It was made public, by The Athletic, that the USL plans to put the issue of promotion and relegation to a vote when their Board of Governors meets August 9-10. While conversations surrounding Promotion and Relegation often lead to heated arguments and even name-calling, members of Protagonist’s staff took a moment to provide an initial reaction to what this could mean at each level, currently active, in the USL.

First, Lis Schendel from the USL W League Show looks at the impact this may have on the women’s leagues in USL.
Ryan Stallings, host of USL League 2 The 2how discusses the announcement from the amateur leagues perspective.
Dan Creel, host of One League Under the C, imagines how Pro/Rel may affect USL League One.
Harry Austin, regular USL Championship contributor and co-host of SA Soccer Show, discusses what it may look like from the existing apex of the USL system.

USL W League & Future Super League

At this time, the USL has not announced any plans to consider pro/rel for their women’s leagues—both future and present. But knowing USL, they will more than likely want all their leagues to follow similar formats. So pro/rel for the Super League, and any professional leagues the USL introduces in the future, might be around the corner.

To play devil's advocate, and in a perfect world where men and women in sports are equally paid and supported, my initial thoughts are that if it’s going to happen, this is the perfect time.

For the MLS and NWSL, they’re too established. Teams like San Diego FC and Bay FC have spent millions of dollars just to have a team in these top division leagues. They would never approve of plans that could see them potentially relegating their first years.

But with the Super League and, if it comes to fruition, second division and third division USL women’s leagues (the W League will likely always stay an amateur/“pre-professional” league), it’s feasible that pro/rel could be baked into the foundation of these leagues from inception.

But on the other side of the coin, women’s soccer is still heavily underfunded compared to men’s soccer in this country.

There are some USL clubs at this time that make their W League players foot the bill for uniforms, league fees, and transportation. They have their W League team on training fields in the back of their facilities, and sometimes they aren’t even recording the game for replays let alone streaming it live (looking at you, Racing Louisville). Even just posting game times and final scores is too much for them.

To expect some of these clubs to not only fund a lower tier professional women’s club but a top tier one that treats their players respectfully seems unrealistic.
And if they promote and are expected to increase wages or invest more money, I could see things spiraling quickly with clubs shuttering their women’s programs, if they even start one to begin with.

But European women’s leagues have pro/rel, you might posit, and to that I will say: there’s no parity in those leagues. There are 1-4 competitive clubs in many of those European leagues who regularly fight one another for UWCL spots and then trounce the clubs on the other end of the standings. The best talent in the world plays in those clubs. The same 2-3 clubs cycle between promotion and relegation.

It’s dismal, quite frankly.

But if USL can pledge to quality control, to increase standards of their professional women’s leagues and furthermore, enforce those standards, then they’re in the perfect position to do something really wild.

USL League Two - The Amateurs

On its face, the former Premier Development League remains unaffected. As an amateur league that relies heavily on current collegiate players for short summer seasons, and with member clubs almost assuredly staffed by volunteers, League 2’s format and structure doesn’t allow for any direct assimilation into a promotion/relegation structure of professional ranks.

However, if promotion/relegation is adopted by the professional tiers, and with that adoption an introduction of a third professional tier, either above the Championship league or directly between the current championship league and League 1, there could be massive growth potential for League 2. Wherever this third tier may fall in the current professional format, there’s opportunity for the USL to do the following:

Have their top tier be a national league
Have their second tier be two separate regional leagues (ex: East, West)
Have their third tier be four separate regional leagues (ex: East, South, Central, West)

This would, in theory, lower the bar of entry when it comes to both expansion costs, and in annual costs due to shortened travel, for both the second and third professional tiers. In turn, this would allow for current League 2 clubs with known professional ambitions to responsibly expedite their move to professional ranks, increase the number of League 2 clubs that could harbor professional move ambitions, and enlarge the League 2 club footprint as amateur sides see League 2 as an indirect, but beneficial, path towards discussion of a move to fielding professional sides.

Further, were many of these current League 2 clubs to move to (theoretically) third tier regional professional League 1 division, and were they to continue to field league 2 second sides as well as youth academies, they’ll have some in-built player pool advantages. Their academy systems will give them advanced scouting on their own home-grown players, while their league 2 sides will have pick of most the top collegiate and amateur players who will see playing on those L2 sides during the summer as a means to getting ahead of the curve on being scouted for that same club’s professional team. Professional teams without these systems, recognizing the advantages that their L2 originated rivals have to player development and identification, will be more likely to begin fielding league 2 sides of their own.

While not directly affected by inclusion in a pro/rel system, the overall ecosystem for growth, development and opportunity it can potentially provide both hundreds of clubs and thousands of players is significant.

USL League One

Yesterday the Athletic reported that the USL will be voting at its August Board of Governors meeting on whether the organization should implement a pro/rel system for their men's leagues.

The USL (aka the USISL until 1999) did have a promotion system between their Division III and Division II leagues in the late nineties. But that system quickly fizzled out and did not included relegation. While the exact system won't be worked on until after a positive vote, it is obvious that the USL now wants a more robust plan that includes both promotion and relegation. USL League One would seem to be the bottom tier of that system with at least its champion getting promoted to USL Championship.

It may also serve as the league where men's expansion franchises would get their start moving forward. Finally, pro/rel might provide an incentive avenue for well-resourced USL League Two teams to jump into the professional game and, if so, they would likely start in USL League One.

USL Championship

As one owner said in the reporting by The Athletic (Tom Bogert and Jeff Rueter) if the USL kept going as it currently is, then “MLS will destroy USL”. Let’s also not forget that USL has been working on Pro Rel since at least 2018, when Jake Edwards first discussed the possibility of USL adding Pro Rel. Covid slowed the process of USL and its expansion of USL L1. However, with MLS getting MLS Next Pro in Division 3 with independent clubs, and most think that MLS will want to also move to D2 with independent clubs in the future.

For USL Championship, they had to make this move, but it does come with some huge risks. The positives for Pro Rel from the Championship view are if they do develop a D1 league it gives clubs the opportunities for CONCACAF Champions League which the league feels that they have enough quality to do reach. The ability to attract even higher-level players, especially from Central America and South America. And most important, the clubs will have the ability to market as a D1 club - which brings in more money.

However, there are huge risks for the USL Championship clubs. The biggest being that meeting the criteria to even qualify for first division would increase for the clubs and I wonder if, at this time, any club would meet the requirements of D1. What happens to USL if Pro Rel does not deliver what “WE” think it will, and I am talking about revenue from TV and Sponsors. Then what happens to the clubs and the structure of USL?

Bottomline, for USL this was a move it had to do, and it had to do this year. With the World Cup coming in 2026. They had to set this up, because soccer will become a huge story in the United States, and it is the perfect time to test out Pro Rel. And if it is successful, it could change the landscape of how we view soccer in the US. BUT, it is at a huge risk to those inside the game.

- by the Protagonist Staff