Yesterday USL League One announced a yet-to-be-named in-season tournament for the 2024 season.
The competition will only include league clubs, split into three regional groups. Each group will feature a home and away tournament match plus two matches against clubs from another group. The group winners will advance to a knockout round along with a fourth club advancing on total goals scored.
There will be no extra time; all matches will go directly to penalty kicks after regular time, with the loser still earning one point in the group stage standings.
Format aside, the press release mentioned the tournament laying the “foundation for future competition innovations, such as promotion and relegation.”
How does a new in-season tournament fit into promotion and relegation?
A long-debated topic, promotion and relegation does not currently exist in American soccer. The introduction of such a system anywhere in the United States pyramid would raise the stakes when it comes to competition and finances. Instead of playing for a spot in a playoff system, clubs would be playing for the right to move up to a more prestigious league. Conversely, they’d also be playing to avoid being relegated to a less prestigious lower league.
If club owners in the American system are going to buy into this system, it would have to come with a guarantee of fairness in scheduling. This is where the balanced schedule comes into play.
A balanced schedule is the hallmark of the top world leagues that have promotion and relegation. The English Premier League has 20 clubs, and the clubs play each twice, home, and away, for a total of 38 table matches.
USL League One has never had a balanced schedule due to being a smaller league. The need to stretch out an eight-month season requires more than the 22 matches that would come with a balanced schedule in the present iteration of 12 clubs. For example, in 2023, clubs played each other home and away, and then filled in the remaining ten matches with randomly assigned third encounters.
With much at stake, owners, players, and fans would want the stability and fairness that come with a balanced schedule, rather than leaving those additional match encounters up to chance.
The US Open Cup is the long-running in-season tournament spanning multiple levels from amateur all the way to the MLS, including all levels of the USL. However, this generally only brings 1-2 additional matches to USL League One.
In-season cup: solving a short term issue
According to Richmond Kickers Chairman and CEO Rob Ukrop, the introduction of the in-season cup helps fill this gap while the league works towards expanding to a point where a balanced home and away format better fits into a full eight-month season. It “solves the issue in the short term,” and will “evolve” as more teams join the league.
What this evolution entails is up in the air and presents more questions that cannot be answered yet.
USL League One is expected to add at least three sides in 2025, possibly as many as five. Assuming no sides fold, self-relegate or buy a promotion, this would make anywhere from 15 to 17 clubs in the league. 15 still leaves the league just short of the number of matches needed to fill in an eight-month season, so we’d expect this in-season tournament to continue at least until the league reaches 16 or 17 clubs.
The larger goal, according to the league, is the establishment of an ongoing balanced schedule which aligns with top league standards. This is seen as necessary to lay the groundwork towards a pro/rel system.
Are other leagues going to participate in the in-season cup?
According to the press release, “USL aims to grow the cup competition, including the integration of other leagues” over the next few years.
Ukrop confirmed that “another league” was invited but wasn’t “ready to jump in yet.”
USL Championship is the obvious league one might think – however, USL Championship already has a semi-balanced schedule with 25 clubs playing in 2024 at the time of this writing. The format in 2023 (and we assume for 2024) was a home and away within the conference, plus one against each club on in the other conference, for a total of 34 table matches per club. Add on US Open Cup and playoffs, and USL Championship has more than enough to fill an eight-month season.
In other words, they don’t need to participate.
Here is where the keyword “evolve” comes into play. This could mean growth or contraction. Might this cup turn into something like the US Open Cup? Or could it simply wind down after it is no longer needed? After all, it’s openly acknowledged to be fixing a short-term issue, that of balancing the USL League One table schedule until more clubs join.
Are the players on board?
Amidst the excitement and discussion surrounding the announcement of the tournament, the USL Players Association released a statement in which it appeared to be caught off guard.
While the USLPA acknowledged that the collective bargaining agreement “grants management rights to the USL regarding the competition format” and understands the logic behind the competition change, they questioned the lack of details surrounding the allocation of prize money.
The association also questioned the timing of the announcement, coming after many player contracts have already been signed for the 2024 season. They called out a concern around player performance bonuses, some of which are tied to appearances in a certain number of “league matches.”
For example, a performance bonus tied to starting in 25 league matches, when table matches are reduced from 32 to 22.
Clarity will be required to receive full buy-in from the players and their association. If it is as simple as deeming the in-season tournament matches as “league matches” the problem would be solved.
We reached out to several clubs and player representatives for further comment and did not hear anything back at press time. We (and others) will most certainly follow up with this later.
What could promotion and relegation look like?
We’ve discussed one scenario within the USL, because at this time, we do not foresee the MLS joining such a system with the USL.
In this scenario, USL Championship and USL League One join forces for a system of promotion and relegation. There are still concerns surrounding the stability of some clubs and/or their stadium situations, but any prospect of pro/rel is still “down the road” according to Ukrop.
There are probably concerns with ownership regarding franchise fees, as current buy-in to the USL Championship is significantly higher than that of USL League One. Would an ownership group want to make the investment into USL Championship if they could find themselves relegated to the much cheaper USL League One after one year of poor play?
USL Championship is set to add sides in Milwaukee, Jacksonville, and Iowa over the next two seasons. We’d assume these additions would want at least one season of play where relegation is not a concern. Given Milwaukee is joining in 2026, we’d be looking at 2028 at a minimum.
Is this also a sign that the USL Championship is full after the additions of Milwaukee, Jacksonville and Iowa join by 2026, and all new entries will be USL League One?
What can we make of all of this?
In any case, the addition of the USL League One in-season tournament will probably be fun if nothing else. It will be another chance to win a trophy, strengthen regional rivalries and showcase a different style from the regular season, in which goals are highly encouraged and draws aren’t a thing (except for that point given to the loser of PKs).
If it is nothing more than to fill out a few seasons while the league adds more clubs, so be it. With USL Championship not having this need, we won’t expect their participation, and perhaps this tournament will evolve out after it is no longer needed. Or maybe it will evolve into a league’s cup between all levels of the USL. Only time will tell.
We hope the league and the USLPA can straighten out the concerns of the players. Taking the concerns public has already generated discussion among fans, almost all in favor of the players.
And the prospect of a promotion and relegation system, even if we must wait until 2028, should excite fans of the game. Getting set up for a balanced schedule is the first step.
Special thanks to John Morrissey of USL Tactics for the assistance on USL Championship details.