United Soccer Leagues Abandons Division 2 Model, For Now

The United Soccer Leagues, which held a monopoly over the minor leagues of American soccer for years before a several clubs seceded and formed the new NASL late last year, has announced the merger of its two professional divisions in a move that all but cedes U.S. Soccer's "Division 2" designation to the breakaway circuit.

First, a quick review:

The USSF is currently overseeing second division soccer in the United States under a one-year plan designed to give the two factions time to work out their differences. The temporary league has 12 clubs but will suffer the loss of the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps when they move to MLS next year. The Montreal Impact will follow in 2012, leaving the second division without three of its most high-profile organizations and burdened with several struggling franchises hoping to survive from one week to the next.

Meanwhile, American soccer's "third division", USL-2, contains just six teams in the eastern US playing on a far lower budget.

Last month, the USSF announced strict new standards for Division 2 clubs, including an annual $750,000 performance bond, a majority owner worth at least $20 million and a soccer-specific stadium within five years, among other fantasies. Current Division 2 clubs Crystal Palace Baltimore, AC St. Louis, NSC Minnesota (which operates as a nonprofit), and Puerto Rico Islanders will be unable to meet those criteria, and it's almost impossible to imagine how the likes of Miami FC will either.

There aren't enough existing teams to make up a fully-compliant Division 2 league in 2011 (eight is required with 12 by 2016), although both USL and the NASL have discussed expansion. Dayton, Ohio is joining the USL in 2011 (we're doubting its ownership is worth $20 million), while the NASL plans to add a team in Edmonton and possibly Atlanta. Either way, the USSF isn't going to sanction both leagues, which had vehement disagreements on club autonomy, marketing and finance.

It's all very confusing, and something had to give. On Wednesday it was the USL. Here's what the Tampa-based organization undoubtedly realized: Without promotion and relegation, it doesn't matter who's "Division 2" and who isn't. It's semantics.

The key to growing American soccer is stable professional clubs that draw local support, that serve as an inspiration to local youth hoping to play the sport and that work to develop those young players into future pros. Whether or not those clubs develop partnerships with MLS teams to further that development, or whether there's promotion and relegation decades down the road are questions for another time. Right now, the franchise turnover in minor league soccer is horrendous, and there hasn't been enough consistency, professionalism or fan interest to develop a stable second division despite 15 years of effort.

So the USL is going to pull back and play under a system that will resemble the origins of the second division in 1989-90. Back then, the eastern-based American Soccer League and its counterpart, the Western Soccer League, played separate schedules and pitted their respective champions against each other in a national final. That format cut down considerably on travel costs and budgets and should have allowed clubs to develop local roots and rivalries.

FanHouse understands that the USL will employ a similar model next season in its newly announced USL PRO league. All six third division (USL-2) clubs will return (Charleston, Richmond, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Maryland and Charlotte) and should be joined by the current Division 2 Austin Aztex and the expansion team in Dayton. USL also has announced new teams in New York City, Orlando, and Antigua, all of which may start playing next year

Meanwhile, four or five new franchises likely will join USL PRO from the western part of the country. It's understood that these will be new organizations, not Premier Development League (the amateur fourth tier) teams making the jump. That will create pods or conferences out west, in the southeast US/Caribbean and the Mid-Atlantic, with a few clubs scattered nearby.

"After much analysis of the current landscape we've chosen to combine our synergies into a single professional league that will operate within financial and competitive models that make sense," USL CEO Alec Papadakis said in a statement. "The USL PRO business plan is the first below the MLS level to give team owners a realistic roadmap to profitability. We need to focus on the future health of soccer in North America, and the USL PRO model addresses many of the issues that have led to the instability of men's professional soccer below the MLS level."

He said additional clubs will be added if they maintain PRO's focus on "regional league play."

USL's regional focus alone should eliminate it from contention for the USSF's "Division 2" sanctioning, leaving the NASL to give it a go. The NASL will apply this month for 2011 Division 2 status with Carolina, Puerto Rico, Montreal (2011 only), Tampa Bay, Miami, Rochester, Minnesota, Baltimore, St. Louis and Edmonton, Carolina owner Selby Wellman told the Cary News. The NASL will need waivers for at least two teams so it can reach the required eight compliant clubs.

However, with the more fiscally conservative and club-friendly USL PRO entering the picture, some of the NASL teams may defect. The timing of Wednesday's announcement, with Division 2 applications due Sept. 15, can't be a coincidence.

In the end, the USSF may get what it's been after -- a distinct second and third division. But again, that distinction matters only if there's movement between the two, and the possibility of promotion to MLS. There isn't. The USL is banking on the fact that fans won't care, and will be happy simply to have a stable and solvent pro soccer team in their city.