A Rival Upstart Looks to Challenge Major League Soccer’s Top Dog Status

The 2025 Major League Soccer regular season begins Feb. 22 when Lionel Messi and Inter Miami face New York City FC to kick off a 13-game opening-day slate. 

But on Thursday, plans were revealed for a new rival league that aims to reshape the highest level of professional soccer in the U.S.

The United Soccer League announced intentions to launch a Division I men’s professional league in 2027. Currently, MLS is the only league in the country with top-tier sanctioning from U.S. Soccer. The USL operates the Division II USL Championship (24 clubs) and Division III USL League One (14 clubs).

For D-I status, U.S. Soccer requires a league to have at least 12 teams spread out across the Eastern, Central, and Pacific time zones, with 75% of clubs in metropolitan markets that have a population of 1 million, and stadium capacities of at least 15,000.

The USL did not say which cities it intends to launch D-I teams in, but several USL Championship clubs leveling up would make sense, like those in Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Louisville, Raleigh, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, San Antonio, and Tampa—none of which currently have MLS teams.

The USL’s announcement did not include any mention of MLS, which is expanding to 30 franchises this year with the launch of San Diego FC. MLS has yet to make any official comment on the USL announcement.

Second Act

This aggressive move from the USL follows last year’s launch of the USL Super League, a new women’s competition that was awarded D-I sanctioning alongside the National Women’s Soccer League. The debut USL Super League season began with eight clubs in August and runs until May. The 2025 NWSL season will run from March through November.

On the men’s side, having a D-I league could allow the USL to implement promotion and relegation, a practice common in global soccer but something MLS has never done. However, sustaining long-term promotion and relegation could be difficult, given U.S. Soccer’s sanctioning requirements.

To succeed, the USL would need a lucrative media-rights deal, strong ownership, and likely local support for stadium funding in its eventual markets.

MLS is entering the third season of its 10-year, $2.5 billion media-rights deal with Apple. The NWSL is entering the second season of four-year, $240 million deals with Amazon, CBS, ESPN, and Scripps Sports. The USL Super League has a streaming deal with Peacock, but its value is unknown.