We're not trying to put a team in California and everyone else on the East Coast," says Steven Short, the United Soccer League D3 vice president. "We understand that can be detrimental."

Regional rivalries are everything for the USL - and this will especially be the case for its new division three league, which is due to kick off in 2019.

So much so that its conferences or divisions will be designed to keep plane travel - the bane of professional soccer teams across North America - to an absolute minimum.

"Our regional model is to build rivalries and reduce costs and by putting a large front office and a large team on a plane it gets very expensive, very quickly," Short told The Telegraph in a telephone interview.

"We are trying to limit expenses as much as possible for teams and travel costs are a massive line item for any pro sports team.

"We will try to keep teams to a bus-type transport where you can travel the night before and then travel home instead of flying 20 players and staff hundreds or thousands of miles that will cost thousands and thousands of dollars."