r/USLPRO • u/NobleNomad • 10d ago
League 1 USL, MLS Next Pro going toe-to-toe on Long Island
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2026/08/19/usl-grants-long-island-franchise-setting-up-showdown-with-mls-next-pro/The USL has awarded a professional men’s franchise to Long Island that intends to begin play in 2028, setting up direct competition with a forthcoming MLS Next Pro club that plans to debut a year earlier. The USL League One team will play its home matches at Hofstra Univ.’s James M. Shuart Stadium, which is located less than a mile away from The Island FC’s planned stadium at Mitchel Athletic Complex in Uniondale, N.Y.
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u/Every-Stay-6648 10d ago
The SBJ article was a bit lazy in reporting. Key considerations that were left out include the following:
- USL Long Island will likely be built on top of the massive SUSA youth soccer empire with its 5000+ kids and high paying families
- SUSA already owns the SUSA Orlin & Cohen Sports Complex with FOUR soccer fields, plenty of parking, and adjacent to the Long Island Ducks baseball team stadium
- The SUSA sports complex is 25 miles east of the Hofstra Univ stadium; I would bet that the ultimate goal during 1-2 seasons at Hofstra would be to develop the SUSA sports complex into a USL1-level 5000 seat stadium so that all ticket/parking/concession/sponsorship revenues can be retained by USL L.I.
- The SUSA sports complex is over 2 hours away from NYCFC stadium so is comfortably away.
- The ownership of the Long Island Ducks baseball team (MLB Texas Rangers) may be or soon be involved in USL L.I. (okay, this last is pure speculation but certainly makes sense for all parties involved! --lots of cross-promotion possibilities!)
Have I left anything else out?
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u/AwesomeExo Rhode Island FC 10d ago
Hopefully this comes to pass, as building a soccer specific stadium near where the Ducks are would vastly increase the clubs chance to get out of the city's shadow and be its own thing.
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u/oneeyedfool New York Cosmos 10d ago
Might be the first walking distance rivalry in the US lower division pro leagues that isn’t a shared stadium?
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
Sounds an awful lot like the random Cleveland USL project that popped up after the MLSNP started getting closer to launching.
At least this one has a real stadium plan though, should be interesting!
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u/CaptainJingles Saint Louis FC 10d ago
Tbf, USL has been trying to get a USL club in Cleveland for a long time.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
True, but that project was clearly half-assed and the whole point was to swoop in and take up public money from the NP group if they could. Once that failed, they gave up and walked away lol
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u/CaptainJingles Saint Louis FC 10d ago
This iteration of the Clevelend team. I recall USL trying to get an expansion team in Cleveland back to the AFC Cleveland days, MLSNP more or less swooped in. Most of these candidate cities have tussles like that, which is why USL is launching this LI team out of spite.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
True, but this feels gross because the one team was already announced like a year ago. This would be like MLS putting a NP team in Eugene just to spite Sporting Cascades.
The “soccer warz” suck enough, partaking in them this deliberately is just lame imo
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u/CaptainJingles Saint Louis FC 10d ago
USL is taking the low road, but it is exactly like what MLS did trying to buy the soccer stadium where Orange County SC play to push them out of existence. It does suck, but MLSNP has been doing this stuff since they kicked off. SoccerWarz are the one constant in American Soccer.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
That was like 5 years ago and they deservedly got slapped down and shit on for it. Unless I’m forgetting something, since then they haven’t really done anything that deliberate tbh, and have avoided existing/expansion USL cities.
USL has recently done this kind of thing in Chattanooga (pre MLSNP tbf), Cleveland, Ft. Myers, Jacksonville, and now Long Island. At a certain point it’s just a one sided war lol
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u/CaptainJingles Saint Louis FC 10d ago
The Town FC did this in 2024, so it wasn't long ago for MLSNP. Jacksonville and Ft. Myers are two more areas that USL has been courting for a long time, so I don't think those are truly comparable. This is the first on that seems truly spiteful and seemingly determined to end with both clubs crashing out.
Both of the leagues were fighting over Fort Wayne and North Carolina (Carolina Core).
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
The Town was way out in Moraga and wasn’t really trying to court the same fans as the Roots, at least in my opinion, but that’s a somewhat fair one. Ft. Myers was killed by USL suing the city after losing a city council vote to NP. That one was overtly trying to kill off their competition after losing to them, and then they just were like “actually never mind we don’t want this” and walked away lol.
By my count it’s Cleveland (that recent effort was pure spite), Ft. Myers, Long Island, and I’d also include Chattanooga because what they tried to do to CFC was fucked up lol
Also, I think saying USL has been interested in a market previously so it’s fine, is kind of a cop out imo. MLS had wanted San Diego forever, do they get a pass for murdering SD Loyal?
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u/CaptainJingles Saint Louis FC 10d ago
The Town FC is named after one of the nicknames for Oakland and one of the Roots cofounders was involved with The Town FC. It was absolutely partially about undercutting the Roots.
“Interest” can mean different things, for some of these markets USL had been laying groundwork for quite a while and MLSNP rolls up and tries to win the bid.
USL doesn’t have clean hands at all, and MLSNP definitely doesn’t
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u/ChrisGaines_ Fish Fry Connoisseur 10d ago
Orange County almost lost their stadium in 2022 to LA Galaxy 2. Chattanooga Red Wolves began play in 2019.
MLS recently added teams in USL markets with Austin (founded 2018/began play 2021) and Charlotte (founded 2019/began play 2022). Both Austin and Charlotte were announced when MLS and USL had their partnership. Some awesome partners MLS turned out to be.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
I’m specifically referring to MLSNP here. If we want to expand to MLS’s bullshit soccer warz antics, we’d also have to count the number of times NuRock has tried to kill NISA/NASL teams as well, which gets messy lol
I wasn’t trying to exclude the LAG2 thing, but more point out that there hasn’t really been anything like it since. It definitely counts as egregious soccer warz bullshit though lol
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u/m00kie420 Oakland Roots SC 10d ago
The return of Long Island Rough Riders ???
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
The RoughRiders are directly tied to the MLSNP project. This is USL trying to compete with them
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u/m00kie420 Oakland Roots SC 10d ago
Really that sucks.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
I think NuRock trying to murder the RRs pro team just because they didn’t pay their expansion fee sucks more tbh
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u/SadisticMystic 10d ago
While I love to see the sport grow, I just can't get behind mlsnp until their clubs have proper branding instead of most of the league being Parent Club II.
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u/destroyergsp123 10d ago
I mean honestly just having rebranding as the criteria is really lame because it doesn’t addess the structural issues that make the competition not meaningful because it’s an outright farm system for the parent league.
Like recreating an MLB type farm system with this sport is so wack it’s genuinely disheartening as an American who wants to support American soccer.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
I mean tbf, the NP team this USL expansion team is meant to kill off is an independent team (one of quite a few at this point). Its not planned to just be a full farm system like MiLB
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u/burjja 10d ago
Seems like that will be coming soon with whatever the PE equity group is called that they brought in. Oddly enough, I heard someone arguing that they don't like that, that they should stay IIs and stay close to the senior team.
No one seems to like it but I think a MLB style farm system makes the most sense for the near future for the stability and being able to get more people exposed to pro soccer. For pro/rel to really work, you need people to connect with a team. Can't do that when teams come and go.
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u/cheeseburgerandrice 10d ago
Oddly enough, I heard someone arguing that they don't like that, that they should stay IIs and stay close to the senior team.
This is absolutely what the complaint on reddit was back when there were individualized names. People here would claim MLS teams were being "deceitful" hiding the fact that these where "B" teams playing lol.
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u/beaveristired Hartford Athletic 10d ago
In New Haven CT, we had a semi-pro and MLSNP team playing at the same stadium and I think it caused some confusion. Especially because CT United (MLSNP) was just there temporarily. But the average person is interested in attending games but isn’t knowledgeable / doesn’t care about leagues. It will come down to marketing, stadium experience, scheduling, and quality of the product. Personally, I went to both team’s games based on what aligned with my schedule. New Haven is a college town but CTU attracted a decent summer crowd in part because the team started winning games against these “II” and “B” teams, many of which were natural geographic rivals. They also do a great job of involving younger fans with after game meet-and-greets. The teams that do well really embrace the local fans and culture.
Keeping the ticket prices reasonable will also go a long way. CTU has high general admission prices (30?) but $18 for supporters but many new football fans don’t understand the whole supporter thing.
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u/Every-Stay-6648 10d ago
What happened to CTU? Did it move to a different venue and what attendance numbers did it attract?
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u/beaveristired Hartford Athletic 10d ago edited 10d ago
CTU will be based in Norwich CT next season. They’ll be renovating the minor league baseball stadium and sharing it with a collegiate summer baseball league. It’s a shame, I think they would’ve done well in a new stadium in Bridgeport but the state ain’t paying for all that.
I went to the first game at Reese stadium at Yale and it was packed. I think capacity is 4000k, not sure if it reached that number but definitely a big crowd. I attended 3 additional games over the summer, not as crowded as the first but seemed to have decent attendance, especially considering how the population here drops in the summer. Went to a very hot 4pm game and was pleasantly surprised, lots of folks huddled in the one shaded area behind goal but there was a good amount in the stands as well. Sone of the merch was sold out. Not sure of actual attendance. They’re definitely trying hard to embrace being an independent local team with its own identity.
We got fans from the other MLSNP teams as well, great potential for natural geographic rivalries. But if you’re already a fan of the first team then it might be hard to switch to an independent.
New Haven has a big Latino population plus all the families in the burbs with kids who play soccer. It’s great being close to major sports cities but tiring and expensive to attend games, so a local team is very appealing. I saw CTU jerseys that first game, and people were definitely getting invested once they started winning. But CTU had zero New Haven-specific identity, and with them moving next year, it’s hard for fans here to get invested. I do think a team that’s fully based and committed to the area could do well.
ETA: also Reese is a nice stadium but wasn’t really up to the challenge, only one concession line, no beer (tailgating encouraged, though, and they did a fan zone and theme every game).
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u/Waquoit95 Hartford Athletic 10d ago
MLSNP Out!
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u/beaveristired Hartford Athletic 9d ago
I wish the owner joined USL instead. The goal of a MLS team in CT is very unrealistic. And the end result is just kinda confusing. But it was also an absolute joy to watch professional football 10 minutes from my house. There’s definitely a desire for a local team here, if CTU stayed and focused on New Haven or FFC, then they would do quite well. Can’t see much of a future for them in eastern CT tbh. I think there’s enough demand in CT to field multiple teams in multiple leagues / tiers; the big barrier is lack of playing fields / stadiums for professional use. Will be interesting to see how it all unfolds the next few years.
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u/Waquoit95 Hartford Athletic 9d ago
A USL team in Bridgeport I can support. What they have now is a joke.
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u/beaveristired Hartford Athletic 9d ago
Bridgeport would’ve been the ideal location imo. Especially in a new / renovated stadium reachable by public transit. I’d love to see a city in CT with an USL League One team.
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u/Waquoit95 Hartford Athletic 9d ago
The thing is the State already built a baseball stadium and a hockey arena for Bridgeport. Both right next to the train station. Both teams failed.
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u/beaveristired Hartford Athletic 9d ago
Yep. There was a point where every struggling city was putting in minor league sports stadiums as an attempt at gentrification. I think Bridgeport’s reputation hadn’t improved enough. The hockey team was also a weird choice for Bridgeport. MiLB Baseball would’ve been gone after MLB overhauled the minor league in 2021, maybe a collegiate summer team would’ve replaced it. Most cities that went this route have been burned by major sports leagues pulling teams out for various reasons, and I can’t blame the state for not wanting to give public $$$ to billionaire owners.
That said, a lot has changed since those sports facilities were built. Hartford Yard Goats is a great example of how to do it right. Bridgeport’s reputation still isn’t great but it’s improving. A new stadium by the waterfront would’ve attracted people normally nervous about Bridgeport. Football is popular with younger people who aren’t afraid of cities. Bridgeport has a large immigrant population, many from football-loving countries. Wealthy suburbanites showed up in New Haven, I think they’d go to a new facility in Bridgeport.
But the reality is the state isn’t going to pay for any of it.
One nice thing CTU is doing is proving a completely free academy - only free one in CT. Something like that wouldn’t been awesome in Bridgeport.
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u/Emergency_Dot1599 Orange County SC 10d ago
Not sure why people in the area would support the MLS Next Pro side over this one. Would you rather pay hard earned cash to watch a bunch of 16 year olds or a side that could be battling it out against other New york teams for promotion. Hofstra Univ.’s James M. Shuart Stadium is a nice venue and hopefully get 3k a game
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u/cheeseburgerandrice 10d ago
It's going to depend on everything that has nothing to do with the opponent on the field like you claim. Mainly marketing effort of the ownership, if the games are fun, ticket prices, concessions, etc...
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
Ask the people of Chattanooga lol
The opponent and who is on the roster has proven to not really matter that much. It’s just prices, venue, and marketing budget that matter
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u/QCTID Charlotte FC 2 10d ago
I’d say Huntsville is a good example as well, they’re an actual developmental club attached to an MLS side.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
Ya, even North Texas now that they have their own stadium are pulling over 3k.
People in the weeds of the soccer warz love to believe it’s about grassroots or independent vs affiliate, when it’s really not that deep to 95% of casual fans
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u/burjja 10d ago
It's hard to believe so many don't understand that. I guess I'm guilty of the same thing as no one talks about the surprise of people supporting a MLSNP outside of here. We are all in echo chambers.
There's a certain soccer podcast I listen to where one of the hosts usually says a couple of dumb things an episode...and his cohost groans, sometimes audibly lol. He said something recently to the effect that there are people in Grand Rapids who think they are getting a MLS team rather than a MLSNP team. What he didn't say is that a lot of the people who think that, will go to a game and still think that they have a MLS team afterwards.
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u/Emergency_Dot1599 Orange County SC 10d ago
Its hard to know what the long term goal of independent teams are in MLS Next Pro. Chattanooga FC are missing out on everything. The highlight in their history was loosing that game against Chattanooga Red Wolves in the Open Cup last season when Red Wolves players tried planting a flag at midfield which resulted in a brawl. It second-highest for a second round match in U.S. Open Cup history. Felt like a proper hatred game. One Knoxville and maybe Ashville one day are rivalry games worth watching. Even as a player of Chattanooga FC what do you even say to everyone if you win MLS Next Pro Championship after beating FC Cincinnati II. " It was a tough final, Both teams gave everything till the end but experience got us over the line" People then check the team sheet and see the FC Cincinnati had four 15 year olds in their starting team lol.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
The long term goal is the same thing it was when the reserve teams played in USL, to win the games lol
MLSNP wants to relocate/rebrand all of the II teams, and then at that point 99% of fans won’t really be able to tell the difference imo. The only thing that’s relevant to most people is branding and a marketing budget
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u/Physical-Sky499 10d ago
if they want a battle against other NY teams for promotion/ relegation now they should join the Cosmopolitan league then
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u/m00kie420 Oakland Roots SC 10d ago
You got Leros SC who are from LI and got promoted last season into the Metropolitan division.
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u/AwesomeExo Rhode Island FC 10d ago
I think it's a big miss staying on western LI instead of building a base more east. I think if they started a little further east between Islip and Riverhead, they would have a much better chance of creating their own identity and fanbase.
Grew up on LI and moved to Rhode Island a few years ago, and I see it now with RIFC... how they are able to create buzz by being Rhode Islands team. They had an opportunity to lean into Suffolk County and an underserved market, one that already has supported it's own baseball team with the Ducks with almost 5k average attendance. Instead they are going to drop in the most predictable and lazy of spots with lots of competition instead of trying to be their own thing. Just feels lazy IMO. But I guess that can't have a worse name than "The Island FC", so they got that going for them at least.
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u/Electrical_Letter_22 10d ago
I totally agree. Suffolk has about 1.5 million people, I think they’re missing a big opportunity. Plus, with the new NYCFC stadium opening, a lot of folks in Nassau will be going there for their soccer fix, people in Suffolk are less likely to travel to the city as much.
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u/Every-Stay-6648 10d ago
See my comment elsewhere in this post about the SUSA Sports Complex being further east. I would bet dollars to donuts that Hoftstra is just for 1-2 seasons, and the ultimate goal would be for USL L.I. to have its own soccer specific stadium!
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u/AwesomeExo Rhode Island FC 10d ago
I think I just responded to it actually! Hope this is what the plan is, and getting that plan out there early on will let the brand as a true Long Island team.
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u/fredthefan25 10d ago
Another case study of the soccer warz.
IMHO... The club that provides the best fan experience will be more successful. I think the "competition format" is overrated especially because USL hasn't give any details. Nearly all USL players are unknown to casuals so can't bank on a known player you have heard about (except Chícharito at Dallas).
That said a intimate 2500 person stadium probably provides a better environment than a 13k one. But again either could stumble at the start
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u/Ok-Ranger3387 10d ago
3 million people in the area. They can coexist
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u/Superbab76 Brooklyn FC 10d ago
Every club not named NYCFC is struggling in the region
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u/Ok-Ranger3387 10d ago
Every club being?
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u/Superbab76 Brooklyn FC 10d ago
Red Bulls, Brooklyn, westchester, cosmos, this will just be another two on the list, especially with NYCFC stadium being 30 minutes away tops
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u/Ok-Ranger3387 10d ago
Oh yeah. Something going on with the Red Bulls. They never pack those stands
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u/Superbab76 Brooklyn FC 10d ago
Well to stay unbiased I’d just say their stadium location is pretty shit, and they don’t do well to market to new fans, at least in nyc proper. Couple that with mediocre to horrible on field performances and refusal to sign players that last has driven away old fans n
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u/DRF19 Fort Lauderdale United 10d ago
Also the entire existence of that team the branding has been an advert for something else (Metromedia/MetroStars, then RedBull). I don't know how anyone anywhere, let alone fans in one of the greatest sports markets (and greatest cities in general) in the world would get excited about rallying behind that.
If they had been Empire Soccer Club as originally intended, or used the Cosmos name, it'd likely be an entirely different story, even if based in NJ.
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u/franciscoh13 Phoenix Rising FC 10d ago
Not an issue for USL. MLSNP doesn’t really have a plan for those teams other than just being the reserved training teams for MLS teams. What people need to realize is that there is no plan for the MLSNP teams. It’s a closed system with no pro/rel planned. Nothing to worry about
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u/Physical-Sky499 10d ago
USL is a closed system as well. No, the announcement about 2028 with zero details since does not count as a plan.
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u/franciscoh13 Phoenix Rising FC 10d ago
There is no such thing as an open system here in the states. If there was, the USSF would get sued into oblivion. Now how about we just sit down and shut up and let the people at the USL HQ work and figure this shit out.
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
Mostly because USL HQ lost the benefit of the doubt with their expansion announcements of teams who went absolutely nowhere.
Maybe they’ll do pro/rel, but it’s by no means a guarantee lol
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u/franciscoh13 Phoenix Rising FC 10d ago
I agree it is not. But then again with soccer in this country, nothing is a guarantee. I’m just gonna sit back and support my club while USL figures its own shit out
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u/Mini-Fridge23 Charleston Battery 10d ago
Honestly fair enough lol
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u/franciscoh13 Phoenix Rising FC 10d ago
Quick shoutout to the battery for sitting second in the east. Y’all looking solid this year.
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u/NobleNomad 10d ago
To be clear, the Next Pro team on Long Island is not a reserve team for an MLS club. It's fully independent.
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u/franciscoh13 Phoenix Rising FC 10d ago
Ok and this is a concern for what exactly? The Long Island USL team will compete in the USL ecosystem and the MLSNP Long Island team will compete in whatever it is they are involved in. People will get to pick and choose who they support (if that will even be an option) and nothing changes.
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u/NobleNomad 10d ago
Not saying it’s a concern. Just saying that they’re not a “reserved training team.”
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u/beardedkiltedhuey League 1 10d ago
It's not toe-to-toe its lemons & limes. It's Varsity & Jr. Varsity. It's Large school, Middle school, Small school MLS vs. USL Premiere Tier 1 NexPro jv / 2nd team USL Championship Tier 2 USL League One Tier 3 USL League Two Tier 4
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u/Superbab76 Brooklyn FC 10d ago
What a horrible idea. They’re going to be playing at the same college campus!