The United Soccer League , formerly known as USL Pro , is a professional men's football league in the United States and Canada that started its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned as the Second Division Professional League by the United States Football Federation (US Soccer), placing it under Major League Soccer (Division I) in the hierarchy. USL is headquartered in Tampa.
The league is owned and operated by United Soccer Leagues and was formed as a result of a merger of USL First (USL-1) and Division II (USL-2), after a controversial 2010 season that did not see USL-1 nor North American Soccer League (NASL) Division II sanctions from the USSF, resulting in a temporary USSF 2nd Division Pro League. United Soccer Leagues stated that the merger will strengthen the league position in the professional football landscape of America through the stability, commercial growth and professional development of football in four major areas throughout the United States and Canada.
In January 2013, United Soccer Leagues and MLS reached an agreement to integrate the USL league competition with the MLS Reserve League, primarily to improve players' development in North America, strengthen league competition and build relationships between leagues in the pyramid of American football. This multi-year deal encourages team affiliation and MLS players and USL Pro, which aims to have more games for teams and develop players. In February 2018, 20 USL teams were affiliated with the MLS team and each MLS team but Orlando City SC, the Columbus Crew SC, and the New England Revolution had USL affiliations.
Video United Soccer League
History
Establishment (2010)
On September 8, 2010, United Soccer Leagues officially announced the creation of USL Pro in a press release. Before the official announcement of the new league, on 11 August 2010, the Dayton Dutch Lions FC revealed that they would join the "USL-Pro Championship Division (formerly USL-2)" at a press conference, revealing the new league name before its official announcement. With this disclosure, the Dutch Lions are the first team to be confirmed at USL Pro for its first inaugural season. Along with the announcement of a new league, Richmond Kickers revealed that they will move to USL Pro for 2011. With the departure of Portland Timbers to MLS in 2011 and a defection from Puerto Rico Islanders to NASL from USL-1, Austin Aztex is the only USL team -1 remaining that is not yet part of USL Pro.
On September 22, 2010, USL Pro "Caribbean Division" was announced, with teams from Puerto Rico and Antigua and Barbuda signing to compete in the league. With the addition of Puerto Rico United to the league and "Caribbean Division", league representatives expressed their intention to see the expansion in the region continue, with the 8th team "Caribbean Conference" finally taking place. With the influx of teams from Los Angeles, the division eventually became the International Division. On September 22, 2010, USL announced that Sevilla FC Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico River Plate will join USL Pro in 2011 with Antigua Barracuda FC as part of the Caribbean division's building blocks. On September 28, 2010, USL announced that one of their flagship clubs and reigned the 2010 USL-2 Champions, Charleston Battery, will join USL Pro for launch in 2011. On September 30, 2010, nearly two months after the team itself announced the "USL Pro Championship Division "move, USL officially announced Dayton Dutch Lions FC will join USL Pro. On October 4 and 7, 2010, USL revealed two USL-2 clubs, Charlotte Eagles and Harrisburg City Islanders (the latter now known as Penn FC), will make the leap to USL Pro for 2011.
The Pittsburgh Riverhounds were added as the 9th official team on October 22, 2010. October 25, 2010 saw the addition of Rhinos Rochester previously committed to the NASL, along with the expansion team of Orlando City SC (formerly Austin Aztex FC of USL -1) after new ownership secured and moved the team from Texas to Florida.
On November 9, 2010, former USL-2 side Wilmington Hammerheads officially joined the league as the 12th team, followed on 17 November 2010 by F.C. New York. The expected number of teams to start the league play in 2011 was announced as 18-20, along with the announcement of the Wilmington Hammerheads joining the league.
Los Angeles Blues, associated with the successful Pali Blues women's organization, was added on December 7, 2010 with a message of growth of the "Western Conference" in the future to 2012. "Caribbean Division" from USL Pro grew into four teams on December 9, 2010 with the addition Puerto Rico United into the league, marking the last of 15 teams that will compete in USL Pro in its inaugural 2011 season.
On 14 September 2010, United Soccer Leagues President Tim Holt declared the desired structure for the league to be launched with 14-18 teams in four specific geographic areas in 2011, expanding to 22-26 teams in 2013, and 28-32 teams on 2015.
After the first annual USL Pro's first general meeting, the league confirmed it would debut with 16 teams playing a regular 24-match season schedule in 2011, with growth planned for 20-24 teams to start the 2012 season.
Play started (2011-2012)
USL Pro made its debut in 2011, starting with 15 teams playing regular 24-match season schedules. The American and National Division teams play a home-and-away series against all the opponents of two divisions (18 games total), 2 additional regional competition matches, with each team traveling further to Los Angeles or the Caribbean to play two games while hosting the competition International Division for two matches. The International Division team plays each team in their division four times (twice back, twice again, for a total of 16 matches) while traveling to face American or National Division opponents in four matches and host the opponents to four matches.
The original playoff format saw eight teams compete in the quarter-finals of the match. Both the American and National Division saw their top three teams advance for the inter-division playoffs, while the top two teams in the International Division played-off against each other to reach the semi-finals. The remaining four teams are back seeded for the semi-final single, again with higher hosting seeds, leading to a single match for the USL Cup. In all playoff matches, the top seeding teams are hosted.
On May 10, 2011, at the start of the league's premier season, the league announced that they had downed three Puerto Rican clubs from the USL Pro schedule. The PRSL clubs were dropped due to economic and ownership issues. The remaining two International Division teams - Antigua Barracuda FC and Los Angeles Blues - are aligned back to the American and National Division. Due to the removal of the International Division, the revised playoff format featured the top four teams in each of the two divisions. The winners of the second division playoffs meet in the USL Pro Championship in place of the team's hosts with a better record.
After the 2011 season, USL Pro announced with the release of F.C's 2012 season schedule. New York will not return to play, with Former National and American Division disbanded to form one, eleven team league table.
The onset of the MLS partnership (2013-2014)
Two expansion teams join for the 2013 season: Phoenix FC and VSI Tampa Bay FC.
On January 23, 2013 United Soccer Leagues and MLS announced a multi-year agreement to integrate MLS Reserve League play with the USL Pro team, first through team affiliation and "interleague" play, but ultimately fully incorporates the MLS Backup into the USL Pro structure. The stated goals of this partnership are to enhance the development of North American players, strengthen league competition, build long-term relationships between leagues and expand the audience for both league and develop players.
While the 2013 season will feature paired competitions between the USL Pro and MLS Reserve teams, four Major League Soccer clubs opted to affiliate with existing USL Pro teams, agreeing to lend at least four MLS players to their affiliates: Sporting Kansas City with Orlando City, the Philadelphia Union with Harrisburg City, DC United Islands with Richmond Kickers and New England Revolution with Rochester Rhinos. Every MLS club will eventually be expected to be affiliated with the USL Pro team or operate an independent reserve team in the league. The Houston Dynamo announced that it will partner with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in 2014. However, the partnership between Riverhounds and Dynamo was dissolved after just one year. Following the conclusion of the 2013 season, VSI Tampa Bay folded after just one season, along with league founding members Antigua.
In December 2012, Sacramento announced it would begin playing in 2014 as an expansion team, and in July 2014, the USL announced that Oklahoma City will also join the USL in 2014. Orlando City announced that it will leave USL after 2014 joining MLS as an expansion team for the 2015 season. Los Angeles Blues was renamed to Orange County Blues FC on 5 February 2014. The Phoenix FC Franchise was revoked and replaced with Arizona United SC on March 13, 2014.
In what will be the main trend, on January 29, 2014, LA Galaxy announced the establishment of LA Galaxy II, the backup team within the existing club development structure. Galaxy purchased the USL Pro expansion franchise and became the first MLS club to enter its backup team to USL Pro.
Extension of MLS partnership and rebranding (2015 -)
USL Pro almost doubled the number of teams in the league to 2015 largely because the MLS franchise follows the path taken by LA Galaxy II. Seven MLS clubs announce USL Pro franchise purchases for their backup teams. This MLS franchise joins the four independent expansion teams previously announced for Colorado Springs, St. Louis, Tulsa, and Austin. In addition, Orlando City sells franchise rights for the benefit of Louisville, which launches Louisville City FC on June 3, 2014 as an affiliate of the new MLS side. United Soccer Leagues announced that the Charlotte Eagles will go down to the Premier Development League (PDL) while selling their franchise rights to another Charlotte group, which formed Charlotte Independence to play starting in 2015. Finally, on December 11, 2014, the Dutch Dayton Lion was relegated to play at PDL starting in 2015.
During 2014 and early 2015, various MLS clubs along with USL announced seven new franchises to be owned or controlled by MLS ownership, and all will start playing in 2015. On September 10, 2014, Real Salt Lake revealed the name of the USL Pro affiliate team which was announced earlier is Real Monarchs, and confirmed that the team will start playing in 2015. The team plays at Rio Tinto Stadium up to 5,000 seats Zions Bank Stadium built in Herriman, Utah. Both Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders FC created their own USL Pro troops, Portland Timbers 2 and Seattle Sounders FC 2 on October 14, 2014. The Montreal Impact announced that they will deploy the USL Pro team in September 2014. On November 18, 2014, FC Montrà © © al officially joined the league. On November 20, 2014, Toronto FC announced that they will also deploy the team, hereafter named Toronto FC II, for the 2015 season. Whitecaps FC 2 joined USL Pro the following day. After discussing plans for the USL Pro team in 2015, then postponing the plan in September, the New York Red Bulls announced that their USL Pro team, the New York Red Bulls II will start playing in 2015.
MLS affiliates are announced for the remaining MLS teams that have no affiliation in 2014 and do not choose to buy USL Pro franchises. On September 18, 2014 Colorado Rapids announced an affiliate partnership with Independence Charlotte. On January 16, 2015, New York City FC announced that it would have affiliate relations with Wilmington Hammerheads and Chicago Fire announcing their affiliation with St. Louis. On February 9, 2015, FC Dallas announced it would add Arizona United SC as its USL Pro affiliate. As a result, all 20 MLS teams for the 2015 season either downgraded their own teams in USL Pro or affiliated with independent USL Pro clubs.
The league also announced in 2015 that the league will be divided into two conferences. The team will play a 28-match schedule with 22 matches against all teams in their conference, and the team will be further commissioned to subdivisions of four clubs for six other matches with an eye toward the geographical rivalry between clubs.
On February 10, 2015, United Soccer Leagues announced a brand change for the league. It will now be called "United Soccer League" or "USL" for the short term. They introduced new logos and branding, and declared their intention to apply for Division II status in the hierarchy of the United States Football Federation.
During the 2015 season, USL announced several expansion teams for the 2016 season. The 25th franchise was awarded to Lone Star, LLC and the team will be named Rio Grande Valley FC. In the first for USL, the team has a "hybrid" affiliate with Houston Dynamo, who is responsible for the club's tactical part, while the ownership group, Lone Star, is responsible for operations and management. FC Cincinnati was added as the 26th franchise and Bethlehem Steel FC, in the Lehigh Valley area and owned by Philadelphia Union, becoming the 27th, Orlando City B (owned by Orlando City SC) as the 29th, Swope Park Rangers (owned by Sporting Kansas City ) as the 30th, and San Antonio FC as the 31st.
Austin Aztex announced that it will be on hiatus for the 2016 USL season on 2 October 2015. The damaging floods of Rumah Taman in mid-2015 forced the team to move to a high school facility. The team is meant to return in 2017, pending the construction of a new football special stadium. However, the stadium and ownership issues continue to disrupt the franchise, and they do not return.
The expansion continues for the 2017 season with Reno 1868 FC, which has been announced during the 2015 season as the 28th franchise, began playing. On October 25, 2016, USL added two teams from the North American Football League (NASL): Tampa Bay Rowdies and Ottawa Fury FC. This is the first time the club has moved from NASL to USL. The Montreal Impact also announced that it will be folding its USL team, FC Montreal, supporting affiliation with Ottawa Fury FC.
On August 31, 2016, Kyle Eng sold its majority stake in Arizona United SC to an investment group headed by Berke Bakay and renamed Phoenix Rising FC with plans to build their own stadium.
On January 6, 2017, the board of directors of US Football gave the status of the Second Division temporary to ASL for the 2017 season, placing the league at the same level as the North American Football League. The NASL was also demoted from the Second Division sanctions to a temporary status as its membership declined below a minimum of 12 teams. After the 2017 season, the USL gained two more NASL teams: Indy Eleven and North Carolina FC. For the 2018 season, NASL provisional sanctions are not extended by US Soccer, while USL is given full sanctions under the Second Division every year-to-year. NASL seeks to demand U.S. Soccer. because it colluded with Major League Soccer to protect what was considered a top football monopoly in the United States, but was rejected by the court of appeals.
USL expansion efforts continue in 2018 with the addition of Nashville SC, Las Vegas Lights FC, Fresno FC (affiliated with Vancouver Whitecaps FC) and Atlanta United 2 (owned by Atlanta United FC). The league also lost Orlando City B and Rochester Rhinos, which respectively announced a hiatus, while Whitecaps FC 2 folded after its parent team in Vancouver decided to no longer run its own development team and was affiliated with the new Fresno expansion. After the 2018 season, FC Cincinnati will join MLS.
The league has also approved several other expansion venues for the upcoming season in Birmingham, Memphis, Chicago, Oakland East Bay and El Paso.
Maps United Soccer League
Club
Current club
The following teams are currently playing in United Soccer League. Eastern and Western Conference was created for the 2015 season.
Expansion club
Note
Former club
Club schedule
Current club Ã, Club of the future Ã, Club move to MLS Ã, Club playing in different leagues Ã, Former club
? Puerto Rico's Puerto Rican Club, Puerto Rico's Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico's Puerto Rico Plate started playing in the league, but in May 2011 United Soccer Leagues announced that the team would not finish the season due to financial difficulties.
Competition Format
The USL Pro scheduling format changes for the 2015 season to accommodate expansions that occur during the 2014-2015 season, and the league generated needs to divide teams into conferences - which eliminates one table.
All teams play 28 regular season games from March to September. This includes a twenty-two-game, double-round-robin schedule pitted against each team against all conference opponents at home and on the road. The remaining six matches played against regional rivals, leading to multiple regular-season inter-conference matches. The top six teams in each conference qualify for the October playoffs, which continue as a series of single-knockout rounds. After three rounds of intra-conference games, two conference champions meet in a championship match, to be hosted by teams with better regular season records. For the 2016 season the season was extended to 30 matches.
Media coverage
This league features coverage of national broadcasts on Fox Soccer Channel in 2011. In 2014 and 2015, the league broadcasts all the matches on YouTube. On April 22, 2016, USL announced a partnership with ESPN, bringing 20 games to ESPN 3 and a championship game to the ESPN network The rest of the match will continue to be broadcast on YouTube. Starting with the launch of ESPN on April 12, 2018, all USL games will be on ESPN, ESPN3 or ESPN networks.
Champions
Cup final USL results
- Key
honor of the USL club
Current through Completion of Regular Spring 2017 USL; Messages based on the main award (championship).
Player records
Attendance
FC Cincinnati played before a record 20,497 crowd at Nippert Stadium on April 16, 2016 in a competition match against neighbor Louisville City FC. It broke the previous USL Pro record to attend the regular season match of 20,231 set by the Republic of Sacramento in its home debut on 26 April 2014 at Hughes Stadium. Cincinnati broke the record again on May 14, 2016, with a new all time high of 23,375. Cincinnati broke the record for another single match on October 2, 2016 in their first playoff game against Charleston Battery, losing 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the 2016 playoff finals. The presence of 30,187 also regulates the US playoff records. Cincinnati broke the regular season record all the time on 5 August 2017 at Nippert Stadium, pulling 25,308 against Orlando City B. They broke their own records again about six weeks later drew 30,417 to a 4-2 win over New York Red Bulls II
Staff
- Rob Hoskins - chairman
- Alec Papadakis - chief executive officer, managing partner
- Jake Edwards - president
- Justin Papadakis - chief operating officer
- Garrison Mason - vice president, general counsel
- Lizzie Seedhouse - vice president, digital
- Brad Baker - broadcasting vice president
- Steven Short - vice president, third division
- John Cochol - vice president, club service
- Brett Luy - vice president, league operation
- Gordon Bengtson - vice president, competition, and technical development
- Josh Keller - vice president, business development
- Will Gillette - manager, finance & amp; accounting
See also
- Soccer in the United States
- Soccer in Canada
- Professional sports leagues in the United States
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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