United Soccer League owners voted on Tuesday to implement a system of promotion and relegation among the USL’s multiple men’s divisions, a historic first for professional soccer — and all sports — in the U.S.
The European “pro-rel” model, whereby clubs earn promotion to more prestigious leagues or relegation to lesser leagues by finishing at the top or bottom of their current league, is common across global soccer. But North American sports leagues — the NFL, NBA, MLB and also Major League Soccer — have always been “closed” entities; franchises have a fixed place, and the only way to join the league, which functions like a cartel, is to find rich owners who’ll buy their way into it.
[Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem is back: Enter for a shot to win up to $50K]
The USL, to a degree, wants to change that. It currently operates two pro leagues, which sit at the second and third tiers of American men’s soccer — below the lone top-tier men’s league, MLS. But the USL announced last month that it intends to add a new Division 1 league by 2028; and on Wednesday, it said it will create “an interconnected three-tiered men’s professional soccer system” with promotion and relegation.
The system would exist separately from MLS, which is far more established than the USL. MLS clubs are much wealthier and more popular. They mostly do not feel threatened by the USL’s modest growth, nor do they have any incentive or obligation to integrate themselves into the USL’s pro-rel system.
The medium-term future, instead, would be one in which there are two distinct Division 1 men’s soccer leagues in the United States.
One, MLS, would remain closed — and probably dominant, with better players and more money, for the foreseeable future.
The other, USL, would be semi-open; owners could still buy their way in and start expansion teams, but clubs could also climb into the USL Division One by winning the second-tier USL Championship. (And they could rise into the second-tier Championship by winning the third-tier USL League One.)
Will the USL’s pro-rel system “reshape” soccer?
The introduction of the fluid, “interconnected” pyramid “will reshape the future of professional soccer in the United States,” the USL said in its news release. It could be a boon to player development, because it will give more kids in more cities across the country a somewhat direct path from a well-resourced academy to a top-flight league.
It will also be celebrated by longtime proponents of pro-rel, who’ve hailed the system’s open, meritocratic nature and the intense competition it creates. It will give the USL a distinct marketing pitch: fans, as USL president Paul McDonough said in a statement, are “drawn to the intensity of high-stakes competition, where more matches have real consequences — just like we see in European leagues.”
The big question is whether McDonough is right. Will the drama of promotion and relegation battles, and the sense that every game matters — unlike in MLS — outweigh the relatively low quality of play? Will it pull in new fans and, perhaps more importantly, attract broadcasters and commercial partners — which, in turn, would allow clubs to spend more on players and elevate the quality of play?
That, essentially, is the USL’s big bet — and the big unknown.
A pro-rel system would also present challenges. The entire concept of Division 1, 2 and 3 leagues is actually a formal distinction governed by the U.S. Soccer Federation’s Pro League Standards. Those PLS require that a D1 league and its clubs meet a variety of requirements, including some related to finances, market size and stadium size. Some promoted clubs, in theory, could struggle to satisfy those standards — thereby complicating the USL’s plans, or forcing U.S. Soccer to tweak or even overhaul the PLS.
And some relegated clubs, meanwhile, having spent significant money to meet Division 1 standards, could struggle financially if their revenues dip as their teams fall into the second or third divisions.
That worry, though, is more acute in countries like England where gigantic TV contracts grant Premier League clubs huge shares of centralized revenue — shares that then disappear if a team is relegated. USL clubs, on the other hand, rely to a much greater degree on localized revenue streams, such as ticket sales.
And the upside, the allure of pro-rel, outweighed those concerns. Although the vote wasn’t unanimous, a supermajority of owners — 90%, McDonough told The Guardian — voted in favor of adopting the global system. Its implementation over the coming years could be one of the most significant developments in the modern era of U.S. men’s soccer.
How will pro-rel in the USL work?
What, exactly, Tuesday’s vote means and creates will be determined over the coming months and years.
The owners approved pro-rel in principle. But they did not decide how many teams will be promoted and relegated each season. They have not settled on financial mechanisms that will be necessary to soften the blow of relegation. As of Tuesday, they had not sought formal blessings from U.S. Soccer of the USL Players Association.
They have had extensive discussions about the plan for many years. Those discussions intensified last month, and led to Tuesday’s vote. But, as McDonough told The Guardian, “we acknowledge that there’s a lot of work to do.”
To start, they have to get the USL Division One up and running. That will require commitments from as-yet-unidentified owners — who might, in some cases, be put off by pro-rel, because they’d be buying into a D1 league that might then demote them to a lower tier.
A successful launch of the Division One is far from guaranteed. And a successful implementation of this interconnected pro-rel system is, therefore, even less certain. Significant barriers remain. A lot could change over the next two years, despite the firmness of Wednesday’s splashy announcement.
The USL, in conclusion, said: “More details will be shared in the coming months as the league works closely with clubs, partners, and stakeholders to implement this historic change.”
