USL appear to have agreed a deal with ESPN to increase ESPN’s coverage of the league next year. As you can see from the image below, taken at the USL-PDL meeting last week, this also suggests additional “games of the week” will be shown on ESPN3 and ESPN U.

Having coverage of USL on ESPN FC’s website should further increase and expand USL’s brand to hardcore soccer audiences. Additionally, Sirius/XM FC is currently the only radio channel exclusively covering soccer. A weekly live show on Sirius XM FC will be mutually beneficial for both Sirius as well as USL.

Through these collaborations, both organizations (ESPN and Sirius)will be exposing their own brands to under-explored markets. It has been reported elsewhere (see: http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/espn-loses-4-million-subscribers-in-past-year-080416) that ESPN lost a substantial number of subscribers this year, and perhaps focusing on soccer will help them gain back some numbers.

In return, having the USL brand placed on a prominent stage would help the league galvanize its standing within the american soccer landscape. Especially if D2 status comes knocking this week.

The number one skepticism about these moves when I tweeted about them last week (https://twitter.com/NipunChopra7/status/806983748118081540) was that it might be a sign of USL expanding too quickly. And, there might be some truth to that-based on lessons learned from NASL this year.

Sources have stated that one of the reasons NASL teams suffered financially last year was the burden of providing “a good TV viewing experience”. The idea being — if you’re watching a show on YouTube, you have low expectations in terms of camera angles, replays, etc. On the other hand, a game shown on BeIN Sports/ESPN3/One World Sports (NASL’s TV partnerships last year) requires a superior product and therefore a significant financial investment. NASL sources suggest that the financial outlay for this TV coverage “did not help” the now-apparent monetary problems in NASL.

So the question must be asked — Is USL expanding into a paywall model too quickly?

Possibly.

But, it’s important to note that currently, USL sources believe that games not being shown on ESPN will still be shown for free on YouTube. ****Caveat, I reached out to ESPN to confirm this, and didn’t hear anything from their end****. So, as long that is true, many games will still be on YouTube.

Furthermore, for argument’s sake, if ESPN is selecting weekly games to show on ESPN3, it is more likely to select games of bigger markets. Therefore, the likes of Cincinnati, Sacramento, etc. will have more viewership. This ESPN exposure may, in turn, allow FC Cincinnati and others (Like soon-to-join Rowdies and The-artists-previously-known-as-Carolina-Railhawks) to gain additional exposure for their much-discussed MLS bids.

Finally, it’s worth noticing that BeIN or other digital content providers other than ESPN3 are not involved here. While ESPN (And therefore it’s digital version, ESPN3) is available with a basic sports package to most Americans, BeIN Sports is not. And this was a crucial mistake NASL made last year — many of us had to scramble to figure out which channel our team was on — only to realize that we didn’t have access to BeIN. Carrying USL games of the week on ESPN3 is straight-forward for the consumer and involves subscribing, at most, to a basic TV package.

USL continues to make strong moves to increase its brand. The league’s desire for D2 status may soon become a reality, and a partnership with media conglomerates ESPN and Sirius XM will only strengthen its image in American soccer.