Jake Edwards does not look like a man who has just endured a two-hour meeting with 40 of his bosses — at least not a bad one. The president of the United Soccer League is all smiles as he gladhands his way through the thicket of club owners who are congregating in the hotel lobby.



Now in his fifth year on the job, Edwards has overseen a tremendous period of growth and stabilization for his organization. The highest division of the USL (now branded the Championship) overtook the defunct North American Soccer League as the United States’ second division for the 2018 season. In 2019, they added a third-tier division (League One) to further bolster the pyramid while renaming the fourth-division PDL as — you guessed it — League Two. The firmer footing goes beyond nomenclature, as upstart markets like Cincinnati, Nashville, Sacramento, Louisville, and Albuquerque have eclipsed long-standing expectations of what makes an ideal soccer community.



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