Finally got an announcement for the full national broadcast schedule for USL this year, for D2, D3, and the USL Cup. USL Championship final is again on CBS. The USL Cup final will be on ESPN2.
That's why I think USSF has to step in and increase those standards. Basically tell USL that they're fine with the 3 tier pro/rel situation but they're going to require more financial guarantees so that things like Charlotte, and especially South Georgia, don't happen again without greater player compensation and lead time to find new work.
From a PR perspective USL gained a lot of goodwill over the pro/rel thing and not being MLS*. If they want to keep that goodwill they may want to reconsider how they manage things, particularly if there's a threat of relegated teams folding. * - they're not a single-entity run by greedy billionaires, whoops what do you mean no revenue distribution? - they fully participate in Open Cup, whoops only 17 Championship teams are entering this season! - pro/rel, eventually, whoops maybe only for the top two divisions, if they manage it at all.
Smart move: I spoke with a player of a USL Championship club last night. There seems to be a plan by the players to play in the opening game but have some sort of league wide protest within the game. And then for match week 2, that’s when the strike would likely initiate if an agreement…— Benno Nagel (@benno_nagel) March 6, 2026 If I was the players I would wait to strike until the the week of the International Break (USL doesn't take those off). Reason being, no other leagues to take up the airspace of their cause.
No action tonight until 1 minute after the opening whistle. Players stood still with arms behind their backs.
It's almost like they didn't have a plan when moving forward with their pro/rel announcement: A labor agreement is about offering certainty on both sides for a period of years into the future. What complicates things here is no one (especially not team ownership) is certain what USL-C landscape will look like as the 2nd tier of the pyramid in a few years. https://t.co/Ruy8Ol4gth— Paul Kennedy (@pkedit) March 6, 2026 Shouldn't they be negotiating one CBA that is tiered for the proposed new USL league structure? Rather than this piece meal mess?
Yep. I can understand the current setup where they did the Championship CBA and then did the League One CBA later because the league didn't exist when the first deal was signed. I can't understand all the ambition they're pretending to show but going out there with no plan for the men's side while still not having an official CBA for the women's Super League either. They've got a real chance to try and do something interesting and they're seemingly dead set on screwing it up.
Forward Madison seeking investors The most interesting part of the article is this from the third paragraph:
Good luck with the USL Premier League CBA. They have the MLS CBA for direct comparison with it's guaranteed contracts, dispersal draft and $125k minimum salary (2027).
Has USL Outgrown the Business Model That Built It? A solid look at how the league likely needs to transition from everything being about league survival to being more about team survival.
One of these things that the prawns never anticipate or just handwave away because "it works in the rest of the world*. Promotion, great. But, again, teams go up and teams go down, and that has a real impact on the player pool. Players from relegated teams aren't just absorbed by other clubs. The union has a vested interest in certainty in this landscape. *And by "the rest of the world," we mean "Europe." And by "Europe," we mean "England."
But, wait....USL players should have nothing to worry about. Three teams are offering $8k a month plus housing and a car! (Some of the comments were priceless. "My 16-year-old son plays, he's pretty good, he always gets compliments on his play." Okay, then, ma'am.)
This is good: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/mar/10/usl-structure-promotion-relegation-expansion While Professional League Standards have helped on the front end by (ostensibly) keeping the kind of used-car salesmen who used to try to own teams from doing so, the cost to operate a team has increased significantly. I'd have to check the claim that 20 USLC/USLL1 clubs have folded since 2015 (may be true), but even so, clubs used to fail at a 70+% clip back in the 90s/early 2000s. Perhaps we are at a point where because of the costs, those days may return. (You'd think the infrastructure would help, though.) The general point is solid, though: uncertainty for clubs and labor unrest are a bad environment in which to institute a system that would threaten the viability of the teams, especially those chasing promotion. (Something some of us have said, you know, for eons.)
My list, forgive of its incorrect. Played in USL since 2015 but no longer in D1, D2 or D3 Rochester Rhinos Harrisburg City Islanders Saint Louis FC FC Montreal Wilmington Hammerheads OKC Energy (hiatus) Austin Aztex Austin Bold Dayton Dutch Lions Fresno FC Memphis 901 North Carolina FC (hiatus) Penn FC Reno 1868 RGV San Diego Loyal Central Valley Fuego Lansing Ignite North Colorado Hailstorm South Georgia Tormenta Texoma FC FC Tucson
Even on that list, several didn't actually fold. South Georgia is technically on hiatus for 2026, though I feel like both South Georgia and North Carolina won't return. Memphis "folded" and transferred their spot to the Santa Barbara team that's coming in. Central Valley and Northern Colorado are still playing in The League for Clubs while Tuscon is USL2, so they went down to pre-professional instead of fully folding. Texoma is supposed to come back as the pre-professional side for Rodeo SC. So, outright folding at this point is closer to 14 but there have been some other moves out of USLC or USL1.
It's feeling more and more that this is going to come down to NuRock being willing to share much more of the sponsorship pie with the clubs/divisions going forward, and I'm not sure they're going to.
Welp, let's look at the 1999 A-League for a second: Atlanta Silverbacks - FOLDED Boston Bulldogs - FOLDED Charleston Battery - STILL ALIVE Cincinnati Riverhawks - FOLDED Connecticut Wolves - FOLDED El Paso Patriots - FOLDED Hampton Roads Mariners - FOLDED Hershey Wildcats - FOLDED Indiana Blast - FOLDED Jacksonville Cyclones - FOLDED Lehigh Valley Steam - FOLDED Long Island Rough Riders - STILL PLAYING IN LEAGUE 2 Maryland Mania - FOLDED Milwaukee Rampage - FOLDED Minnesota Thunder - FOLDED New Orleans Storm - FOLDED Orange County Zodiac - SURVIVED FOR A BIT AS ORANGE COUNTY BLUE STAR, FOLDED Pittsburgh Riverhounds - STILL ALIVE (COUPLE OF HIATUSES) Raleigh Express - FOLDED Richmond Kickers - USLL1 Rochester Rhinos - FOLDED (AFTER SEVERAL NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES) Sacramento Geckos - FOLDED San Diego Flash - FOLDED San Francisco Bay Seals - FOLDED Seattle Sounders - IN MLS (BASICALLY, DON'T @ ME) Staten Island Vipers - FOLDED Tennessee Rhythm - FOLDED (TRANSFERRED A-LEAGUE RIGHTS TO VA BEACH, BUT SHUT UP) Toronto Lynx - FOLDED US Pro-40 - FOLDED Vancouver 86ers - IN MLS (SEE SEATTLE) Those of us who were around (and trying to make it work) back then look at 14 or 20 or whatever the number is clubs folding in 10 years and say, "You guys have it pretty good."
I didn't realize Tucson was still around. As far as anyone looking from the outside, a team leaving Memphis for Santa Barbara is effectively folding and restarting elsewhere. England does things the other way around. Crystal Palace technically "dissolved" in 2010, Notts County in 2003, Millwall in 1997 but in each case a new club was founded wearing the same colors at the same stadium with the same supporters, so people don't really count them as defunct. I counted 20 English League or former league clubs that have technically been dissolved since 1997 (beyond administration) including Bournemouth, Leeds United, Crystal Palace and Coventry City.
If those teams had the “ magic” of pro/ rel all the teams would still be alive and selling out nfl stadiums .