Expanded MLS Next Pro battling USL for growth opportunities

www.mlive.com/sports/2024/03/expanded-mls-next-pro-battling-usl-for-growth-opportunities.html

Main takeaways, USL Deputy says up to 15 new teams could be announced this year, mostly at USL 1 level. Which makes sense, I doubt USLC could go past 36 anyways

MLS Next Pro is believed to have cheaper entry, they are aiming to announce up to 8 more by end of year. "Next Pro President Charles Altchek expects the league to be at 40 announced teams by the end of this year."

Interesting read but nothing really jumped out minus the aggressive expansion. Expect more MLSNP and USL teams to be competing in the same market.

in USLPROby Solaris1972

Oakland Roots SC

98%

2mo

StuBeck

Rochester Rhinos

2mo

Usl has been announcing huge league one numbers for years and never gotten there. Like any team announcement, I only will believe its really happening if it’s announced within six month of the time they’re playing. If we get a bunch of L1 announcements for 26/27 I’m holding my breath.

Solaris1972

Oakland Roots SC

2mo

That's totally fair. I am pretty new to USL in general, seems like there has been a history across D3 of teams being announced and not playing.

StuBeck

Rochester Rhinos

2mo

It happens at the d2 level as well. It’s about a 50/50 shot if whether a team announced more than a year out actually plays.

[deleted]

2mo

Or if it’s NISA I will believe the announcement 6 months into the season if the club is still playing

lil-beer-kuzi

Greenville Triumph SC

2mo

So both USL and MLSNP are just going with the throw everything at the wall and see how many stick. if MLSNP really went up to 50-60 teams I would expect at least 10 of those to fold in 3 years.

Solaris1972

Oakland Roots SC

2mo

Yeah, it will get dumb fast. I think there's definitely enough room that plenty of markets won't have any competition, but as you pointed out, this spray and pray method will definitely lead to tons of teams folding. Low upfront cost only helps so much.

Feeling_Cricket_911

Oakland Roots SC

2mo

USL-1 definitely needs more teams, ideally spread out to the Midlands, Mountain and Pacific regions. USL-1 should aim to become regional in the coming years (4 regions - 8-12 teams per region).

USL-C should only add more teams if their plan is to add another league in the USL. IMO 24 Teams for Division II should be the limit.

Blando13

Swope Park Rangers

2mo

I think you could have an East and West with 18 teams each, giving you the ability to go with a 34 game home/away schedule. USL is already at 24 and if you start adding Brooklyn, Jacksonville, Des Moines, New Orleans, Palm Beach, NW Arkansas, Milwaukee then you're already getting pretty close and can be pretty picky (looking at you Cleveland/Baltimore/Inland Empire CA) about finishing it off. And for every market MLS may take (Vegas/PHX or something similar) you either survive in some way or a team like Omaha moves up. You could also get to 32 or 34 and have "promotion" instituted to finish it out to 36 and then start "relegation" a year or two after you started "promotion". Forcing any further USL Championship expansion into going through League 1 (ideal IMO).

Long term, if you feel like you want to have 2 levels of a "National" league, then you can easily split those 36 teams into 2 tiers to transition to pro/rel.

WildMeatEater90

2mo

With all this expansion talk, Sioux Falls absolutely needs to be in consideration. We've had UPSL, we have NPSL and WPSL. We need at least a League 2 team, if not League 1.

GroundbreakingCow775

Detroit City FC

2mo

I am confused how MLS Next markets itself as anything other than a reserve league

Mini-Fridge23

Charleston Battery

2mo

“It’s like what USL was for the last decade, but we also have MLS money backing it”

It’s really not a hard pitch tbh lol

StuBeck

Rochester Rhinos

2mo

Basically. If you want to see future mls players, go to next pro games. The next step they need to do is move teams outside of the core market of the parent team and the reserve league tag goes out the door.

Mini-Fridge23

Charleston Battery

2mo

Yep. Assuming Altchek isn’t fully BSing here, they’ll have like 10 or whatever indie teams very soon. That’s more than NISA has and just behind where USL1 is currently lol

StuBeck

Rochester Rhinos

2mo

The goal of the league at one point was to promote 8 teams to d2 with 8 independents in 25. Rny immediately folding likely hurt that, but it’s very clear that mls doesn’t see this as just a reserve league.

kal14144

2mo

Some of the teams are interested in doing that and have done so. Huntsville city FC (Nashville 2) Crown Legacy (Charlotte) etc. All you gotta do is put a minimum amount of effort in - you’re already fielding the guys. But most of the teams seem completely uninterested

mushaslater

TeAm ChAoS!!!

2mo

In the future, I think they’re either going to “partner” with existing semi-pro or amateur teams and market itself as competitive and independent, or they’re just going to rebrand everything and lose the 2 moniker, which locals in independent markets probably don’t care as long as they can watch a good game. What we care about isn’t what the general public care about.

Rvaisred

Richmond Kickers

2mo

Minor League Baseball is a very attractive model for a lot of rich people with not quite Major League money

samspopguy

Pittsburgh Riverhounds

2mo

Is it though? I mean you look at minor league ballparks there are alot of marketing gimmicks for basically every game/series. Seems like alot of work

cheeseburgerandrice

2mo

They're usually pretty cheap I would think though, at least I don't know too many baseball teams that were dropping cash from a copter Las Vegas Lights style lol

jdlc718

USL Brooklyn

2mo

I can just tell, this will end up ugly for the USL and US soccer in general.

LosLoros

2mo

My theory is NP goes low to get as many expansion fees as possible, with very little vetting of owners/ownership groups. I don’t think NP will care if clubs fold, as long as the expansion fees are paid and money funneled to the MLS teams.

LosLoros

2mo

They are trying to recoup some of the vast sums of $ the MLS owners are losing, fielding these NP teams.

No-Meal1626

2mo

I think Brooklyn, if done right, could be massive for USL. People sleep on how big and truly relevant culture for the masses of the entire country is as it emanates from the Big Apple. If they get it right, the USL as a whole, could benefit massively.

Couple that with legit projects like Rhode Island, Tampa, San Antonio, Louisville, etc.... you have a really legit league that can rival any second division in the world.

KidCoheed

2mo

Brooklyn is headed to USLC, I wonder if they will do a push for teams in larger areas to buy or develop USL1 development team that can be sold/Spun off into its own solo team

FocusMedium97

2mo

Feels alarming for USL. Last year, they boasted about a bunch of announcements (I think like 30 but it was this time last year so I can't quite remember) and most of those haven't panned out or are still in early planning. MLSNP has been good at getting teams off the ground quick. They announced Carolina Core in late 2022 and got them playing in 2024. USL seems to announce years and years in advance. MLS has more money backing it I suppose.

SalguodSoccer

Tampa Bay Rowdies

2mo

What teams? Carolina Core is ONE team and NP's only independent team from last year folded.

Chattanooga and Jacksonville are clubs thatalready existed and I've heard nothing new about Cleveland in a while.

I fail to see how NP "has been good at getting teams off the ground quick" 🤷🏻‍♂️

Mini-Fridge23

Charleston Battery

2mo

Probably unfair to not include Huntsville too. Your point still stands, but Huntsville gets better attendance than some USLC teams lol

SalguodSoccer

Tampa Bay Rowdies

2mo

Well Huntsville City was launched by Nashville FC so I don't count that but you're right about their attendance. USL was aiming for that market too.

Mini-Fridge23

Charleston Battery

2mo

Fair point, I’d just argue it still shows the league can get teams off the ground and sustainable relatively quickly.

A reserve team doesn’t get 4k in attendance without actual on the ground work building fan support. I never would have thought it was possible tbh lol

FocusMedium97

2mo

Jacksonville Armada was largely dormant and they're rushing it out there ASAP. Did the same with Huntsville and now they're doing it with CT United. To be clear, this is not a positive with MLS. I think they are trying to outpace the USL and setting up weak clubs without community support. MLSNP Jacksonville was launched after Sporting JAX was a direct response. Huntsville was only associated with Nashville because NSC objected to an independent team there when MLSNP tried to beat USL to Huntsville. Even a sample size of 2-3 teams is bigger than USL which takes a less astroturfed approach.

manualshifting

2mo

With all of this competitive infighting, I'd like to float a suggestion. I sort of want this to work for USL, but I do think that either league would benefit if they jump on this.

Let's say one of these leagues links up with the Canadian Premier League and hosts a (vaguely) Leagues Cup style tournament. Probably during January and/or February, hosted in warm US states. For USL, I assume it would involve USLC teams while MLSNP might want to launch a second division tier of teams and use that to sort out who participates.

The main benefit for the Canadian teams is that they get to play meaningful competitive games during a part of the year when it's too cold in Canada. For whichever US league that hosts it, they get to separate themselves from their domestic competitor and gain an edge. They also get to schedule a bunch of international games and earn points for that. If they play their cards right, it could lead to qualification slots in existing international tournaments and that works well for both leagues.

That's my idea. I would further suggest having a relatively small number of pretty large groups, use the group play to establish knockout matches, and then play those knockout matches later in the season. Home and away, probably, but we have everyone involved in the first stage. But I guess I'd be okay if it was more similar to the actual Leagues Cup.

Is that a decent idea? I'm kind of worried for the entire USL, because MLS is pretty aggressive and they just have more resources. I feel like USL needs to do something to separate itself and gain an advantage.

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