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USL Pro partners with YouTube to provide free live streaming

USLPRo

By DAN KARELL

Fans of USL Pro teams and their players will be able to watch them for free all season long.

USL Pro announced on Friday that they’ve partnered with YouTube to live stream every regular season and post season for free on team channels. Fans will also have a chance to see other video material on each team’s individual YouTube channels and games will be archived on the website shortly after completion.

“Online streaming is a vital component of the growth of the league,” USL President Tim Holt said in a statement. “YouTube eliminates barriers that previously stood between fans and the action on the field. We want fans worldwide to take notice of the high quality of play in USL Pro and see the importance of the league in the North American soccer landscape. YouTube makes this process much easier and we’re thrilled to have this relationship.”

Major League Soccer and the North American Soccer League both have their own forms of online streaming for fans, though those come with a subscription to a specific package (i.e. MLS Live). With a number of MLS players expected to spend time on loan in NASL next year, fans of MLS clubs will now have a chance to watch those teams as well.

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What do you think of this news? Excited to be able to watch USL Pro matches next season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. While partnering with YouTube obviously makes it a bigger deal, USL Pro streamed all or almost all of the games on the web last season. I watched several Pittsburgh Riverhounds’ games on the web last season. As far as I can remember the only Pittsburgh game that I wanted to watch that wasn’t available was when they played the Toronto Reserve team at Toronto, and I just assumed that was because none of the MLS teams streamed their reserve teams’ games.

    Reply
    • take notes? you mean of the actual thing they’ve done since becoming a league? prior to this year NASL has always been free streaming. But they have plans of improving production quality, video and audio and you can’t do that offering it for free.

      Reply
  2. How does their league work, do they have split seasons like NASL. Do they have playoffs like MLS and a season supporters champion. What about a balance schedule?

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    • They do not play a split season. One table with playoffs at the end. Last year there were 13 teams and you played everyone home and away for 24 games, and then every team played a home and away game against an MLS reserve team that counted in the standings, for a total of 26 games. They haven’t released this season’s schedule yet, but I would imagine it would be similar.

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      • I’m not sure why that’s a “wow”, but whatever.

        My guess, and this is just a guess, is that their goal is to eventually split into Eastern and Western conferences with limited crossover games until the championship game. But thy really can’t do that yet, because there just aren’t enough teams out west. Last year other that LA and Phoenix I think the furthest team west was Dayton. But they already have teams announced for Sacramento and somewhere in Oklahoma (Tulsa, maybe?) and there is talk that both Seattle and Portland want to start USL Pro teams and have them play somewhere nearby. I think once they get maybe eight teams west of the Mississippi they will split into conferences just to reduce the travel expenses for everyone.

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