September 26, 2025 • 46 mins
USL Challenges MLS: The New Billions Soccer War
We offer a multifaceted view of the global football landscape, focusing heavily on the intensifying rivalry between the Major League Soccer (MLS) and the United Soccer League (USL) in the United States. It details the USL's ambitious plans to launch a Division I men's league by 2027 to directly compete with the established MLS, potentially incorporating promotion and relegation, a model largely absent in American sports. Simultaneously, we discuss the importance of global player development, highlighting an initiative by the Paris Saint-Germain Academy and Detect Pro Fund to nurture young African football talent from the Ivory Coast in Senegal, as well as the Confédération Africaine de Football's (CAF) strategy to enhance youth football excellence across Africa. Finally, we analyze the pros and cons of the USL versus the MLS/MLS Next Pro pathways for young American players, generally concluding that the USL offers greater flexibility and quicker access to professional minutes, while the MLS provides higher earning potential and stability.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We often talk about the dazzling, visible side of
football, You know, the Premier League, La Liga, those big
Champions League nights. Absolutely the highlight reels.
Exactly. But today we are skipping the
highlight reel and heading straight into, well, the
engineering room. We're looking at the
foundational processes, the stuff happening behind the
scenes and also those really bitter financial conflicts.
(00:24):
Conflicts. They determine a lot.
They really do. They determine where the next
generation of global talent actually comes, comes from, and
maybe more crucially right now, which professional leagues are
going to survive these consolidation wars we're seeing?
That's exactly right. And for this deep dive, we're
really focusing on 2 interconnected global fronts.
(00:44):
It's fascinating when you see how they link up.
OK, what are they? So first we're examining the
strategic, almost institutional,investment that's pouring into
Africa. The goal there is to refine the
whole process of scouting and training young footballers.
So like optimizing the global supply chain for talent?
You can put it that way, Yeah, building a more predictable
pipeline. Then second, we're tracking the
(01:06):
high stakes domestic war right here in North America.
The MLS versus USO battle. Precisely.
Major League Soccer and the United Soccer League are really
going head to head. They're battling for supremacy,
fighting over player pathways. Which route is best for young
players? And fundamentally challenging
who gets to wear the crown. You know who gets to be the
(01:27):
sanctioned top tier league in the US?
That's the big prize. So our mission today is
basically to give you the critical knowledge you need to
navigate this really complex landscape.
Yeah, to understand the moving parts.
We're unpacking the economics. Got to follow the money.
We're mapping out those player pathways, which can be pretty
convoluted. Especially for parents and young
(01:47):
players trying to decide. For sure.
And we're detailing the strategies defining the future
of the sport on, well, two very different continents, but with
massive implications for each other.
And you really need to understand these structural
mechanisms, the sort of plumbingthat underpins this multibillion
dollar business. Because that structure, that
plumbing, that's what often determines the outcome of the
(02:09):
competition, maybe even more than what happens on the pitch
sometimes. It shapes everything.
OK, let's unpack this then starting with that global
pipeline, let's look at Africa and this massive institutional
effort to standardize and professionalize football
development there. Right.
And we should probably start at the very top level, the
(02:30):
Confederation. African to football or CA.
The continental governing body. Exactly.
And back in December 2024, they held what seems like a really
Seminole Academies meeting in Cairo.
Seminole how What was the big shift?
Well, it signals this massive shift away from relying solely
on, you know, informal street football or maybe just
(02:52):
opportunistic scouting. Which has produced amazing
players, but it's unpredictable.Highly unpredictable and
sometimes exploitative, this meeting was about moving towards
a collective, coordinated continental strategy for youth
development. It's about building a system.
That structural commitment feelsreally key because historically,
like you said, that pipeline hasbeen fragmented, sometimes
(03:12):
unreliable. Absolutely, Yeah.
So by bringing all the member associations together, CAF is
essentially mandating a coordinated effort.
And what's the core initiative? What are they actually doing?
The main thing is a commitment to organize National Academy
tournaments. The idea is to accelerate player
growth by providing continuous high level competition.
(03:34):
Something that's often missing right outside of maybe a few
major regional hubs. Exactly.
Consistent, meaningful games against comparable opponents.
That's the gap they're trying tofill.
OK. And the proposed structures for
these competitions, are they just throwing teams together?
No, it seems incredibly detailedactually.
It shows they've really thought about the developmental needs at
(03:55):
different ages and levels. How so?
Well, they're aiming for integration first, so inserting
these academies into existing youth tournaments where
possible, just to get the more exposure.
Makes sense? Maximize games.
But also they want targeted competition, so creating age
specific groupings under 16 seems to be a big focus
initially. OK.
(04:15):
But crucially, these groups won't just be based on age.
They'll also be tiered by skill level.
That's smart so you don't get mismatches that don't help
anyone. Precisely.
A really strong U16 Academy teamshouldn't be crushing a brand
new community program. 10s zero.They need to face teams at their
own level to really be pushed and developed tactically,
technically. And I was fascinated by the
(04:37):
logistics you mentioned these tiered phases, community, then
regional, the national championships.
Yeah, think about the organizational challenge there.
It's huge. You're talking about potentially
tracking and running tournamentsthat funnel thousands, maybe 10s
of thousands of players up from the grassroots community level,
through regional qualifiers all the way to crowning an elite
(05:00):
National Academy champion. That signals a really serious
long term focus, doesn't it? Identifying and challenging
talent right across the entire continent, not just in the
capital cities. It absolutely does, and that
emphasis starts quite early. The initial focus, as I
mentioned, seems heavily weighted toward organized under
16 tournaments. And why use 16 specifically?
(05:20):
What's magic about that age? Well, think about player
development. That's often the age where
physical maturity really starts kicking in.
For many players, tactical understanding deepens
significantly. And critically.
Critically, they are right on the cusp of being scouted
seriously by international clubs, especially European ones.
Right. So getting that regular high
(05:42):
level competitive exposure rightat that moment, it's make or
break for the next step. It's absolutely critical for
launching the next stage of their careers, whether that's
moving abroad or into a top domestic league.
OK, this sounds incredibly ambitious.
It also sounds incredibly expensive.
Building infrastructure, runningtournaments.
How does C CAF plan to make surethese high standard academies
(06:05):
can actually sustain this? You need good facilities,
coaching, travel. That's a very fair question, and
it leads directly to maybe one of the more controversial
mechanisms for sustainability they're introducing, which is
the introduction of an annual fee for academies that achieve
this designation of advanced level.
A fee so you have to pay to playat the top tier essentially.
(06:28):
In a way, yes. Now CAF would frame it as a
calculated move, maybe even a risk.
On one hand, it's definitely a professionalizing step.
How so? Well, it generates necessary
revenue for Cafs own developmentprograms, which helps fund the
whole system and the theoretically it motivates the
academies themselves to continuously invest in their
(06:50):
facilities, their coaching staff, nutrition education,
everything needed to maintain that advance status.
OK, I see the upside, but the downside, doesn't that
inherently favor organizations that already have money
existing? Big clubs, maybe foreign backed
academies. That's the big concern.
You couldn't. This new fee structure
potentially stifles smaller, maybe highly effective but locally
(07:12):
funded programs. Programs that might be
fantastic, fantastic at producing talent, but just don't
have deep pockets. That is absolutely the tension.
See if it's essentially making abet here.
A bet that what? They're betting that the
prestige, the increased visibility and especially the
scouting traffic that will inevitably come with achieving
that advanced level designation,that all of that will be worth
the annual cost for the academies.
(07:33):
So the fee buys access to the market in a sense.
Exactly. It pushes the entire ecosystem
towards meeting higher, maybe even global standards.
They're effectively using a fee structure as a kind of quality
control mechanism while also funding the system.
It's bold. It is bold.
OK, let's pivot slightly now from that big continental
(07:55):
strategy from CTAF. Let's zoom into some specific,
maybe more private sector modelsthat are popping up, like the
one emerging in West Africa. Right.
Really interesting example. Launched in March 2023.
It's a partnership in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
OK, it's between the Paris SaintGermain Academy Pro Senegal and
something called the Detect Pro Fund.
(08:16):
Parisandromia, OK, big name recognition there.
What's the Detect Pro Fund and what's the significance of
bringing private finance like a fun into this equation?
This is like a classic example of targeted, potentially high
return investment. The Detect Pro Fund seems
designed primarily as an investment vehicle.
An investment vehicle. Yes, and that's an important
distinction. It's specific focus is on
(08:36):
identifying and promoting talented African players, often
from underprivileged backgrounds, typically between
16 and 18 years old. So they're providing capital.
Exactly. They're providing the capital
needed to turn that raw, maybe unpolished talent into a
potentially globally marketable asset, a player who can be
transferred for a significant fee later.
(08:58):
OK. So if this is an investment
fund, does that mean they're essentially taking a financial
stake in the players future earnings?
Like is this similar to the old third party ownership models we
saw which FIFA tried to ban or is it structured differently?
Well, the exact specifics of their long term contracts
weren't fully detailed in the information we looked at, but
generally the purpose of such funds is to provide the
(09:20):
platform, the training, the facilities, the coaching, the
whole package, the whole package, right, in exchange for
future returns, which are usually tied directly to
transfer fees received when the player sold.
Got it. And the platform itself sounds
pretty comprehensive with the PSG Academy involved.
Oh, absolutely. It's based at the PSG Academy
Pro Campus in Salie, Senegal andit offers elite level training,
(09:42):
professional nutrition programs,and crucially, they also provide
high quality education and boarding facilities.
That educational component seemsvital, doesn't?
It it ensures the players being developed holistically, it's
risk mitigation really. If for whatever reason the
player doesn't make it professionally in football, they
hopefully have an education and other options to fall back on.
(10:03):
It's a very smart way to manage the human capital risk if you
want to put it in stark terms. And the scale of ambition here,
it's pretty staggering, isn't it?
It really is. The stated goal of this specific
agreement is to bring 100 of themost talented Ivorian players to
this Academy Pro facility over afive year period. 100 players
from just Ivory Coast. That's a dedicated talent funnel
(10:25):
right there. A very focused pipeline, yeah.
And it seems like it's already being validated, showing some
early success. How so?
Well, and just the first year they hosted 6 Ivorian players
and apparently two of them immediately stood out enough
that they earned a professional tryout opportunity with Sparta
Prague in the Czech Republic. Wow, straight to Europe for a
tryout. That's quick.
(10:46):
Very quick. And that move apparently
leveraged the international network of the Strive Football
Group, which actually owns the PSG Academy Pro Senegal.
The network effect. Exactly.
It shows that professional integration into European
football isn't just some distanthope for these kids.
It seems to be built directly into the operating model from
day one. Access to trials pathways.
(11:08):
OK. So that's a very targeted high
end privately funded model. If we look maybe at the the gold
standard, perhaps for this kind of holistic development model,
we really have to talk about right to dream, don't we?
Oh, absolutely. Right to Dream is a fascinating
story. It started way back in 1999,
just in Ghana. Right on the banks of the Volta
(11:29):
River wasn't. It initially, yeah, and it's
grown massively since then. It's now a truly global group.
They have academies and clubs inDenmark, most famously FC Nords
Jalen. Who play in the Danish top
flight and are known for their youth development.
Exactly. They also have an Academy and
club structure now in Egypt, plus a really significant
educational network that connects strongly to the US,
(11:50):
particularly through scholarships to prep schools and
universities. And what's the core philosophy
that's driven that success and expansion?
From everything we've seen, the core philosophy seems absolutely
non negotiable. They develop student athletes.
Education runs completely parallel to development on the
pitch. It's not an afterthought.
And that holistic approach, that's key to why their
(12:13):
graduates seem so prepared. It seems to be they're prepared
not just technically or tactically, but also mentally
and emotionally for what is a highly demanding, often
cutthroat professional world. You need that resilience.
And the global output, it kind of speaks for itself, doesn't?
It, it really does. I mean, think about this.
Seven Right to Dream graduates represented their various
(12:34):
national teams in the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup.
Even that's incredible, including some big names.
Yeah, including players like Muhammad Kudus, who obviously
had a fantastic turn out for Ghana and has gone on to star
for West Ham. That's a product of their system
excelling on the biggest stage. And this connection, especially
from Ghana through Right to Dream, brings us directly to the
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North American market, specifically MLS.
It does. Ghana was actually the top
African country represented in Major League Soccer during the
2022 season. There were 13 Ghanaian players
in the league. 13 and a good number of those likely had right
to dream connections. Yes, several prominent ones are
right to dream graduates. Players like David Akam, who had
(13:15):
a successful MLS career, Useni Buddha more recently.
That pathway from Ghana, often via Right to Dream, into MLS, is
clearly established. And what insights do these
graduates offer about making that transition?
What does it take to succeed coming from that background into
MLS? The insights from those players
are really vital, especially foryounger players considering that
(13:36):
route. They consistently stress things
like adaptability, resilience, and maybe above all, patients.
Patients. Why patients specifically?
They explain that the best player mentality you might carry
with you from your Academy or maybe from college or high
school if you go that route, that has to shift the moment you
walk into an MLS locker room. You're not the star anymore.
Exactly, you arrive and you are a rookie.
(13:59):
Doesn't matter what you did before, you have to earn your
way. You have to adapt to the coaches
system the teams needs, Improve your value day in day out
without letting the pressure or maybe the lack of immediate
playing time crush your confidence.
That sounds like the system, whether it's Seahaf's new grand
structure or the Right to Dream model, is really primarily
(14:20):
designed to mitigate risk for the player and instill that
professional maturity before they hit the major leagues.
I think that's a huge part of it, yes, Yeah.
Preparing them for the reality. And if they are succeeding in
preparing players with that level of mental resilience, that
really raises the mistakes immensely for the domestic US
leagues, doesn't it? Because they're competing for
that exact same mindset, that same level of prepared talent.
(14:43):
And here's where it gets really interesting because all that
refined global talent developingthrough systems like these
alongside all the top US domestic talent, eventually it
all flows into this really intense competitive choice right
here in North America. The crunch.
Point exactly. And that choice, that decision
(15:05):
point, it typically hits really hard around age 18, doesn't.
It yeah, 18 is often the magic number.
That's the major fork in the road for most top US prospects.
And what are the main options onthe table at that point?
Broadly speaking, there are fourmajor forks.
Option one Sign an MLS Next Pro contract staying within an MLS
club system. OK, option 2.
Option 2 Sign a contract with the USL club, likely in the USL
(15:28):
Championship The. Independent.
Round the independent pro route?Yeah, option 3.
Go the traditional college soccer route, delaying the pro
decision. Still a very viable path for
many. Absolutely, and option four, try
to make a move straight to Europe.
The dream move for many, but that one has a big asterisk,
doesn't it? A huge one, and it's heavily
constrained by European regulations, specifically
(15:50):
regarding minors. Right, unless a player holds an
EU passport. Correct.
Unless they're lucky enough to have that EU passport, they
generally cannot be registered as an official professional
player in most major European leagues until they actually turn
18. So those two years leading up to
that birthday, say age 16 to 18,become absolutely critical
development years. They are arguably the most
(16:13):
critical years and the domestic US leagues, both MLS and USL,
are maneuvering very aggressively to control that
specific period of player development.
That's the battleground. OK, let's breakdown the
economics of that initial decision then comparing MLS Next
Pro and USL, at first glance, looking at the initial contracts
for say a high potential 17 or 18 year old, are the salaries
(16:34):
comparable? Yeah.
Interestingly, at that initial entry point, the contracts are
often quite comparable financially.
Really for a similar level player you might see an MLS Next
Pro deal in the say 25,000 to $40,000 range per year maybe
plus housing stipend or assistance.
OK. And USL Championship.
The USL Championship contract for a similar prospect might be
(16:55):
in the 30,000 to $40,000 range. Yeah.
So very close. They are clearly competing
directly for the same caliber ofyoung player on that initial
financial offer, but. There's always a but.
There's always a but, and MLS has the really powerful carrot,
as some agents call it, which isthe potential for rapid
conversion from that MLS Next Pro contract to a full MLS First
(17:18):
Team home grown contract. The big leap, the big leap.
Now MLS clubs are maybe increasingly risk averse.
They don't just hand these out. They use MLS Next Pro partly as
a testing ground. Makes sense.
See how they handle the pro environment.
Exactly. But if a player really performs
well in MLSMP, they can quickly convert to a Homegrown deal, and
those deals typically start around $75,000, maybe even
(17:39):
higher in the first year. That's a significant jump from
$30. Huge jump, and it can quickly
ramp up into six figures within a year or two.
That massive potential upside isthe primary financial lure that
MLS uses to keep top prospects in their system.
And that potential upside, that investment from the club, it's
tied directly to control, isn't it, through the contract link?
(18:02):
Absolutely. MLS contracts, particularly
those first team homegrown deals, are typically quite long.
You're often looking at 3 guaranteed years plus maybe two
additional club option years. So five years of club control
potentially. Potentially even the initial MLS
Next Pro deals are often structured AS2 guaranteed years,
plus maybe a club option year. This structure is deliberately
(18:25):
designed to secure the club's investment in the player and
mitigate the risk of losing a valuable asset too early or too
cheaply. OK, so MLS locks them in longer.
How does USL approach contract length for these young
prospects? USL generally views its role
very differently, especially forthose players aiming for Europe.
They position themselves as moreof a rapid launch platform.
(18:47):
Getting get seen, get out. Kind of, yeah.
And they leverage this positioning by offering much
shorter contracts typically, usually just one year guaranteed
plus one club auction year. So a 1 + 1 deal is very common.
Only a two year maximum commitment.
Exactly. And for a young player, maybe
17, whose ultimate goal is really to get to Europe as soon
as they turn 18, that 1 + 1 contract is incredibly
(19:09):
attractive. Why?
Because it gives them leverage. It maximizes their leverage,
especially during that crucial transfer window right around
their 18th birthday. It gives the player much more
control and flexibility over their next move, whether that
ends up being a transfer to an MLS first team that wants them
or that desired move across the Atlantic.
Wow, OK so MLS is almost forcinga longer commitment to mitigate
(19:33):
its own risk and secure the asset long term, but USL is
fundamentally mentally betting on potentially faster, maybe
higher risk returns by prioritizing the players speed
to market and flexibility. That's a great way to put it.
It's a fascinating reflection ofthe core business models and how
they view player development andtransfers. 1 is about long term
control, the other about facilitating the next step
(19:55):
quickly. Do we have examples of players
actually leveraging that USL contract structure?
Yeah, a prominent recent exampleis Jonathan Gomez.
He was a top prospect in the EFCDallas Academy system.
Right, Huge talent. Huge talent, but he actually
left the FC Dallas Academy set up to sign professionally with
Louisville City in the USL Championship.
Why make that move? Reportedly, a key reason was
(20:17):
specifically because the shorterUSL contract structure allowed
him and his representatives morecertainty and control in
securing his desired transfer toReal Sociedad in Spain, which
was finalized essentially right when he turned 18.
He played meaningful pro minutesin USL to prepare without being
locked into a long MLS deal. That's a powerful case study for
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the USL model. OK, let's move beyond the
contract paper itself. What about the actual
development environment? Where do players get better?
This is where the philosophical divide really emerges, right?
It really does. I mean MLS literally created MLS
Next Pro specifically to competewith what was seen as US LS main
advantage, which was which was US LS ability to offer truly
professional minutes, competitive game time much
(21:00):
earlier to their best 1515 and 17 year old Academy prospects
often within a first team training environment.
MLS wanted to bring that in house under their control.
OK, so MLSMP was a direct response, but now that both
exist, how do they actually compare in terms of the level of
play and the development experience?
Well, this is subjective of course, but most unbiased
(21:22):
experts and scouts seem to agreeon a general quality
differential right now. Which way does it lean?
The USL Championship is generally considered the
stronger, tougher league compared to MLS Next Pro
overall. Stronger how?
More experienced players. Yeah, the experience level is
different. USL Championship is generally
more mature. It's certainly more physical day
in, day out and often demands greater tactical mouse and
(21:45):
experience from young players. Why is that?
Because the league features moreestablished veteran players,
players in the prime, fewer purely developmental rotations,
perhaps the average player age is generally higher than an MLS
and P, and maybe crucially, the games often have more immediate
stakes fighting for playoff spots.
Avoiding poor results matters more week to week than in a
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reserve league. OK, so even if we acknowledge
that the MLS first team level isclearly a big step above both
MLSMP and USL Championship. Absolutely.
The top of MLS is a different stratosphere.
Right, but for the average high level 17 or 18 year old prospect
looking for the best place to get ready for that next step,
(22:26):
the USL Championship might actually be the stronger, more
intense testing ground right now.
That seems to be the consensus view, yes.
It's a tougher league to break into and succeed in consistently
as a teenager. And the environment itself, does
it force quicker maturity? We hear about that sometimes.
Absolutely. Think about the typical setup
(22:46):
staying within your familiar MLSAcademy environment.
Even moving up to MLS and P often provides a bit of a
cushion. How so?
You're usually still near home, you know the coaches, you're
protected within the club structure.
Going to sign for a USL Championship club, however,
usually means moving far away from home at a young age.
Big life change. Huge life change and you're
typically treated instantly likeany other professional player on
(23:08):
the roster. There's less hand holding, you
have to fight for your spot, earn every single minute and
training in games. The dose of reality, as one
source called it. Exactly.
And that dose of reality, that need to adapt and mature quickly
both on and off the field, arguably better prepares them
for the relentless demands and pressures of European football,
(23:29):
where the stakes, the competition, the scrutiny are
all astronomically higher. This focus then on maximizing
that European transfer value seems to be US LS greatest
strategic edge in this talent war.
It appears to be yes. They seem to optimize almost
everything around facilitating those sales.
How does that manifest? Well, their entire structure
(23:50):
seems geared towards it. For example, clubs are often
much more flexible about allowing promising young players
time away from the team to go ontrial with European clubs.
Which is essential, right? You need those trials to
generate real market interest. Nonnegotiable for generating
genuine transfer demand and bids, specially for layers who
aren't yet well known internationally.
Furthermore, the USL doesn't suffer from the really complex,
(24:12):
sometimes Byzantine internal transfer rules that can plague
MLS. OK.
Can you elaborate on those internal MLS transfer rules?
Because that sounds like a real sticking point for player
movement, even domestically. It can be so in MLS if a player
develops in Club A's Academy, maybe plays for their MLS MP
team, but then decides they wantto sign their first MLS first
(24:33):
team contract with Club B, right.
Club B often has to pay a substantial fee, reports
suggest, typically somewhere between 75,000 and $150,000,
sometimes even more, in allocation money or cash just to
acquire what are called the homegrown priority rights for
the players original club, Club A.
Wow, so you have to pay just forthe right to sign your own
(24:55):
domestic talent if they came from another team's Academy?
Essentially, yes. It's a system designed to
compensate clubs for development, but it absolutely
creates friction and can limit where a player can realistically
go within the domestic league, and especially if the buying
club doesn't want to pay that extra fee on top of the player's
salary. And USL doesn't have that kind
of system. No, USL has no such restrictions
(25:15):
between its independent clubs. Players can generally move
freely to the USL club that offers them the best contract,
the best playing opportunity, the best development plan,
without those interleague rightsfees complicating things.
This enhances their overall marketability because the
pathway is clear. OK, so USL offers flexibility, A
tougher league, maybe faster maturity, and potentially a
(25:37):
faster route to Europe. But what's the actual reality of
the destination when they do gettransferred?
Are USL players landing straightinto top European first teams?
This is where we need a little reality check, perhaps while USL
has some absolutely crucial success stories in case studies,
like Louisville City selling Joshua Winder directly to
Benfica, a huge club. Yeah, that was good work.
(25:59):
Massive statement transfer. However those types of transfers
from USL still tend to land the player initially in the European
clubs reserve team. Maybe they're U20 threes or B
team or within their elite Academy structure first.
They usually have another step to make once they get there.
OK, so it gets them to the big club environment, but maybe not
immediately into the first team spotlight.
How does that compare to MLS transfers?
(26:22):
Generally successful transfers from MLS directly into top
European first teams. Think Alfonso Davies to Byron
McGill, Almaran to Newcastle, Ricardo Pepe to Augsburg PSV.
Those usually involve players who have already logged
significant, impactful first team minutes in the MLS top tier
itself. So proving it at the MLS first
(26:44):
team level gives you a higher starting point in Europe.
It suggests that while USL mightget a player to Europe faster,
maybe bypassing the MLS first team step, consistent exposure
and performance in the MLS firstteam often seems to guarantee a
higher starting point or quickerintegration into the first team
picture once they arrive in Europe.
There are trade-offs either way.OK, so this intense debate over
(27:05):
player pathways, the best environment, the right contract,
it's now clearly escalated beyond just individual player
decisions. It's become an existential
league level conflict. Absolutely.
The development war has fully morphed into a financial and
institutional war for the futurestructure of professional soccer
in the US. And this takes us directly to
that huge announcement in February 2025.
(27:26):
A bombshell announcement, really.
The United Soccer League formally declared its intention
to launch a new Division I men'sprofessional league, aiming for
a start date in either 2027 or 2028.
Division on. That's the key term.
The absolute key? This is a monumental step.
It's a direct challenge to the what quarter century monopoly
(27:47):
that Major League Soccer has held as the sole US Soccer
sanctioned top tier league in the country.
It sounds incredibly ambitious, maybe even audacious.
But is it backed by the kind of financial muscle needed to
actually pull it off? I mean, MLS has been operating
on a financial scale that just dwarfed every other domestic
Soccer League for decades. That's the billion dollar
(28:08):
question, isn't it? And that's precisely why the
arrival of serious institutionalmoney is the absolute game
changer here. You're talking about the Bell
Tower Partners investment? Exactly.
The USL secured a major strategic investment from Bell
Tower Partners, a private equityfirm led by Kusong Lee.
And Lee isn't just some rich sports enthusiast dabbling in
soccer. No, he's the former CEO of The
(28:28):
Carlyle Group, right? One of the world's biggest
investment firms. Precisely.
This is a top tier serious global financier.
He understands institutional capital, complex deals, long
term value creation and his firm, which is now involved via
United Sports Development Partners, isn't just writing
checks for player salaries. What are they backing?
(28:49):
They're backing hundreds of millions of dollars in critical
infrastructure projects, things like that.
Proposed $600 million mixed-use stadium development in Albany,
NY That's the kind of project Institutional Capital enables.
So Lee and Beltar are bringing the real estate muscle, as some
reports called it, and maybe just as importantly, the
(29:10):
financial credibility that the USL desperately needed to be
taken seriously at this level. Absolutely.
And if you start to contrast thefinancial dynamics, the
investment narrative changes completely.
How so? Or think about it when a single
MLS expansion fee can balloon toover $500 million, as we've seen
recently. Just for the right to enter the
league. Just for the franchise
certificate, suddenly the idea of potentially owning, say, 20
(29:32):
or more US League One clubs, allwith the ambition and a
potential pathway to rise through the USO system, that
starts to look tremendously undervalued to certain types of
institutional investors. So it's a portfolio approach
versus a single trophy asset? Exactly.
This new wave of money seems to view soccer investment not just
as owning a sports team, but as a broader real estate and
(29:55):
community development opportunity.
They're essentially adopting theexact same playbook MLS itself
used 1520 years ago to get stadiums built and established
local roots. The investment shifts from
chasing one highly inflated established asset, the MLS
franchise, to acquiring a portfolio of potential growth
assets in the USL system. But OK, having the money and the
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ambition is one thing. The road to actually getting
divisionized status isn't just paved with cash.
It has to be formally sanctionedby the US Soccer Federation.
And those standards are notoriously strict, right?
They're brutally difficult, and MLS has certainly benefited from
being the only league meeting them for a long time.
To gain that DI sanctioning, thenew USLE will have to meet a
(30:37):
long list of strict minimum operational standards.
Like what? What are the big hurdles?
OK, first, minimum team numbers.They need at least 12 teams
participating in the league's first season, and that number
has to expand to 14 by Year 3. Manageable maybe?
What else? Geographic distribution.
Those teams must be distributed across all three continental US
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time zones, Eastern, Central andPacific.
No concentrating just on one coast.
Spreading the footprint important for a national.
League then market size. At least 75% of the league's
teams must be located in metropolitan markets with
populations greater than 1,000,000 people.
OK. Targeting major markets that
aligns with the investment strategy.
It does, but then comes the really massive infrastructure
(31:21):
hurdle stadiums. The big one.
What's the requirement? All stadiums used by the
Division I league teams must have minimum seating capacities
of at least 15,000 seats. 15,000Wait a minute.
As you said, the vast majority of current USL Championship
teams play in much smaller venues, often purpose built
soccer stadiums, but maybe seating 5008 thousand, sometimes
(31:43):
10,000. Exactly.
Very few current USL venues meetthat 15,000 seat minimum DI
requirement. So that stadium requirement
alone demands literally hundredsof millions, maybe billions
collectively in new constructionor major renovations, plus land
acquisition across a dozen or more different cities.
It is by far the single highest barrier to entry for the US LS
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DI ambition, and it's precisely why landing that institutional
money from Bell Tower and potentially others, is so
absolutely vital. Because they need partners who
can actually secure the land, navigate the local politics, get
the municipal approvals and finance these huge construction
projects. The real estate muscle again.
That's the bet. USL is betting that by
partnering with these sophisticated institutional
(32:27):
investors who do have that real estate expertise, they can close
that massive infrastructure gap quickly enough to realistically
meet that 2027 or 2028 DI launchdeadline.
It's almost ironic, isn't it? The USL seems to be
intentionally setting the DI barincredibly high, maybe even
higher than MLS had to meet initially.
It seems that way. Almost as a way to attract new
(32:49):
deep pocketed investors who can build those big venues and maybe
also to force their own existingsuccessful Championship clubs to
upgrade significantly or risk being left behind in a lower
division. That could definitely be part of
the strategy. Raise the standards.
Elevate the entire league system.
And hovering over all of this, the ultimate ideological battle,
the dream that seems to animate so much of the USL fan base and
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differentiates it from MLS, remains promotion and
relegation. Pro Rel.
Yes, the Holy Grail for many soccer fans in the US.
That's the core philosophical difference, isn't it?
Between the closed franchise based system of MLS and the
potential open system ambition of the USL.
And the US LS structure with theChampionship, League One and
League 2, it's clearly built to mirror that European pyramid
(33:35):
model. It is.
It's designed with Pro Rel potentially in mind.
Now it's important to note USLCEO Alec Papadakis has
publicly acknowledged that implementing full pro rail
between the divisions isn't likely to happen immediately,
even with DI status. He cited the complexity of the
ecosystem. Understandable.
Lots of moving parts. But it absolutely remains the
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long term ambition, the destination they seem to be
driving towards, and achieving that would profoundly
differentiate the USL from MLS. How so?
What does pro rel bring? It introduces genuine drama and
jeopardy at both ends of the table every single season.
It offers the tangible dream of rising from the lower leagues to
the top based on sporting merit.That narrative resonates
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incredibly deeply with the global soccer fan base, many of
whom are critical of MLS close structure.
But is that dream actually realistic in the current
American sports landscape, especially given the stadium
issues we just discussed? Not immediately, it seems.
Our sources, people close to theleague, indicate that
implementing Pro Rel is significantly complicated by
very practical and potentially legal matters right now.
(34:41):
Like what for instance? Well.
Take stadium financing and leases.
Often local governments or municipalities might issue bonds
or provide land leases for a newstadium, specifically
stipulating that, say, AUSL championship level team must
play there as a condition of thedeal.
I see the problem. Right.
(35:02):
If that team were to be relegated down to USL League
One, it could potentially trigger penalty clauses, default
on the lease agreement, or even force the club into a legal
battle. Or worst case, force it to fold
because its financial structure is tied to playing at that
specific league level. So the infrastructure stability,
the long term leases, they actually work against the
(35:23):
flexibility needed for pro real,right?
Now it creates a major conflict.Stability and infrastructure
development have to come first before the pro realm mechanism
can likely be implemented without jeopardizing the clubs
themselves. So Pro Real remains this
powerful ideological trump card for USLA vision for the future,
but one they probably can't actually play for several years
yet. Which brings us back down to
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earth to the core economic question.
How does a typical USL club actually survive day-to-day, let
alone eventually thrive, especially when it's competing
for attention, sponsors and potentially players against the
sheer financial might of MLSA league that just secured a
reported $2.5 billion ten year global streaming deal with Apple
(36:06):
TV? That is their primary, almost
existential challenge. That Apple deal just highlights
the massive financial gulf. How do USL clubs operate without
that kind of money? They are forced to rely almost
entirely on generating hyperlocal revenue streams.
We're talking ticket sales, local corporate sponsorships,
merchandise sales. That's the lifeblood.
Which means they're incredibly sensitive to the local economy
(36:28):
and attendance fluctuations. Absolutely, and this heavy
reliance on local revenue combined with the relatively
high operating cost of running aprofessional sports team,
travel, salary, stadium operations, means that many USL
teams likely operate in the red or very close to it, year after
year. The financial scale just seems
incomparable sometimes. I've seen reports suggesting the
total annual revenue, or even the estimated collective worth
(36:51):
of the entire USL might be less than what MLS gets for a single
new expansion fee. That comparison gets made.
Yeah. And the MLS Apple streaming deal
alone that reported $250 millionper year?
That's likely more money annually than the entire USL
system has generated from all its combined revenue streams
(37:13):
over maybe its entire existence.That's the kind of monumental
financial gap they're trying to close or at least navigate.
And player sales, can they bridge that gap?
We talked about Winder to Benfica.
Player sales provide a necessary, sometimes vital, cash
injection. They can definitely help balance
the books in a good year, but they don't fundamentally solve
the long term solvency problem for the league as a whole.
(37:33):
Why not $1,000,000 sale? Sounds transformative.
It is for that club in that moment.
But even a major sale, Let's usethat $1 million Winder fee
again. For Louisville City, that might
still only represent maybe 20% or so of their total annual
revenue from tickets and sponsorships.
It's significant, but it doesn'treplace the need for strong,
(37:54):
consistent local revenue streams.
And most importantly, it doesn'treplace the need for the league
to eventually secure a lucrativenational or international media
deal to achieve long term leaguewide financial health and
stability. That's the ultimate goal.
OK, so USL is fighting this uphill battle financially.
Meanwhile, MLS isn't just sitting back and waiting for
them to catch up, are they? Not at all.
(38:15):
MLS appears to be actively trying to maintain its total
hegemony, its monopoly status. Some observers describe their
strategy quite bluntly, as trying to wipe out the USL or at
least contain its growth ambitions.
How are they doing that? What are the tactics?
It seems to be a multi pronged strategy.
One key tactic is strategically placing their own MLS Next Pro
teams directly into established USL markets.
(38:36):
Creating direct competition on the ground.
Exactly. It's an attempt to create a
wholly MLS controlled and dominated pyramid structure in
those cities, squeezing out the independent USL club for fans,
sponsors and youth players. They want to be the the only pro
game in town at any level. And we've seen the impact of MLS
expansion itself on USL haven't.We oh definitely the loss of
(38:57):
successful established USL teamsto MLS expansion.
Over the years I think the numbers around 8 major teams
have made that jump. That constantly illustrates the
difficulty for USL. You build a successful club, a
great fan base, and then MLS might come calling, taking your
market. And sometimes it's even more
brutal, like what happened with San Diego Loyal.
That was a really stark example.San Diego Loyal was a very well
(39:21):
supported, successful USL Championship club, but they
ultimately chose to fold the entire operation ahead of the
launch of the new San Diego MLS expansion team in their market.
They just couldn't see a path tocoexist.
Apparently not. It sends a clear message about
the perceived power dynamic. MLS is still the dominant
entity, and its expansion decisions can have life or death
(39:44):
consequences for existing clubs in other leagues.
They seem determined to keep their monopoly.
OK. So given that pressure, the
USL's counter strategy has to bealmost perfect, and it seems to
hinge entirely on dominating those local markets where MLS
isn't present yet. That seems to be the core
strategy, yes. They are strategically filling
the gaps on the map, targeting significant metro areas and mid
(40:05):
markets that currently lack an MLS team.
Cities like Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville,
Phoenix, Tampa Bay. These are key USL strongholds.
And how do they win in those markets?
What's the playbook? The crucial strategy appears to
be tapping into the most important demographic, the one
with the most connection to the sport and often the most
disposable income youth soccer family.
(40:27):
Get the kids and parents involved.
Exactly. By emphasizing community
outreach, making the games accessible and affordable, maybe
focusing on developing local players into local heroes, they
aim to build hyperlocal loyalty,a fan base that cares deeply
about their city's team, even ifthey aren't deeply engaged with
(40:47):
the USL as a National League brand yet.
Can you give an example of wherethat's worked really well?
New Mexico United is often citedas a perfect example.
They operate in a market withoutMLS or other major pro sports
competitors. Really, they've done a fantastic
job of embedding themselves intothe local culture, reflecting
the state's identity. Their attendance and local
(41:07):
support are phenomenal. They thrive because they're
Albuquerque's team. That makes sense.
Build that local Moat. However, in our research, we
noted what seems like a crucial weakness or at least a missed
opportunity in this local outreach strategy, particularly
concerning the massive Hispanic communities present in many of
these key USL regions. Yes, and this was quite
striking. It seems like a potentially
(41:28):
critical strategic misstep for aleague trying to maximize local
connection. What's the issue?
Despite operating in many citiesand regions with huge, vibrant
Hispanic populations, populations with deep cultural
ties to soccer, many USL organizations seem to admit,
sometimes off the record, that they're targeted.
Outreach and engagement with these communities are
(41:49):
surprisingly lacking. Why would that be?
It seems like such an obvious target audience.
The reasons given are varied. Sometimes it's internal factors
may be a lack of Spanish speaking staff, the front
office, a lack of culturally relevant marketing.
Other times it seems based on a potentially mistaken, maybe even
outdated perceived notion that this demographic generally has
(42:10):
less disposable income compared to other demographics they
prioritize targeting. So they might be leaving a huge,
passionate potential fan base largely untapped.
It certainly seems possible theyrisk leaving a massive potential
audience, one that inherently loves the sport, on the table if
they don't make concerted, authentic efforts to connect.
It feels like they need to fullyrealize that building that local
(42:31):
loyalty isn't just about sellingtickets for 90 minutes on a
Saturday night. No, it's much deeper than that.
It's about making the team a genuine part of the cultural
heartbeat of the entire community.
And those clubs that really invest in building the brand
locally, making their players visible, community figures,
keeping the experience affordable and inclusive for
everyone, those are the ones building the necessary
(42:53):
competitive Moat against the appeal of the distant, maybe
more polished but closed system of MLS.
That local connection is probably their most sustainable
competitive advantage if they can get it right consistently
across the league. OK, let's try and bring all
these threads together then. It's been a lot to unpack.
It's a complex picture for sure.We've seen the foundational work
being laid across Africa, spearheaded by CFF, but also
(43:16):
involving strategic private academies like the PSG setup and
of course, Right to Dream. The focus there seems to be on
creating more standardized systems, professionalizing
development, and, crucially, developing the mentally
resilient student athlete. And that process, that pipeline,
is already actively feeding talent into the top leagues
globally, including MLS. Right.
(43:37):
And then once that highly soughtafter talent, both the
international prospects from places like Africa and the top
domestic US kids, once they hit that critical decision point
around 18. We've clearly defined that high
stakes bifurcated pathway they face here in the US.
It's become a fundamental choice.
A choice between what? Summarize it again.
Essentially, a choice between the potential long term control,
(44:00):
the structured environment and the lucrative homegrown contract
potential offered by staying within an MLS club's Next Pro
system versus versus the greatercontractual flexibility, the
arguably tougher competitive environment and the potentially
faster acceleration towards a European move offered by signing
with an independent USL Championship club.
And crucially, underpinning all these individual player
(44:20):
decisions, the entire US soccer landscape is undergoing this
massive structural shift, movingfrom decades of MLS monopoly
towards a potential duopoly at the top tier.
A dramatic shift, yes. And it's being driven may be
forced by the arrival of massiveinstitutional money backing the
USL's ambitions. That money is forcing the league
(44:41):
to rapidly address its structural weaknesses,
particularly infrastructure. The stadium issue.
The stadium issue and it's forcing everyone to confront
that fundamental ideological debate over the closed franchise
model of MLS versus the open system pyramid dream inherent in
US LS long term pro real vision.So the battle lines are really
(45:01):
drawn now over 2 fundamentally conflicting business models,
aren't they? It seems so.
MLS prioritizes stability, centralized control, and
maximizing massive national and global media revenue deals.
What USL? USL is prioritizing flexibility
for players, speed to the European market, and achieving
dominance through hyper local relevance and community
connection in markets MLS hasn'treached or perhaps doesn't
(45:24):
prioritize. Right.
So here's the final big questionfor you, the listener to really
consider as you watch this all unfold over the next few years.
The US LS ambitious path towardsDivision I and long term
survival demands incredible capital investment in stadiums
and it demands a near flawless execution of that local market
strategy we discussed. Both are huge challenges.
(45:45):
Absolutely. So given the incredibly high
financial stakes in this US soccer war, what do you think
the US LS future ultimately depends more on?
Is it their ability to consistently produce players who
not only get to Europe, but become successful first team
players in top European leagues,thereby validating their entire
development model on the global stage?
(46:06):
Or is their long term survival actually more dependent on their
success in utterly dominating the local mid market stadium
experience, winning the battle for community loyalty, locking
in that essential local revenue Moat town by town?
Regardless of whether they become a major exporter of
talent to La Liga or the PremierLeague, where does their future
truly lie?
We often talk about the dazzling, visible side of
football, You know, the Premier League, La Liga, those big
Champions League nights. Absolutely the highlight reels.
Exactly. But today we are skipping the
highlight reel and heading straight into, well, the
engineering room. We're looking at the
foundational processes, the stuff happening behind the
scenes and also those really bitter financial conflicts.
(00:24):
Conflicts. They determine a lot.
They really do. They determine where the next
generation of global talent actually comes, comes from, and
maybe more crucially right now, which professional leagues are
going to survive these consolidation wars we're seeing?
That's exactly right. And for this deep dive, we're
really focusing on 2 interconnected global fronts.
(00:44):
It's fascinating when you see how they link up.
OK, what are they? So first we're examining the
strategic, almost institutional,investment that's pouring into
Africa. The goal there is to refine the
whole process of scouting and training young footballers.
So like optimizing the global supply chain for talent?
You can put it that way, Yeah, building a more predictable
pipeline. Then second, we're tracking the
(01:06):
high stakes domestic war right here in North America.
The MLS versus USO battle. Precisely.
Major League Soccer and the United Soccer League are really
going head to head. They're battling for supremacy,
fighting over player pathways. Which route is best for young
players? And fundamentally challenging
who gets to wear the crown. You know who gets to be the
(01:27):
sanctioned top tier league in the US?
That's the big prize. So our mission today is
basically to give you the critical knowledge you need to
navigate this really complex landscape.
Yeah, to understand the moving parts.
We're unpacking the economics. Got to follow the money.
We're mapping out those player pathways, which can be pretty
convoluted. Especially for parents and young
(01:47):
players trying to decide. For sure.
And we're detailing the strategies defining the future
of the sport on, well, two very different continents, but with
massive implications for each other.
And you really need to understand these structural
mechanisms, the sort of plumbingthat underpins this multibillion
dollar business. Because that structure, that
plumbing, that's what often determines the outcome of the
(02:09):
competition, maybe even more than what happens on the pitch
sometimes. It shapes everything.
OK, let's unpack this then starting with that global
pipeline, let's look at Africa and this massive institutional
effort to standardize and professionalize football
development there. Right.
And we should probably start at the very top level, the
(02:30):
Confederation. African to football or CA.
The continental governing body. Exactly.
And back in December 2024, they held what seems like a really
Seminole Academies meeting in Cairo.
Seminole how What was the big shift?
Well, it signals this massive shift away from relying solely
on, you know, informal street football or maybe just
(02:52):
opportunistic scouting. Which has produced amazing
players, but it's unpredictable.Highly unpredictable and
sometimes exploitative, this meeting was about moving towards
a collective, coordinated continental strategy for youth
development. It's about building a system.
That structural commitment feelsreally key because historically,
like you said, that pipeline hasbeen fragmented, sometimes
(03:12):
unreliable. Absolutely, Yeah.
So by bringing all the member associations together, CAF is
essentially mandating a coordinated effort.
And what's the core initiative? What are they actually doing?
The main thing is a commitment to organize National Academy
tournaments. The idea is to accelerate player
growth by providing continuous high level competition.
(03:34):
Something that's often missing right outside of maybe a few
major regional hubs. Exactly.
Consistent, meaningful games against comparable opponents.
That's the gap they're trying tofill.
OK. And the proposed structures for
these competitions, are they just throwing teams together?
No, it seems incredibly detailedactually.
It shows they've really thought about the developmental needs at
(03:55):
different ages and levels. How so?
Well, they're aiming for integration first, so inserting
these academies into existing youth tournaments where
possible, just to get the more exposure.
Makes sense? Maximize games.
But also they want targeted competition, so creating age
specific groupings under 16 seems to be a big focus
initially. OK.
(04:15):
But crucially, these groups won't just be based on age.
They'll also be tiered by skill level.
That's smart so you don't get mismatches that don't help
anyone. Precisely.
A really strong U16 Academy teamshouldn't be crushing a brand
new community program. 10s zero.They need to face teams at their
own level to really be pushed and developed tactically,
technically. And I was fascinated by the
(04:37):
logistics you mentioned these tiered phases, community, then
regional, the national championships.
Yeah, think about the organizational challenge there.
It's huge. You're talking about potentially
tracking and running tournamentsthat funnel thousands, maybe 10s
of thousands of players up from the grassroots community level,
through regional qualifiers all the way to crowning an elite
(05:00):
National Academy champion. That signals a really serious
long term focus, doesn't it? Identifying and challenging
talent right across the entire continent, not just in the
capital cities. It absolutely does, and that
emphasis starts quite early. The initial focus, as I
mentioned, seems heavily weighted toward organized under
16 tournaments. And why use 16 specifically?
(05:20):
What's magic about that age? Well, think about player
development. That's often the age where
physical maturity really starts kicking in.
For many players, tactical understanding deepens
significantly. And critically.
Critically, they are right on the cusp of being scouted
seriously by international clubs, especially European ones.
Right. So getting that regular high
(05:42):
level competitive exposure rightat that moment, it's make or
break for the next step. It's absolutely critical for
launching the next stage of their careers, whether that's
moving abroad or into a top domestic league.
OK, this sounds incredibly ambitious.
It also sounds incredibly expensive.
Building infrastructure, runningtournaments.
How does C CAF plan to make surethese high standard academies
(06:05):
can actually sustain this? You need good facilities,
coaching, travel. That's a very fair question, and
it leads directly to maybe one of the more controversial
mechanisms for sustainability they're introducing, which is
the introduction of an annual fee for academies that achieve
this designation of advanced level.
A fee so you have to pay to playat the top tier essentially.
(06:28):
In a way, yes. Now CAF would frame it as a
calculated move, maybe even a risk.
On one hand, it's definitely a professionalizing step.
How so? Well, it generates necessary
revenue for Cafs own developmentprograms, which helps fund the
whole system and the theoretically it motivates the
academies themselves to continuously invest in their
(06:50):
facilities, their coaching staff, nutrition education,
everything needed to maintain that advance status.
OK, I see the upside, but the downside, doesn't that
inherently favor organizations that already have money
existing? Big clubs, maybe foreign backed
academies. That's the big concern.
You couldn't. This new fee structure
potentially stifles smaller, maybe highly effective but locally
(07:12):
funded programs. Programs that might be
fantastic, fantastic at producing talent, but just don't
have deep pockets. That is absolutely the tension.
See if it's essentially making abet here.
A bet that what? They're betting that the
prestige, the increased visibility and especially the
scouting traffic that will inevitably come with achieving
that advanced level designation,that all of that will be worth
the annual cost for the academies.
(07:33):
So the fee buys access to the market in a sense.
Exactly. It pushes the entire ecosystem
towards meeting higher, maybe even global standards.
They're effectively using a fee structure as a kind of quality
control mechanism while also funding the system.
It's bold. It is bold.
OK, let's pivot slightly now from that big continental
(07:55):
strategy from CTAF. Let's zoom into some specific,
maybe more private sector modelsthat are popping up, like the
one emerging in West Africa. Right.
Really interesting example. Launched in March 2023.
It's a partnership in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
OK, it's between the Paris SaintGermain Academy Pro Senegal and
something called the Detect Pro Fund.
(08:16):
Parisandromia, OK, big name recognition there.
What's the Detect Pro Fund and what's the significance of
bringing private finance like a fun into this equation?
This is like a classic example of targeted, potentially high
return investment. The Detect Pro Fund seems
designed primarily as an investment vehicle.
An investment vehicle. Yes, and that's an important
distinction. It's specific focus is on
(08:36):
identifying and promoting talented African players, often
from underprivileged backgrounds, typically between
16 and 18 years old. So they're providing capital.
Exactly. They're providing the capital
needed to turn that raw, maybe unpolished talent into a
potentially globally marketable asset, a player who can be
transferred for a significant fee later.
(08:58):
OK. So if this is an investment
fund, does that mean they're essentially taking a financial
stake in the players future earnings?
Like is this similar to the old third party ownership models we
saw which FIFA tried to ban or is it structured differently?
Well, the exact specifics of their long term contracts
weren't fully detailed in the information we looked at, but
generally the purpose of such funds is to provide the
(09:20):
platform, the training, the facilities, the coaching, the
whole package, the whole package, right, in exchange for
future returns, which are usually tied directly to
transfer fees received when the player sold.
Got it. And the platform itself sounds
pretty comprehensive with the PSG Academy involved.
Oh, absolutely. It's based at the PSG Academy
Pro Campus in Salie, Senegal andit offers elite level training,
(09:42):
professional nutrition programs,and crucially, they also provide
high quality education and boarding facilities.
That educational component seemsvital, doesn't?
It it ensures the players being developed holistically, it's
risk mitigation really. If for whatever reason the
player doesn't make it professionally in football, they
hopefully have an education and other options to fall back on.
(10:03):
It's a very smart way to manage the human capital risk if you
want to put it in stark terms. And the scale of ambition here,
it's pretty staggering, isn't it?
It really is. The stated goal of this specific
agreement is to bring 100 of themost talented Ivorian players to
this Academy Pro facility over afive year period. 100 players
from just Ivory Coast. That's a dedicated talent funnel
(10:25):
right there. A very focused pipeline, yeah.
And it seems like it's already being validated, showing some
early success. How so?
Well, and just the first year they hosted 6 Ivorian players
and apparently two of them immediately stood out enough
that they earned a professional tryout opportunity with Sparta
Prague in the Czech Republic. Wow, straight to Europe for a
tryout. That's quick.
(10:46):
Very quick. And that move apparently
leveraged the international network of the Strive Football
Group, which actually owns the PSG Academy Pro Senegal.
The network effect. Exactly.
It shows that professional integration into European
football isn't just some distanthope for these kids.
It seems to be built directly into the operating model from
day one. Access to trials pathways.
(11:08):
OK. So that's a very targeted high
end privately funded model. If we look maybe at the the gold
standard, perhaps for this kind of holistic development model,
we really have to talk about right to dream, don't we?
Oh, absolutely. Right to Dream is a fascinating
story. It started way back in 1999,
just in Ghana. Right on the banks of the Volta
(11:29):
River wasn't. It initially, yeah, and it's
grown massively since then. It's now a truly global group.
They have academies and clubs inDenmark, most famously FC Nords
Jalen. Who play in the Danish top
flight and are known for their youth development.
Exactly. They also have an Academy and
club structure now in Egypt, plus a really significant
educational network that connects strongly to the US,
(11:50):
particularly through scholarships to prep schools and
universities. And what's the core philosophy
that's driven that success and expansion?
From everything we've seen, the core philosophy seems absolutely
non negotiable. They develop student athletes.
Education runs completely parallel to development on the
pitch. It's not an afterthought.
And that holistic approach, that's key to why their
(12:13):
graduates seem so prepared. It seems to be they're prepared
not just technically or tactically, but also mentally
and emotionally for what is a highly demanding, often
cutthroat professional world. You need that resilience.
And the global output, it kind of speaks for itself, doesn't?
It, it really does. I mean, think about this.
Seven Right to Dream graduates represented their various
(12:34):
national teams in the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup.
Even that's incredible, including some big names.
Yeah, including players like Muhammad Kudus, who obviously
had a fantastic turn out for Ghana and has gone on to star
for West Ham. That's a product of their system
excelling on the biggest stage. And this connection, especially
from Ghana through Right to Dream, brings us directly to the
(12:54):
North American market, specifically MLS.
It does. Ghana was actually the top
African country represented in Major League Soccer during the
2022 season. There were 13 Ghanaian players
in the league. 13 and a good number of those likely had right
to dream connections. Yes, several prominent ones are
right to dream graduates. Players like David Akam, who had
(13:15):
a successful MLS career, Useni Buddha more recently.
That pathway from Ghana, often via Right to Dream, into MLS, is
clearly established. And what insights do these
graduates offer about making that transition?
What does it take to succeed coming from that background into
MLS? The insights from those players
are really vital, especially foryounger players considering that
(13:36):
route. They consistently stress things
like adaptability, resilience, and maybe above all, patients.
Patients. Why patients specifically?
They explain that the best player mentality you might carry
with you from your Academy or maybe from college or high
school if you go that route, that has to shift the moment you
walk into an MLS locker room. You're not the star anymore.
Exactly, you arrive and you are a rookie.
(13:59):
Doesn't matter what you did before, you have to earn your
way. You have to adapt to the coaches
system the teams needs, Improve your value day in day out
without letting the pressure or maybe the lack of immediate
playing time crush your confidence.
That sounds like the system, whether it's Seahaf's new grand
structure or the Right to Dream model, is really primarily
(14:20):
designed to mitigate risk for the player and instill that
professional maturity before they hit the major leagues.
I think that's a huge part of it, yes, Yeah.
Preparing them for the reality. And if they are succeeding in
preparing players with that level of mental resilience, that
really raises the mistakes immensely for the domestic US
leagues, doesn't it? Because they're competing for
that exact same mindset, that same level of prepared talent.
(14:43):
And here's where it gets really interesting because all that
refined global talent developingthrough systems like these
alongside all the top US domestic talent, eventually it
all flows into this really intense competitive choice right
here in North America. The crunch.
Point exactly. And that choice, that decision
(15:05):
point, it typically hits really hard around age 18, doesn't.
It yeah, 18 is often the magic number.
That's the major fork in the road for most top US prospects.
And what are the main options onthe table at that point?
Broadly speaking, there are fourmajor forks.
Option one Sign an MLS Next Pro contract staying within an MLS
club system. OK, option 2.
Option 2 Sign a contract with the USL club, likely in the USL
(15:28):
Championship The. Independent.
Round the independent pro route?Yeah, option 3.
Go the traditional college soccer route, delaying the pro
decision. Still a very viable path for
many. Absolutely, and option four, try
to make a move straight to Europe.
The dream move for many, but that one has a big asterisk,
doesn't it? A huge one, and it's heavily
constrained by European regulations, specifically
(15:50):
regarding minors. Right, unless a player holds an
EU passport. Correct.
Unless they're lucky enough to have that EU passport, they
generally cannot be registered as an official professional
player in most major European leagues until they actually turn
18. So those two years leading up to
that birthday, say age 16 to 18,become absolutely critical
development years. They are arguably the most
(16:13):
critical years and the domestic US leagues, both MLS and USL,
are maneuvering very aggressively to control that
specific period of player development.
That's the battleground. OK, let's breakdown the
economics of that initial decision then comparing MLS Next
Pro and USL, at first glance, looking at the initial contracts
for say a high potential 17 or 18 year old, are the salaries
(16:34):
comparable? Yeah.
Interestingly, at that initial entry point, the contracts are
often quite comparable financially.
Really for a similar level player you might see an MLS Next
Pro deal in the say 25,000 to $40,000 range per year maybe
plus housing stipend or assistance.
OK. And USL Championship.
The USL Championship contract for a similar prospect might be
(16:55):
in the 30,000 to $40,000 range. Yeah.
So very close. They are clearly competing
directly for the same caliber ofyoung player on that initial
financial offer, but. There's always a but.
There's always a but, and MLS has the really powerful carrot,
as some agents call it, which isthe potential for rapid
conversion from that MLS Next Pro contract to a full MLS First
(17:18):
Team home grown contract. The big leap, the big leap.
Now MLS clubs are maybe increasingly risk averse.
They don't just hand these out. They use MLS Next Pro partly as
a testing ground. Makes sense.
See how they handle the pro environment.
Exactly. But if a player really performs
well in MLSMP, they can quickly convert to a Homegrown deal, and
those deals typically start around $75,000, maybe even
(17:39):
higher in the first year. That's a significant jump from
$30. Huge jump, and it can quickly
ramp up into six figures within a year or two.
That massive potential upside isthe primary financial lure that
MLS uses to keep top prospects in their system.
And that potential upside, that investment from the club, it's
tied directly to control, isn't it, through the contract link?
(18:02):
Absolutely. MLS contracts, particularly
those first team homegrown deals, are typically quite long.
You're often looking at 3 guaranteed years plus maybe two
additional club option years. So five years of club control
potentially. Potentially even the initial MLS
Next Pro deals are often structured AS2 guaranteed years,
plus maybe a club option year. This structure is deliberately
(18:25):
designed to secure the club's investment in the player and
mitigate the risk of losing a valuable asset too early or too
cheaply. OK, so MLS locks them in longer.
How does USL approach contract length for these young
prospects? USL generally views its role
very differently, especially forthose players aiming for Europe.
They position themselves as moreof a rapid launch platform.
(18:47):
Getting get seen, get out. Kind of, yeah.
And they leverage this positioning by offering much
shorter contracts typically, usually just one year guaranteed
plus one club auction year. So a 1 + 1 deal is very common.
Only a two year maximum commitment.
Exactly. And for a young player, maybe
17, whose ultimate goal is really to get to Europe as soon
as they turn 18, that 1 + 1 contract is incredibly
(19:09):
attractive. Why?
Because it gives them leverage. It maximizes their leverage,
especially during that crucial transfer window right around
their 18th birthday. It gives the player much more
control and flexibility over their next move, whether that
ends up being a transfer to an MLS first team that wants them
or that desired move across the Atlantic.
Wow, OK so MLS is almost forcinga longer commitment to mitigate
(19:33):
its own risk and secure the asset long term, but USL is
fundamentally mentally betting on potentially faster, maybe
higher risk returns by prioritizing the players speed
to market and flexibility. That's a great way to put it.
It's a fascinating reflection ofthe core business models and how
they view player development andtransfers. 1 is about long term
control, the other about facilitating the next step
(19:55):
quickly. Do we have examples of players
actually leveraging that USL contract structure?
Yeah, a prominent recent exampleis Jonathan Gomez.
He was a top prospect in the EFCDallas Academy system.
Right, Huge talent. Huge talent, but he actually
left the FC Dallas Academy set up to sign professionally with
Louisville City in the USL Championship.
Why make that move? Reportedly, a key reason was
(20:17):
specifically because the shorterUSL contract structure allowed
him and his representatives morecertainty and control in
securing his desired transfer toReal Sociedad in Spain, which
was finalized essentially right when he turned 18.
He played meaningful pro minutesin USL to prepare without being
locked into a long MLS deal. That's a powerful case study for
(20:38):
the USL model. OK, let's move beyond the
contract paper itself. What about the actual
development environment? Where do players get better?
This is where the philosophical divide really emerges, right?
It really does. I mean MLS literally created MLS
Next Pro specifically to competewith what was seen as US LS main
advantage, which was which was US LS ability to offer truly
professional minutes, competitive game time much
(21:00):
earlier to their best 1515 and 17 year old Academy prospects
often within a first team training environment.
MLS wanted to bring that in house under their control.
OK, so MLSMP was a direct response, but now that both
exist, how do they actually compare in terms of the level of
play and the development experience?
Well, this is subjective of course, but most unbiased
(21:22):
experts and scouts seem to agreeon a general quality
differential right now. Which way does it lean?
The USL Championship is generally considered the
stronger, tougher league compared to MLS Next Pro
overall. Stronger how?
More experienced players. Yeah, the experience level is
different. USL Championship is generally
more mature. It's certainly more physical day
in, day out and often demands greater tactical mouse and
(21:45):
experience from young players. Why is that?
Because the league features moreestablished veteran players,
players in the prime, fewer purely developmental rotations,
perhaps the average player age is generally higher than an MLS
and P, and maybe crucially, the games often have more immediate
stakes fighting for playoff spots.
Avoiding poor results matters more week to week than in a
(22:05):
reserve league. OK, so even if we acknowledge
that the MLS first team level isclearly a big step above both
MLSMP and USL Championship. Absolutely.
The top of MLS is a different stratosphere.
Right, but for the average high level 17 or 18 year old prospect
looking for the best place to get ready for that next step,
(22:26):
the USL Championship might actually be the stronger, more
intense testing ground right now.
That seems to be the consensus view, yes.
It's a tougher league to break into and succeed in consistently
as a teenager. And the environment itself, does
it force quicker maturity? We hear about that sometimes.
Absolutely. Think about the typical setup
(22:46):
staying within your familiar MLSAcademy environment.
Even moving up to MLS and P often provides a bit of a
cushion. How so?
You're usually still near home, you know the coaches, you're
protected within the club structure.
Going to sign for a USL Championship club, however,
usually means moving far away from home at a young age.
Big life change. Huge life change and you're
typically treated instantly likeany other professional player on
(23:08):
the roster. There's less hand holding, you
have to fight for your spot, earn every single minute and
training in games. The dose of reality, as one
source called it. Exactly.
And that dose of reality, that need to adapt and mature quickly
both on and off the field, arguably better prepares them
for the relentless demands and pressures of European football,
(23:29):
where the stakes, the competition, the scrutiny are
all astronomically higher. This focus then on maximizing
that European transfer value seems to be US LS greatest
strategic edge in this talent war.
It appears to be yes. They seem to optimize almost
everything around facilitating those sales.
How does that manifest? Well, their entire structure
(23:50):
seems geared towards it. For example, clubs are often
much more flexible about allowing promising young players
time away from the team to go ontrial with European clubs.
Which is essential, right? You need those trials to
generate real market interest. Nonnegotiable for generating
genuine transfer demand and bids, specially for layers who
aren't yet well known internationally.
Furthermore, the USL doesn't suffer from the really complex,
(24:12):
sometimes Byzantine internal transfer rules that can plague
MLS. OK.
Can you elaborate on those internal MLS transfer rules?
Because that sounds like a real sticking point for player
movement, even domestically. It can be so in MLS if a player
develops in Club A's Academy, maybe plays for their MLS MP
team, but then decides they wantto sign their first MLS first
(24:33):
team contract with Club B, right.
Club B often has to pay a substantial fee, reports
suggest, typically somewhere between 75,000 and $150,000,
sometimes even more, in allocation money or cash just to
acquire what are called the homegrown priority rights for
the players original club, Club A.
Wow, so you have to pay just forthe right to sign your own
(24:55):
domestic talent if they came from another team's Academy?
Essentially, yes. It's a system designed to
compensate clubs for development, but it absolutely
creates friction and can limit where a player can realistically
go within the domestic league, and especially if the buying
club doesn't want to pay that extra fee on top of the player's
salary. And USL doesn't have that kind
of system. No, USL has no such restrictions
(25:15):
between its independent clubs. Players can generally move
freely to the USL club that offers them the best contract,
the best playing opportunity, the best development plan,
without those interleague rightsfees complicating things.
This enhances their overall marketability because the
pathway is clear. OK, so USL offers flexibility, A
tougher league, maybe faster maturity, and potentially a
(25:37):
faster route to Europe. But what's the actual reality of
the destination when they do gettransferred?
Are USL players landing straightinto top European first teams?
This is where we need a little reality check, perhaps while USL
has some absolutely crucial success stories in case studies,
like Louisville City selling Joshua Winder directly to
Benfica, a huge club. Yeah, that was good work.
(25:59):
Massive statement transfer. However those types of transfers
from USL still tend to land the player initially in the European
clubs reserve team. Maybe they're U20 threes or B
team or within their elite Academy structure first.
They usually have another step to make once they get there.
OK, so it gets them to the big club environment, but maybe not
immediately into the first team spotlight.
How does that compare to MLS transfers?
(26:22):
Generally successful transfers from MLS directly into top
European first teams. Think Alfonso Davies to Byron
McGill, Almaran to Newcastle, Ricardo Pepe to Augsburg PSV.
Those usually involve players who have already logged
significant, impactful first team minutes in the MLS top tier
itself. So proving it at the MLS first
(26:44):
team level gives you a higher starting point in Europe.
It suggests that while USL mightget a player to Europe faster,
maybe bypassing the MLS first team step, consistent exposure
and performance in the MLS firstteam often seems to guarantee a
higher starting point or quickerintegration into the first team
picture once they arrive in Europe.
There are trade-offs either way.OK, so this intense debate over
(27:05):
player pathways, the best environment, the right contract,
it's now clearly escalated beyond just individual player
decisions. It's become an existential
league level conflict. Absolutely.
The development war has fully morphed into a financial and
institutional war for the futurestructure of professional soccer
in the US. And this takes us directly to
that huge announcement in February 2025.
(27:26):
A bombshell announcement, really.
The United Soccer League formally declared its intention
to launch a new Division I men'sprofessional league, aiming for
a start date in either 2027 or 2028.
Division on. That's the key term.
The absolute key? This is a monumental step.
It's a direct challenge to the what quarter century monopoly
(27:47):
that Major League Soccer has held as the sole US Soccer
sanctioned top tier league in the country.
It sounds incredibly ambitious, maybe even audacious.
But is it backed by the kind of financial muscle needed to
actually pull it off? I mean, MLS has been operating
on a financial scale that just dwarfed every other domestic
Soccer League for decades. That's the billion dollar
(28:08):
question, isn't it? And that's precisely why the
arrival of serious institutionalmoney is the absolute game
changer here. You're talking about the Bell
Tower Partners investment? Exactly.
The USL secured a major strategic investment from Bell
Tower Partners, a private equityfirm led by Kusong Lee.
And Lee isn't just some rich sports enthusiast dabbling in
soccer. No, he's the former CEO of The
(28:28):
Carlyle Group, right? One of the world's biggest
investment firms. Precisely.
This is a top tier serious global financier.
He understands institutional capital, complex deals, long
term value creation and his firm, which is now involved via
United Sports Development Partners, isn't just writing
checks for player salaries. What are they backing?
(28:49):
They're backing hundreds of millions of dollars in critical
infrastructure projects, things like that.
Proposed $600 million mixed-use stadium development in Albany,
NY That's the kind of project Institutional Capital enables.
So Lee and Beltar are bringing the real estate muscle, as some
reports called it, and maybe just as importantly, the
(29:10):
financial credibility that the USL desperately needed to be
taken seriously at this level. Absolutely.
And if you start to contrast thefinancial dynamics, the
investment narrative changes completely.
How so? Or think about it when a single
MLS expansion fee can balloon toover $500 million, as we've seen
recently. Just for the right to enter the
league. Just for the franchise
certificate, suddenly the idea of potentially owning, say, 20
(29:32):
or more US League One clubs, allwith the ambition and a
potential pathway to rise through the USO system, that
starts to look tremendously undervalued to certain types of
institutional investors. So it's a portfolio approach
versus a single trophy asset? Exactly.
This new wave of money seems to view soccer investment not just
as owning a sports team, but as a broader real estate and
(29:55):
community development opportunity.
They're essentially adopting theexact same playbook MLS itself
used 1520 years ago to get stadiums built and established
local roots. The investment shifts from
chasing one highly inflated established asset, the MLS
franchise, to acquiring a portfolio of potential growth
assets in the USL system. But OK, having the money and the
(30:16):
ambition is one thing. The road to actually getting
divisionized status isn't just paved with cash.
It has to be formally sanctionedby the US Soccer Federation.
And those standards are notoriously strict, right?
They're brutally difficult, and MLS has certainly benefited from
being the only league meeting them for a long time.
To gain that DI sanctioning, thenew USLE will have to meet a
(30:37):
long list of strict minimum operational standards.
Like what? What are the big hurdles?
OK, first, minimum team numbers.They need at least 12 teams
participating in the league's first season, and that number
has to expand to 14 by Year 3. Manageable maybe?
What else? Geographic distribution.
Those teams must be distributed across all three continental US
(30:58):
time zones, Eastern, Central andPacific.
No concentrating just on one coast.
Spreading the footprint important for a national.
League then market size. At least 75% of the league's
teams must be located in metropolitan markets with
populations greater than 1,000,000 people.
OK. Targeting major markets that
aligns with the investment strategy.
It does, but then comes the really massive infrastructure
(31:21):
hurdle stadiums. The big one.
What's the requirement? All stadiums used by the
Division I league teams must have minimum seating capacities
of at least 15,000 seats. 15,000Wait a minute.
As you said, the vast majority of current USL Championship
teams play in much smaller venues, often purpose built
soccer stadiums, but maybe seating 5008 thousand, sometimes
(31:43):
10,000. Exactly.
Very few current USL venues meetthat 15,000 seat minimum DI
requirement. So that stadium requirement
alone demands literally hundredsof millions, maybe billions
collectively in new constructionor major renovations, plus land
acquisition across a dozen or more different cities.
It is by far the single highest barrier to entry for the US LS
(32:05):
DI ambition, and it's precisely why landing that institutional
money from Bell Tower and potentially others, is so
absolutely vital. Because they need partners who
can actually secure the land, navigate the local politics, get
the municipal approvals and finance these huge construction
projects. The real estate muscle again.
That's the bet. USL is betting that by
partnering with these sophisticated institutional
(32:27):
investors who do have that real estate expertise, they can close
that massive infrastructure gap quickly enough to realistically
meet that 2027 or 2028 DI launchdeadline.
It's almost ironic, isn't it? The USL seems to be
intentionally setting the DI barincredibly high, maybe even
higher than MLS had to meet initially.
It seems that way. Almost as a way to attract new
(32:49):
deep pocketed investors who can build those big venues and maybe
also to force their own existingsuccessful Championship clubs to
upgrade significantly or risk being left behind in a lower
division. That could definitely be part of
the strategy. Raise the standards.
Elevate the entire league system.
And hovering over all of this, the ultimate ideological battle,
the dream that seems to animate so much of the USL fan base and
(33:12):
differentiates it from MLS, remains promotion and
relegation. Pro Rel.
Yes, the Holy Grail for many soccer fans in the US.
That's the core philosophical difference, isn't it?
Between the closed franchise based system of MLS and the
potential open system ambition of the USL.
And the US LS structure with theChampionship, League One and
League 2, it's clearly built to mirror that European pyramid
(33:35):
model. It is.
It's designed with Pro Rel potentially in mind.
Now it's important to note USLCEO Alec Papadakis has
publicly acknowledged that implementing full pro rail
between the divisions isn't likely to happen immediately,
even with DI status. He cited the complexity of the
ecosystem. Understandable.
Lots of moving parts. But it absolutely remains the
(33:57):
long term ambition, the destination they seem to be
driving towards, and achieving that would profoundly
differentiate the USL from MLS. How so?
What does pro rel bring? It introduces genuine drama and
jeopardy at both ends of the table every single season.
It offers the tangible dream of rising from the lower leagues to
the top based on sporting merit.That narrative resonates
(34:19):
incredibly deeply with the global soccer fan base, many of
whom are critical of MLS close structure.
But is that dream actually realistic in the current
American sports landscape, especially given the stadium
issues we just discussed? Not immediately, it seems.
Our sources, people close to theleague, indicate that
implementing Pro Rel is significantly complicated by
very practical and potentially legal matters right now.
(34:41):
Like what for instance? Well.
Take stadium financing and leases.
Often local governments or municipalities might issue bonds
or provide land leases for a newstadium, specifically
stipulating that, say, AUSL championship level team must
play there as a condition of thedeal.
I see the problem. Right.
(35:02):
If that team were to be relegated down to USL League
One, it could potentially trigger penalty clauses, default
on the lease agreement, or even force the club into a legal
battle. Or worst case, force it to fold
because its financial structure is tied to playing at that
specific league level. So the infrastructure stability,
the long term leases, they actually work against the
(35:23):
flexibility needed for pro real,right?
Now it creates a major conflict.Stability and infrastructure
development have to come first before the pro realm mechanism
can likely be implemented without jeopardizing the clubs
themselves. So Pro Real remains this
powerful ideological trump card for USLA vision for the future,
but one they probably can't actually play for several years
yet. Which brings us back down to
(35:44):
earth to the core economic question.
How does a typical USL club actually survive day-to-day, let
alone eventually thrive, especially when it's competing
for attention, sponsors and potentially players against the
sheer financial might of MLSA league that just secured a
reported $2.5 billion ten year global streaming deal with Apple
(36:06):
TV? That is their primary, almost
existential challenge. That Apple deal just highlights
the massive financial gulf. How do USL clubs operate without
that kind of money? They are forced to rely almost
entirely on generating hyperlocal revenue streams.
We're talking ticket sales, local corporate sponsorships,
merchandise sales. That's the lifeblood.
Which means they're incredibly sensitive to the local economy
(36:28):
and attendance fluctuations. Absolutely, and this heavy
reliance on local revenue combined with the relatively
high operating cost of running aprofessional sports team,
travel, salary, stadium operations, means that many USL
teams likely operate in the red or very close to it, year after
year. The financial scale just seems
incomparable sometimes. I've seen reports suggesting the
total annual revenue, or even the estimated collective worth
(36:51):
of the entire USL might be less than what MLS gets for a single
new expansion fee. That comparison gets made.
Yeah. And the MLS Apple streaming deal
alone that reported $250 millionper year?
That's likely more money annually than the entire USL
system has generated from all its combined revenue streams
(37:13):
over maybe its entire existence.That's the kind of monumental
financial gap they're trying to close or at least navigate.
And player sales, can they bridge that gap?
We talked about Winder to Benfica.
Player sales provide a necessary, sometimes vital, cash
injection. They can definitely help balance
the books in a good year, but they don't fundamentally solve
the long term solvency problem for the league as a whole.
(37:33):
Why not $1,000,000 sale? Sounds transformative.
It is for that club in that moment.
But even a major sale, Let's usethat $1 million Winder fee
again. For Louisville City, that might
still only represent maybe 20% or so of their total annual
revenue from tickets and sponsorships.
It's significant, but it doesn'treplace the need for strong,
(37:54):
consistent local revenue streams.
And most importantly, it doesn'treplace the need for the league
to eventually secure a lucrativenational or international media
deal to achieve long term leaguewide financial health and
stability. That's the ultimate goal.
OK, so USL is fighting this uphill battle financially.
Meanwhile, MLS isn't just sitting back and waiting for
them to catch up, are they? Not at all.
(38:15):
MLS appears to be actively trying to maintain its total
hegemony, its monopoly status. Some observers describe their
strategy quite bluntly, as trying to wipe out the USL or at
least contain its growth ambitions.
How are they doing that? What are the tactics?
It seems to be a multi pronged strategy.
One key tactic is strategically placing their own MLS Next Pro
teams directly into established USL markets.
(38:36):
Creating direct competition on the ground.
Exactly. It's an attempt to create a
wholly MLS controlled and dominated pyramid structure in
those cities, squeezing out the independent USL club for fans,
sponsors and youth players. They want to be the the only pro
game in town at any level. And we've seen the impact of MLS
expansion itself on USL haven't.We oh definitely the loss of
(38:57):
successful established USL teamsto MLS expansion.
Over the years I think the numbers around 8 major teams
have made that jump. That constantly illustrates the
difficulty for USL. You build a successful club, a
great fan base, and then MLS might come calling, taking your
market. And sometimes it's even more
brutal, like what happened with San Diego Loyal.
That was a really stark example.San Diego Loyal was a very well
(39:21):
supported, successful USL Championship club, but they
ultimately chose to fold the entire operation ahead of the
launch of the new San Diego MLS expansion team in their market.
They just couldn't see a path tocoexist.
Apparently not. It sends a clear message about
the perceived power dynamic. MLS is still the dominant
entity, and its expansion decisions can have life or death
(39:44):
consequences for existing clubs in other leagues.
They seem determined to keep their monopoly.
OK. So given that pressure, the
USL's counter strategy has to bealmost perfect, and it seems to
hinge entirely on dominating those local markets where MLS
isn't present yet. That seems to be the core
strategy, yes. They are strategically filling
the gaps on the map, targeting significant metro areas and mid
(40:05):
markets that currently lack an MLS team.
Cities like Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville,
Phoenix, Tampa Bay. These are key USL strongholds.
And how do they win in those markets?
What's the playbook? The crucial strategy appears to
be tapping into the most important demographic, the one
with the most connection to the sport and often the most
disposable income youth soccer family.
(40:27):
Get the kids and parents involved.
Exactly. By emphasizing community
outreach, making the games accessible and affordable, maybe
focusing on developing local players into local heroes, they
aim to build hyperlocal loyalty,a fan base that cares deeply
about their city's team, even ifthey aren't deeply engaged with
(40:47):
the USL as a National League brand yet.
Can you give an example of wherethat's worked really well?
New Mexico United is often citedas a perfect example.
They operate in a market withoutMLS or other major pro sports
competitors. Really, they've done a fantastic
job of embedding themselves intothe local culture, reflecting
the state's identity. Their attendance and local
(41:07):
support are phenomenal. They thrive because they're
Albuquerque's team. That makes sense.
Build that local Moat. However, in our research, we
noted what seems like a crucial weakness or at least a missed
opportunity in this local outreach strategy, particularly
concerning the massive Hispanic communities present in many of
these key USL regions. Yes, and this was quite
striking. It seems like a potentially
(41:28):
critical strategic misstep for aleague trying to maximize local
connection. What's the issue?
Despite operating in many citiesand regions with huge, vibrant
Hispanic populations, populations with deep cultural
ties to soccer, many USL organizations seem to admit,
sometimes off the record, that they're targeted.
Outreach and engagement with these communities are
(41:49):
surprisingly lacking. Why would that be?
It seems like such an obvious target audience.
The reasons given are varied. Sometimes it's internal factors
may be a lack of Spanish speaking staff, the front
office, a lack of culturally relevant marketing.
Other times it seems based on a potentially mistaken, maybe even
outdated perceived notion that this demographic generally has
(42:10):
less disposable income compared to other demographics they
prioritize targeting. So they might be leaving a huge,
passionate potential fan base largely untapped.
It certainly seems possible theyrisk leaving a massive potential
audience, one that inherently loves the sport, on the table if
they don't make concerted, authentic efforts to connect.
It feels like they need to fullyrealize that building that local
(42:31):
loyalty isn't just about sellingtickets for 90 minutes on a
Saturday night. No, it's much deeper than that.
It's about making the team a genuine part of the cultural
heartbeat of the entire community.
And those clubs that really invest in building the brand
locally, making their players visible, community figures,
keeping the experience affordable and inclusive for
everyone, those are the ones building the necessary
(42:53):
competitive Moat against the appeal of the distant, maybe
more polished but closed system of MLS.
That local connection is probably their most sustainable
competitive advantage if they can get it right consistently
across the league. OK, let's try and bring all
these threads together then. It's been a lot to unpack.
It's a complex picture for sure.We've seen the foundational work
being laid across Africa, spearheaded by CFF, but also
(43:16):
involving strategic private academies like the PSG setup and
of course, Right to Dream. The focus there seems to be on
creating more standardized systems, professionalizing
development, and, crucially, developing the mentally
resilient student athlete. And that process, that pipeline,
is already actively feeding talent into the top leagues
globally, including MLS. Right.
(43:37):
And then once that highly soughtafter talent, both the
international prospects from places like Africa and the top
domestic US kids, once they hit that critical decision point
around 18. We've clearly defined that high
stakes bifurcated pathway they face here in the US.
It's become a fundamental choice.
A choice between what? Summarize it again.
Essentially, a choice between the potential long term control,
(44:00):
the structured environment and the lucrative homegrown contract
potential offered by staying within an MLS club's Next Pro
system versus versus the greatercontractual flexibility, the
arguably tougher competitive environment and the potentially
faster acceleration towards a European move offered by signing
with an independent USL Championship club.
And crucially, underpinning all these individual player
(44:20):
decisions, the entire US soccer landscape is undergoing this
massive structural shift, movingfrom decades of MLS monopoly
towards a potential duopoly at the top tier.
A dramatic shift, yes. And it's being driven may be
forced by the arrival of massiveinstitutional money backing the
USL's ambitions. That money is forcing the league
(44:41):
to rapidly address its structural weaknesses,
particularly infrastructure. The stadium issue.
The stadium issue and it's forcing everyone to confront
that fundamental ideological debate over the closed franchise
model of MLS versus the open system pyramid dream inherent in
US LS long term pro real vision.So the battle lines are really
(45:01):
drawn now over 2 fundamentally conflicting business models,
aren't they? It seems so.
MLS prioritizes stability, centralized control, and
maximizing massive national and global media revenue deals.
What USL? USL is prioritizing flexibility
for players, speed to the European market, and achieving
dominance through hyper local relevance and community
connection in markets MLS hasn'treached or perhaps doesn't
(45:24):
prioritize. Right.
So here's the final big questionfor you, the listener to really
consider as you watch this all unfold over the next few years.
The US LS ambitious path towardsDivision I and long term
survival demands incredible capital investment in stadiums
and it demands a near flawless execution of that local market
strategy we discussed. Both are huge challenges.
(45:45):
Absolutely. So given the incredibly high
financial stakes in this US soccer war, what do you think
the US LS future ultimately depends more on?
Is it their ability to consistently produce players who
not only get to Europe, but become successful first team
players in top European leagues,thereby validating their entire
development model on the global stage?
(46:06):
Or is their long term survival actually more dependent on their
success in utterly dominating the local mid market stadium
experience, winning the battle for community loyalty, locking
in that essential local revenue Moat town by town?
Regardless of whether they become a major exporter of
talent to La Liga or the PremierLeague, where does their future
truly lie?
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