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In one small step for football but potentially one giant leap for soccer, promotion-relegation is set to be introduced in a major US sports league for the first time as soon as 2028 – but not by Major League Soccer.
MLS was formed in 1995 to capitalise on the surge in football’s popularity after the last World Cup held in the US. Thirty years on, another league is working on its own post-World Cup masterplan by adopting the global model MLS has kept at arm’s length.
The United Soccer League plans to implement a new men’s top tier at the same level as MLS in 2028 that – once promotion-relegation is implemented – will sit at the head of an interconnected three-tier professional pyramid resembling the English system.
Fans and stakeholders have been clear—they want something different. This shift challenges the status quo of US soccer.
In a major coup for the USL, Premier League chief football officer Tony Scholes is set to take over as president of Division One this summer and be an important voice in promotion-relegation. He is just the latest Englishman brought in to shape the USL.
That English influence is evident in the naming of the USL’s two existing professional men’s divisions, Championship (Division II) and League One (Division III), which is a deliberate nod to the footballing culture the league is seeking to replicate.
But is the US, a country that has seemingly spent decades flirting with soccer, truly ready to embrace the global game domestically?
League One president Lee O’Neill, ex-general manager of operations at Ipswich Town and another English import playing a big role at the USL, tells Sky Sports the groundwork has already been laid.
“Those stories of the Wrexhams and the Birminghams have educated the US audience about promotion and relegation,” says O’Neill. “They’ve watched their teams on TV from afar go through that journey and there’s a natural affiliation to the model.
“For fans to connect that with the USL, that puts us in a different position to anyone else.”
How promotion-relegation won over club owners
The USL will not just be in a different position; it will stand alone in the US sporting landscape. Every other major league, including MLS, operates a closed system for elite teams, eliminating consequence for sporting failure and the drama of a true underdog story.
For a new team to enter MLS, they must buy in. The latest expansion fee, for San Diego FC, was a reported $500m.
In the USL’s new vision owners could, in theory, pay a $10m expansion fee to enter League One with a team in a small community and reach the top of US soccer in two years.
Taking that leap of faith was a big step for the USL’s club owners, of whom a supermajority voted to adopt promotion-relegation earlier this year, having decided in 2023 that they were not ready.
“It was a challenge over a number of years to get the ownership groups on the same page,” says O’Neill. Ultimately, he explains, once they saw “the jeopardy and David versus Goliath dynamic” would be a driver of fandom and investment, they were sold on the idea.
Relegation in Europe can create financial uncertainty for clubs due to a loss of media rights revenues, but the USL is working on plans to ensure movement between tiers is simply a reward for performance, not a threat to survival.
Clubs in the league are already built on local business models, which prioritise income streams such as community engagement and ticket sales, that are more stable.
Financial and structural mechanisms are also set to be in place to support clubs when they go up or down the tiers to ensure the league produces a compelling product that is sustainable.
“We speak to leagues around the world and one of the things they get very jealous about is that it’s a bit like we’ve got a blank canvas and we’re starting from scratch,” says O’Neill.
“On one hand we don’t have the history, but we do have the opportunity because it’s different so we can learn from a lot of other leagues what’s worked and what hasn’t worked.
“We’ve got work to do in this area, but recognising those areas early is really helping some of our teams be better in their businesses.”
The US Soccer Federation’s sanctioning rules, in their current form, do pose a problem to the USL’s proposals as they were made with closed leagues in mind.
The fluidity of promotion-relegation creates a scenario whereby a team moves up to a higher division but does not have the qualifying stadium size or owner net worth, for instance, to meet the sanctioning requirements to be there.
However, it is understood that the US Soccer Federation has been supportive of the USL’s plans, and the two organizations are in ongoing discussions with a shared focus on growing the game of soccer in the US.
The USL vs MLS…or is it?
MLS has historically been big brother to the USL and is the only league to have ever occupied the top level of US soccer.
For nearly a decade, MLS franchises fielded their reserve teams in the USL’s second and third divisions until deciding to create its own DIII league, MLS Next Pro, in 2022.
Once partners, the two leagues will soon be direct rivals. Except the USL does not see it that way.
US midfielder Tyler Adams made his professional debut in the USL’s second division playing for New York Red Bulls II
“We’re not going into competition with MLS,” says O’Neill. “The US is larger than Europe, and think about the number of leagues that exist there. This country is big enough to support both of us.”
In fact, if the US is to fulfil its full potential in soccer, the country needs both. The 30 MLS franchises, which are all elite teams in big cities, are not enough to serve a population of more than 340m people.
The USL’s network of 38 professional men’s teams stretches into regions that have historically been overlooked for top-flight soccer, increasing the reach and accessibility of the sport nationwide for would-be fans and aspiring players.
At least 16 expansion teams are set to stretch the USL’s reach even further across its existing professional men’s leagues in the coming years.
Already, the USL has added 10 soccer-specific stadiums since 2020 and there are 12 more in development, representing a $1.5bn investment in infrastructure.
In a nation where there are so many other competing sports – American football, basketball, baseball and hockey being dominant – this level of investment gives soccer a fighting chance by improving facilities from the grassroots to the elite.
“From my experience, in the UK in particular, the game is passed down,” says O’Neill. “It was passed down to me from my parents.
“What I’m seeing here is a lot of the young players, male and female, going home and taking the game to their parents, who have maybe traditionally played others sports.
“Naturally, I expect a change in the next 20 or 30 years of the game being passed down generationally, rather than passed up.”
The USL’s bold vision may be inspired by the global game, but it is unmistakably American in spirit. Perhaps embracing the meritocracy of promotion-relegation in the land of opportunity will be the key to unlocking soccer in the US. Only time will tell.
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