Oklahoma City Energy could join a new conference with clubs such as FC Cincinnati, which is averaging almost 20,000 fans per match this season, as soon as 2018. [PHOTO COURTESY OF FC CINCINNATI]

The question of a third United Soccer League conference is no longer an if.

USL will create a Central Conference for either the 2018 or 2019 season, and the decision will be finalized during the upcoming owners meeting in Chicago, which takes place the week of July 30.

“We've been working toward a three-conference structure,” USL commissioner Jake Edwards said. “We are going through that process right now with our competition committee to decide whether or not 2018 is viable to jump into an East-West-Central conference structure or whether it makes sense to do that in 2019.

“We will have a couple of new markets coming into the league in 2019 that will I think make a three-conference model a certainty. We are looking at whether we do it in '18, but I know we will definitely have it in '19.”