Relegation and expansion: USL has ambitious plan to surpass MLS as top US soccer league
Sacramento Republic FC, which is in advanced planning stages for a new stadium in the downtown Railyards, isn’t the only soccer entity making ambitious moves.
The United Soccer League, the league Republic FC belongs to, wants to become the top soccer league in the country. That would involve overtaking or merging with Major League Soccer, where the most recent expansion franchise, Charlotte, paid $325 million to join. In the USL, meanwhile, teams fold or relocate on a regular basis. USL teams routinely pay their entire roster of players less than $1 million.
Still, USL President Jake Edwards said last week in an interview with The Bee that the USL is primed to see historic growth.
“It’s a very ambitious league, and we’ve got an aggressive and ambitious growth trajectory ahead for the league and its clubs,” Edwards said.
USL’s growth
The timing of Republic’s push for a new stadium coincides with the USL’s plan to help grow American soccer and build momentum ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which is slated to be hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. The USL is hoping to draft off the tournament’s momentum and get a jolt in popularity.
Much of the plan for growth stems from USL’s focus on its clubs building soccer-specific stadiums. Sacramento’s ownership group is operating on that template.
Republic FC is one of the league’s cornerstone franchises, among the leaders in attendance despite playing in a temporary venue at Cal Expo. The team finished third in 2021 attendance, averaging nearly 7,000 fans per game despite playing games with limitations on crowd size because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Edwards said the league, which has three levels (Championship, League One and League Two) has constructed 33 soccer-specific or retrofitted stadiums since the USL’s inception in 2011, and plans to build 25 more ahead of the World Cup.
“As it sits here today, we’ve got about $3 billion invested into mixed-use developments as the soccer-specific stadium as the anchor in those developments,” Edwards said. “So this is the key initiative for the league and its clubs. Many of our clubs are on that journey now, working with their local communities or their states working on those projects. They are transformational projects for, not just the club and the long-term sustainability of the club, but also for the community.
“They really are critical to making sure the clubs can be as successful as possible, and provide not just a fantastic match day experience for the supporters, and attract higher quality players for our clubs and four our league, but also can be a big catalyst for growth within the community.”
The USL has a clear competitor in the MLS, the top soccer outfit in the country. But some question the MLS’ long-term viability, based on it’s heavy reliance on expansion fees from new teams, with new owners paying the league hundreds of millions of dollars for the chance to start a franchise. The league has repeatedly been called a Ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme. And MLS reportedly lost $1 billion during the pandemic.
MLS vs. USL
The MLS is currently at 28 members with this season’s addition of Charlotte FC. New owner David Tepper, who also owns the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, reportedly paid the league $325 million in expansion fees. The league is expected to grow to 30 before the World Cup, with St. Louis and Las Vegas expected to join.
Sacramento Republic was supposed to become an MLS franchise. The team hosted a raucous announcement party with MLS commissioner Don Garber in October of 2019. There was a party on the Capitol Mall. Sixteen months later, lead investor Ron Burkle backed out of the deal and the team’s logo was removed from the MLS website.
The USL would argue the MLS is not necessarily a direct competitor. The USL has successful teams in its Championship division in smaller markets, such as Sacramento, Louisville, Tampa, Indianapolis, San Diego, El Paso, Oakland and others.
USL has advantages that should help it thrive, said Patrick Rishe, director of the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis. Most notably, its franchises often have limited competition for fan attention in their mid-sized markets.
But the league may have trouble competing with Major League Soccer for the top spot in American soccer, especially when it comes to TV deals.
“I think the USL can be successful if they scale appropriately, meaning you’ve got to choose markets that are passionate about soccer,” he said. “I hope they wouldn’t be pie in the sky, building 20,000-seat facilities.”
Republic FC remains open to joining the MLS if the opportunity arises. Owner Kevin Nagle’s current plan is to build a stadium that seats 12,000 to 15,000 fans and could be expanded to fit 20,000. Plans shown to The Bee included a canopy covering the grandstands in the expanded version of the stadium.
Republic FC is also open to starting a women’s team, potentially in the USL’s Super League that’s expected to begin play in 2023. They could also join the NWSL, which began in 2012 and is regarded as the top domestic women’s league. Those possibilities are contingent on the new stadium getting built in the Railyards.
Both the MLS and USL are growing in popularity. The MLS is coming off its most-viewed season to date, and has a new media rights deal in the works that could increase revenue. The USL is also in its renewal cycle for a television contract, Edwards said, which could lead to more money for the league and its clubs. The USL has an agreement with ESPN+ and ESPN International that allows games to be streamed domestically and to 55 countries.
“So we share the goals (with the MLS) but we’re going about with a somewhat different strategy in mind,” Edwards told The Bee. “And the USL is focused on both growth and differentiation in the domestic landscape. Differentiation from the MLS, differentiation from other structures of sports here, as well as alignment with the global structure of the game of football, with the global norms of the structure of the sport.”
Promotion and relegation?
Aligning with the global structure of the sport could help draw European players to the USL by having the same transfer windows. Meaning European players who are unsigned could come to the United States more seamlessly.
“I think it’ll be a massive plus to the game in this country, and something different because America hasn’t seen it,” Republic FC manager Mark Briggs told The Bee.
The USL’s focus on aligning with the global norms of the sport could eventually become an advantage over the MLS. The league is considering a promotion-relegation model, in which teams are transferred to different divisions based on their season performance. This is similar to those used in soccer leagues throughout the world, including the English Premier League in the United Kingdom, La Liga in Spain and the German Bundesliga.
Briggs, who grew up in the United Kingdom and played for 21 teams from 1998 to 2013 in the U.K., Denmark and United States, is a proponent of the relegation-promotion model.
“I think if it’s a reasonable option, it’s a great option,” Briggs told the Bee. “The thing about promotion-relegation is every point, every single game means something. Where if you don’t make the playoffs, your season’s over. With promotion-relegation, you might not have the playoffs but you could get relegated. It just adds and extra emphasis to every single game.”
The USL’s three-division format could make that possible. The MLS has just one division, though some clubs have affiliates they use to develop talent. Edwards argues a promotion-relegation model could do wonders for the USL’s popularity in the United States, given the growing popularity of international soccer domestically.
“We’re doing the work on that at the moment,” Edwards said. “How we would view the introduction of promotion-relegation between our multiple divisions, then, would be: how does that effect the fans? What you’re doing now is you’re creating a competition where every single game matters. You’re creating a competition where there is aspiration to win and to move up. You’re creating a competition that punishes apathy.”
But not everyone is sure a promotion-relegation model will change things in a meaningful way for American soccer. It works in Europe, in part, because of tradition. One example given by Republic FC fan Casey Jay was Everton, which has been in the top league in England since it was last relegated in 1950-51. The club is currently ranked 17th in the table and just three points above Watford, which is in danger of relegation. The bottom three teams of the 20 in the EPL get relegated.
“Potentially going down is (real) drama,” Jay said. “It gives the league attention on both ends. Here in the United States, if you’re dead last you have nothing to play for for three quarters or two quarters in the season, because you’re out. Your numbers are gone, you’re not gonna make it.”
The promotion-relegation model could help the USL get official recognition from FIFA, which recognizes the MLS as the top soccer league in the United States. FIFA is the world’s top governing body of the sport and would add legitimacy to the USL, perhaps leading to more exposure and better players joining the league.
Edwards called the alignment with FIFA as “critically important” to the league’s long-term goals.
“So we want FIFA and the eyes of the world to come to these shores in 2026 (for the World Cup) to know about Sacramento, and know about the USL, and know that we are structured in a way that’s familiar, and to be excited about what we’re doing,” he said. “We are not misaligned and very different to how the rest of the world operate within the sport. We know that will be important with our clubs, not just be part of the world cup in some way, shape or form, but to be able to benefit from the legacy of the World Cup and the years after.”
