USL votes to implement Pro/Rel

From the athletic:

In a historic move, United Soccer League (USL) owners voted Tuesday to become the first professional soccer entity in the United States to adopt promotion and relegation, sources with knowledge of the vote told The Athletic. USL owners passed the vote with a supermajority, according to those sources. The USL currently operates two pro leagues: the second-division USL Championship and third-division USL League One. Last month it announced it will launch a new first division, with expectations to begin play in 2028. League owners now will look to introduce promotion and relegation throughout that three-tiered pyramid, with an aim to launch pro-rel along along with the new Division 1 league. The pro-rel system is used commonly throughout the world. In leagues that utilize promotion and relegation, teams that finish at the bottom of the table move down to the division directly beneath their league, while teams that finish atop the lower divisions move up. The USL previously discussed implementing pro-rel in 2023, but had not been able to get enough support to bring it to a vote. That changed this week, sources said, when, among other things, the positive response to the announced Division 1 league helped to spur owners into action. Over the last few years, USL has studied different versions of what a pro-rel system would look like if implemented. That likely still has to be finalized in coming years. The change could dramatically reshape what the USL — and American pro soccer — looks like. Major League Soccer operates as a single-entity business and is a closed league, with no promotion and relegation, akin more to North American sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. MLS, like the USL leagues now, uses a playoff system to determine its champion and provide some level of consequence for teams who finish above or below the playoff line. Currently, U.S. Soccer’s pro league standards include stringent guidelines for D1 teams, as well as for teams in the second and third tier. The introduction of promotion and relegation could force the sport’s governing body to rethink some of those standards in order to accommodate teams that move up and down within USL’s pyramid. USL’s initial push for promotion and relegation was held up in part by owners’ fears about lost revenue should their teams be relegated. It’s a financial hardship that has been demonstrated around the world in more established leagues. But those leagues also have more established revenues — and larger media deals. USL relies almost exclusively on gameday revenues, including ticketing and concessions, as well as local sponsorship deals. Those are less likely to be impacted in the short- and medium-term as USL implements pro-rel. And while USL has an agreement with CBS and drew 431,000 viewers for its championship game last year — just shy of the 468,000 viewers that tuned in to MLS Cup on Fox and Fox Deportes, though that does not include viewers on Apple’s MLS Season Pass — it’s a far cry from the media deals in England, for example, where hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake for teams that go in and out of the Premier League. The jeopardy in England, in other words, is much larger. Promotion and relegation could help to drive more media interest in USL, however. For USL leaders, that meant more potential upside in introducing a system that is used around the world — and one for which a sector of Americans fans have clamored for years. Shows like Welcome to Wrexham and Ted Lasso have introduced the romantic side of promotion and relegation to a wider group of sports fans in recent years. Now, fans of USL clubs will have the chance to follow pro-rel stories in their own backyard.