USL Division 1

[Padre]

The United Soccer League will be founding a division 1 league in 2027. Union Omaha currently competes in the USL League One (division 3), with previous speculation that they would move to USL Championship (division 2).

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -mcdonough

[ita]

The United Soccer League will be founding a division 1 league in 2027. Union Omaha currently competes in the USL League One (division 3), with previous speculation that they would move to USL Championship (division 2).

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -mcdonough

This is cool. They will have a complete relegated system where teams can move up and down tiers. Not a lot of details yet, but I like the move as competition to the MLS system.

https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/1331372

[Louie]

I'm curious how this plays out for them. Typically, competing Division 1/Major pro sports leagues have a pretty bad success rate.

[almighty_tuna]

This is cool. They will have a complete relegated system where teams can move up and down tiers.

Nope, they won't.

McDonough says there are no immediate plans to institute a system of promotion and relegation into the USL portfolio, which would be a first in modern US soccer history.

[Omahomie]

One of the requirements is a 15k stadium for D1 status. Possible blessing the previous stadium development did not work out as it was under that amount. I would tend to think that owners would not want their investments to go to a lower tier league so pro/rel is dead in the water in the States. More competition for MLS is good as 30 teams/cities is not enough. Especially with some markets in Canada and 3 in SoCal and 2 in NY. Be great if they could find a way to put a stadium up and have a stadium district along the streetcar line to boost entertainment options.

[remline]

I have trouble seeing how USL will succeed with Division One. Perhaps soccer is different enough from football/baseball/basketball that we can somehow have two top-tier leagues?

In the meantime, I need to keep my nomenclature straight:

• USL Division One is Division One
• USL League One is Division Three

(How could that possibly confuse me?) Luckily, "Division One" appears to only be a temporary name:

What will the Division One league be named? Over the next several months, we’ll be sharing more details about the new Division One league – including the official name and brand.

[Greg S]

That 15k stadium requirement is a bit much. Most of the MLS stadiums that have been built for their team (vs using already existing stadiums built for other sports) are in the 18-23k range.

I don't see a bunch of stadiums being built to accommodate this requirement.

[omaha79]

That 15k stadium requirement is a bit much. Most of the MLS stadiums that have been built for their team (vs using already existing stadiums built for other sports) are in the 18-23k range.

I don't see a bunch of stadiums being built to accommodate this requirement.

For USL, 15k is excessive. I honestly don't see USL ever having the money to compete with MLS in terms of league stature and money. I can't see any David Beckhams coming in and bringing in a Messi to a league like that. And, unless you have some ultra motivated billionaires, it will always be 2nd class.

St. Louis built one of the newest MLS facilities. It's impressive. It also cost around $400 million. I don't think it would be a wise investment to build something like that for a USL franchise no matter what league they are in.

I'd imagine even if these USL franchises build 15k stadiums, they would be of a lower tier in terms of amenities than a typical MLS stadium and those franchises could be poached, at any time by MLS with some kind of a buy out making said league still a feeder to MLS.

I think the biggest thing would be the qualification as a tier one league which technically puts it on par with MLS and this could be a bargaining chip as MLS has been trying to pull out of the US Open cup for years now and distance themselves from what they consider inferior leagues.

If Omaha builds, I still only see 8-10k but they have always said the facility will be built modularly and I see it having room for expansion. Going all in, building to 15k capacity and greatly increasing the cost would be a fools endeavor.