By FRANCO PANIZO
MLS likes to promote and highlight its regional rivalries, and its league affiliate, USL Pro, is following in those footsteps.
With 13 expansion sides entering the league in 2015, USL Pro announced a change in its format on Wednesday. The league will now split its 24 clubs into 12-team Eastern and Western Conferences, with each side playing its conference opponents at least two times during the regular season and six additional games against geographic rivals and cross-conference foes to comprise a 28-match campaign.
A full schedule is expected to be announced before the end of this month.
“Transitioning to a conference-based structure is consistent with our long-term growth strategy and enabled by the rapid expansion of the league,” USL Pro executive vice president Jake Edwards said in a prepared statement. “This new format will promote regional rivalries, allowing fans greater opportunity to support their clubs home and away as the league continues to bring its brand of professional soccer to enthusiastic markets throughout the U.S. and Canada.
“With 12 teams qualifying for the playoffs in 2015, more USL Pro fans will have the opportunity to experience the special atmosphere that is created by the league’s knockout tournament postseason format.”
Additional changes will be made to USL Pro’s single-elimination playoff format, with the top six teams from each conference reaching the postseason this year. The top two seeds will receive byes in the first round, while the No. 3 seed will host the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed will welcome the No. 5 seed.
The winner of the No. 3 vs. No. 6 game will take on the No. 2 seed in the next round, and the winner of the No. 4 game vs. No. 5 game will play the No. 1 seed. The winners of those second-round matches will meet in the conference championship games, which will then determine the USL Pro Championship.
Here are the USL Pro’s Eastern and Western Conferences for the 2015 season:
Eastern Conference
Charleston Battery
Charlotte Independence
FC Montreal
Harrisburg City Islanders
Louisville City FC
*New York Red Bulls
Pittsburgh Riverhounds
Richmond Kickers
Rochester Rhinos
Saint Louis FC
Toronto FC II
Wilmington Hammerheads FC
Western Conference
Arizona United SC
Austin Aztex
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
LA Galaxy II
OKC Energy FC
Orange County Blues FC
Portland Timbers 2
Real Monarchs SLC
Sacramento Republic FC
Seattle Sounders FC 2
Tulsa Roughnecks FC
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2
*Name to be announced
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What do you think of USL Pro’s alignment? Like the way the league has set up its schedule? Anything you don’t like about the new set-up?
Share your thoughts below.
Quozzel
at some point MLS says stop because the national TV money gets split too many ways.
Seems like most US leagues stop around 30.
I personally love the vision of 40, that is
about how many are really in top leagues, over decades, but with a huge benefit of MLS not artificially demoting/banning teams for years at a time.
Artificially demoting? It’s based on teams’ performance…nothing artifical about that.
Looking good.
good to see that St Louis has a soccer team again
NASL needs to the same and go with the west and east conferences. For instance, I’m pretty sure NASL can handle 24 teams, so why not just follow the uslpro and MLS west and east format.
It’s a no brainer 🙂
People are still not really seeing it.
MLS isn’t capped at 20 teams, or 24. I still see another 20+ markets as big or bigger than, say, Portland or Salt Lake City that do not have MLS teams yet. MLS will probably, in the next 15 years or so, expand to 40 teams divided into two conferences – most likely East and West, as opposed to the MLS 1/MLS 2 pro/rel structure a lot of people would see.
Contrariwise, I think NASL, especially if the Cosmos can get their own stadium done there at Elmont and somebody else with deep pockets and big ambitions comes in, will be another 30+ strong. I think it’s going to be a very different league than MLS, and will be driven by the big-money teams. There’s a pile of secondary markets that can and will get NASL franchises, and soon. All you gotta do is pony up the money to start a team and you’re in.
USL Pro will quickly go, IMHO, to several divisions. Again, they’ll probably stick to geographical divisions because of travel costs rather than a pro/rel structure…but there literally is very little limit on how many USL Pro level teams the USA can support. 100+? 200? I think you’ll see at least one of these pop up in virtually every small city in the USA. I live in South Carolina, for instance, and there’s already one here – on the coast, in Charleston (the Battery.) But there’s two other cities, Greenville and Columbia, that are larger than Charleston and could easily support USL Pro teams as well. And they will. These kind of clubs are popping up like mushrooms like now.
England has maybe 60 million people, and they have well over 200 pro teams in their structure. The USA has well over 300 million; we’ll get to 200+ very shortly. Right now we’re already at, what, 58? Up from 44 last year?
Demographics tell the story better. Soccer is the second most-popular sport among the age 12-24 demographic. We’re very much on the “heel” of what is already becoming an almost geometric growth curve.
Wait, are you trying to make an analogy between the country that invented the modern game and South Carolina?
Does anyone have an opinion about the quality of the NASL (Cosmos- Indy 11 etc) compared to the USL Pro league?
Why did the MLS decide that its reserve or second teams would go here?
They didn’t decide. NASL is not friends with MLS
Because MLS offered the NASL the same deal they now have with USL. But the NASL didn’t want to be the minor league to MLS.
As far as quality of the teams, in my opinion the top USL teams (Sacramento, Richmond) could compete in the NASL. But in NASL v USL Open Cup matches last year, the only USL team to win was Orlando.
VHS > Betamax
Diluted playoff format just like MLS.
So, does Sacramento Republic FC have to win this USL thing again and break the USL attendance record, again, to get MLS expansion?
Yes. The two paths into MLS are:
1) Have a financially-strong ownership group who can pay expansion fees ($25 million to $100 million, depending on the market) and who have a solid business plan for a dedicated stadium; OR
2) Win USL Pro 2 times in a row and set an attendance record each time you win USL Pro.
smh
yes, smart, funny, and true, but shouldn’t winning and attendance matter a greater deal to MLS?
Hmmm if only there was a system where teams were rewarded for their performance…
I don’t know what geographic rivals are — especially if they are in the other conference.
There’s an excellent reason for doing this, though. Road trips from Harrisburg to LA or Seattle could be pricey. It makes sense to limit travel costs as much as possible.