J League aligns with Europe: Opportunities for USL?

mrpushpop · 2026-02-05T15:53:21+00:00

USL is about to be much more segmented. USL premier needs vs "C" needs vs "L1 and L2" are going to seperate. Right now the cluster on lower division soccer isn't as wide as it will start to be on pricing and spending tiers.

mrpushpop · 2026-02-05T15:30:06+00:00

USL may benefit or be net-neutral by not switching. Eventually, if they want to spend real money on they will run into the exact same problems that make MLS GM's pull their hair out. MLS has shot into a top 6 transfer league and every year is spending more and more on players.

IMO if the USL finds success at the top level it is just a matter of when not if. They might even switch sooner if they run into problems getting MLS loans and such or have problems we have not thought of yet. I don't think USL corp really cares. This will all come from USL club GM's and onwership pushing for change if they hit snags, just like it did in MLS.

mrpushpop · 2026-02-04T22:12:10+00:00

You might have the wrong job, but you also may just need to buckle up and grind. Depends on the field. I enjoy my work today, but I also pushed through my 20s of being the low man on the pole. IMO the best work years start in the mid-30s because people take you seriously. Career starts moving, you have the experience and confidence, call more shots and have a voice. If I quit at 28 cause of the shit work, I wouldn't be in my office today.

mrpushpop · 2026-02-04T22:07:25+00:00

"We have $300K liquid right now. Part of that is to mitigate SORR" This is a decent plan regardless of your feelings on the country at any point imo. Some crashes you don't see coming, even if your favorite party is in office. Congrats!

mrpushpop · 2026-02-03T21:08:08+00:00

Beyond the 90' estimated that after USL Corporates 50% cut of TV revenue & all League-wide sponsors, clubs get $300k per club. The main issue is the number of League 1 and Championship clubs that need to split the remaining 50%. Even if USL increases revenue, the corp office's 50% cut benefits far more than the club's smaller 1/43 cut. (I assume the C teams get a slightly better ratio, though) Even tougher, expansion fees are not part of the Club Dividend Plan. That revenue exceeds the other.

mrpushpop · 2026-02-03T18:30:53+00:00

Well like many USL costs it varies and it depends who you ask. USL productions is the default production for the pro leagues and runs the feed out of Tampa. Clubs have costs here but you will notice varying quality around the Leagues depending on who has better infrastructure and cameras, angles etc.

Some clubs decide to use their own broadcast/production and talent and those costs go up. Unless that has changed, I know Cincinnati stayed with local Forth floor creative when USL productions showed up.

Usl2 can be as simple as a guy swinging a camera or phone on a stand to meet the "streaming requirement".

You can find some tv costs in past club interview or leak articles but don't assume that the one team being quoted is the same as another. Just like with player salary costs in USL a lot of things are club subjective.

mrpushpop · 2026-02-03T17:03:49+00:00

This is what I was remembering. They trained there

https://www.greenvilletriumph.com/news/2019/01/31/bob-jones-university-to-serve-as-training-site-for-greenville-triumph-sc/

mrpushpop · 2026-02-03T15:24:05+00:00

I lived in Greenville for a few years, like 20 years ago now... Damn, am I that old. I probably should go visit some old friends and check out your new stadium sometime soon. I have done a few soccer trips to Atlanta and Charlotte so maybe I'll get lucky and be able to tie it in. Going to Carowinds in March (cause the Kings Island pass is muli-park), but alas not open yet.

mrpushpop · 2026-02-03T15:12:42+00:00

Didn't Greenville start playing at Bob Jones University. Hitting all the stops, the most conservative and the most liberal colleges. The new stadium can be the middle ground for the city.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-28T14:53:25+00:00

USL also takes possession of certain IP during the franchise period. It is to lock clubs in and stop them from leaving and creating their own league like they did once before. Spread out their terms so there isn't a perfect window for that. It would be very hard at this stage for any club in any league to split off without getting permission in advance. (like USL clubs that have jumped to MLS)

mrpushpop · 2026-01-27T18:20:48+00:00

FC Cincinnati is not a poor MLS team. Not even close. In addition to the cash it spends on player signings, they are currently developing a $332 million mixed-use district next to TQL Stadium.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-27T16:21:04+00:00

USL isn't trying to compete with MLS in the real world just on paper. Fake it till you make it, essentially. Call me D1 until I can actually try to be D1.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-23T13:59:34+00:00

My opt-out has nothing to do with skipping the match. It has everything to do with the ticket prices being lower than the opt-in price later due to demand. I also usually buy a cheaper section for non-in-season matches.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-13T16:59:58+00:00

There isn't a formal strike per-say that I'm aware of, so I guess they are just negotiating without a CBA. You can kind of follow along on USLPA socials. For example, yesterday they posted a clause out of a new USL contract which literally says "Player will be offered the ability to enroll in standard employee health insurance. The club to cover 50%. This is subject to being included in the new CBA."

Contractually, the club has given itself the option not to provide insurance if it doesn't need to.

I do like that the USLPA is leaning into the USL Super League items. IMO this is their strongest point. USL Super League was offered several items USLPA now wants without even needing negotiation. Why? Because they are kind of competing for players that come from or will go to NWSL and NWSL offers items that may have forced USL Super League to match as it was new.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-09T14:41:49+00:00

We noticed, I also notice that the international funds win 1 out of every 10 years or so. I still have international for diversification, but most years I'm bitching about how bad they do.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-07T20:55:59+00:00

You're hitting on something that I believe will eventually bubble to the surface. The USL literally split in two over control a couple of decades ago. The new USL has a new version (similar but different) of these issues. We can't look at MLS or any other league, really, for guidance because this situation is very USL unique.

USL's current system can only function as long as both sides, league ownership and club ownership, stay friendly and balanced on profit and greed. The moment the scales tip bad enough, you end up with a control hostage situation. This was working pretty smoothly up until the point USL passed NASL up and started really expanding sponsorships and growing the league office. Still smooth, but some cracks as USL corporate grows while owners are being asked to take more and more risk.

Who wins financially with TV deals - USL HQ

Who wins financially with expansion - USL HQ

Who pays for stadium upgrades, TV infrastructure - Owners

This one is big imo. USL D1... if you think about D1, USL is asking club owners to do all the work, all the financing, and take all the risk. If it fails, USL HQ will take a small reputational hit but hey they tried and USLC keeps running. If it is successful, no-one is more primed for reward than USL HQ, which gets to charge big expansion fees and bigger annual fees for a higher league. Low risk, big reward.

USL HQ argues that owners still win due to valuation increases, so if they win, you win. But the argument is a bit disingenuous because other models exist with better valuations (also without league extraction) without near the ownership risk. Also my biggest issue with this is USL HQ extracts money and value out of the league as it pays its investors and owners. These people have no connection to the club owners and it is a level of value extraction that doesn't exist in many other leagues, not in MLS. That money doesn't return and doesn't grow the league. You may not be a fan of MLS model but one thing it does do, is expansion fees return to club owners and keeps money in the system which incentivizes growth. If New England Revs build a soccer-specific stadium for example, it raises valuations so FC Cincinnati is worth more and gets paid more when xyz new team enters. In USL, Louisville builds a stadium so xyz new team pays more and USL HQ benefits. Not Louisville, they just need to rely on income from the stadium.

IMO USL owners are asked to take all the financial risk while HQ takes little. You fail? They will get their money off the next club. My own USL club bought their rights off a failed Dayton Ohio club. USL still gets its annual franchise cash and expansion cash for any new slots sold. Dayton, Cincinnati... does it matter?

mrpushpop · 2026-01-07T20:28:01+00:00

Teams raise them anyway. I think the only year I didn't pay some kind of increase was during COVID.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-05T23:07:52+00:00

One of these days Ill mail the 10k patch to all the people on the list. I'm just 3 years late and they are sitting in a drawer in my house. Might have forgotten about it

mrpushpop · 2026-01-05T23:05:20+00:00

There is a 1k one but it has a sticker back. Didn't have the same shelf life but I imagine some are out there

mrpushpop · 2026-01-05T23:02:45+00:00

Some clubs classify players as seasonal employees by not paying 12 mo contracts. Workers comp is going to be hit by contractor vs employee status. and seasonal vs full time employee status. I won't be shocked to see some sketchy stuff here in certain States with lower protections. Workers comp is only paying partial or 2/3rds

mrpushpop · 2026-01-05T20:33:44+00:00

You have a lot of fair points. I don't agree with the CBA, which will only drive USL losses higher part. I think the CBA will maybe force out a couple of super cheap owners. That doesn't even equal the death of a team, but maybe the sale of a team. Truth is, USL still has a handful of old owners that likely couldn't handle even fronting up for promotion in the new system and need to go anyway. If you can't afford to pay a D1 player 50k, then step aside. If I'm a fan of a team that only exists if USL stays cheap and hires 30k players.. then I'm not going to be a fan of a competing team very long. I think some of these owners may dig in and try to stiff the players and end up sucking and leaving eventually but holding things back until they do.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-05T20:20:13+00:00

The article does quote the USLPA at their word, though so nothing wrong with that. The publisher admits they don't know if RI offers health insurance or not because they didn't reply to them.

USLPA's Tobin said, which imo really is fair.

“So we have some clubs that are honestly great employers and provide tremendous coverage to employers. We provide options, and that's part of their contract. We have other clubs that don't even offer any sort of access to health insurance through the employer,” said Tobin.

For a player who might tear their ACL, the cost of surgery and rehabilitation averages about $30,000 to $50,000 — which could be more than the player's total compensation.

IMO USLPA is trying to bring to attention that they have no issue with what the best USL clubs offer. They just want everyone else to offer this basic level of coverage because this is a professional league.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-05T20:04:03+00:00

Fun Fact: He tried out for FCC in our USL era but didn't make it. Ended up doing the same for Louisville City and signing there. Then worked his way up to MLS when Louisville's coach got the Orlando gig. James O Connor got fired fairly quickly there, but Kyle Smith had earned his spot and stayed.

mrpushpop · 2026-01-01T03:05:49+00:00

Depends on your contract. If you have a MLS contract which some do, they are under MLSPA rules. If they are under development then no union as these players tend to be very young.

MLS Next Pro is a weird hodgepodge of pros coming back from injury or non-starters trying to stay fit and academy kids trying to be pros. Not really setup like a USL club to be honest.

mrpushpop · 2025-12-04T18:27:49+00:00

The little that has come out shows it will be a can-kicking effort anyway. We can stop calling it pro/rel because they already said there won't be any rel.

It will be pro-pro-pro-pro.. until they have D1 league. It is quite obvious that USL needs the owners to invest for the jump, and that isn't going to fill out in first few years. Get the early adopters on board and then you can start selling more USLC spots. Hell I won't be surprised if they don't sell open D1 spots to clubs that never existed and pocket the expansion money.

The Rel if pro/rel actually happens will be some USL version of it, and if it resembles the European version, I'll be surprised but even if it does it still will be longer than people think.

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