on October 15, 2000, at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. It was contested by the Kansas City Wizards and Chicago Fire to decide the champion of the 2000 MLS season. Kansas City became the first Western Conference team to win the MLS Cup, with the lone goal of the match scored in the 11th minute by Miklos Molnar. It was also the first MLS Cup to not feature a team from the Eastern Conference club, due to the three-division system used from 2000 to 2001. The match was watched by 39,159 spectators and broadcast nationally on ABC with commentary by Jack Edwards and Ty Keough. Venue Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., the home of D.C. United, was chosen to host MLS Cup 2000. It previously hosted MLS Cup 1997, during which United won their second league championship, the 1994 FIFA World Cup, and the 1996 Olympics men's soccer tournament. The 2000 final was the first MLS Cup to not feature D.C. United, as the team failed to qualify for the playoffs. At the time of the match in October 2000, seating capacity of the stadium was 56,454 spectators. RFK Stadium was officially announced as the host on February 23, 2000. The other bidder, Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, had been favored by the league and was unable to resolve a scheduling conflict with a college football team until too late in the selection process. Road to the final The MLS Cup is the post-season championship of Major League Soccer, a professional club soccer league based in the United States. The 2000 season was the fifth in the league's history and was contested by twelve teams organized into three divisions (later renamed conferences), each with four teams. The 32-match regular season, which ran for 26 weeks from March to September, was arranged to have each team play opponents within their division four times and six teams outside of their division twice; the regular season also had a set of four home-and-away matches for two out-of-division teams, determined by standings from the opposite conference in the 1999 season. Prior to the season, MLS eliminated the previously-used countdown clock and shootout tiebreakers in favor of international rules. Referees would manage time on a count-up