The United Soccer League made headlines in 2017 when they announced a new Division Three professional league. After gaining D2 status last year, the league is looking for more growth of the game. The requirements that the league is looking for are not as complexed as you would think. The league is looking to put professional soccer teams in cities around 150,000 to 1 million in total population. That range is pretty huge.

Recently, headlines made way of the USL trademarked several “English style” league names that could be potential new league names in the future. Even though the League hasn't made official word about the trademarks, one can only predict what the future can look like. But as of now, the USL new league is USL D3.

So far, the USL D3 group has gone out touring multiple cities. The group, lead by USL D3 VP Steven Short, has visited 22 cities in 14 states so far. Some cities look pretty interesting and some are a no brainer. There are several cities that already have a team in the PDL or NPSL there and some don’t.

I’m going to take a look at how the USL D3 can be a great league and help develop the American player as well as become a great sports franchise.

Since the news broke of the new league, many teams and ownerships groups have made it clear that they are ready for the jump. The ownership group of Tormenta FC have been huge fans of the new league and have made it clear thats where they want the team to go. They have released some awesome stadium renderings of a potential stadium if the team was to join the league. Several city mayors and city leaders have come out in support of a team as well.

Even though the league has stated that they will start small and expand in coming years, their main purpose is to be regional and keep cost low. Now I know that operating a soccer team can get pretty expensive, but one move that I would like to see is a MLS or USL club having their own D3 team. First, hear me out on this.

We have seen MLS clubs that have a reserve team in the USL. We know that these teams don’t boast the leagues attendance. But what we have seen is clubs move their teams outside of the big city to another city. We also see clubs like San Jose who control over the technical side of a club like Reno 1868 FC. Even though Reno is it’s own club, has it’s own owner, and it’s own identity, the team gets feed players from San Jose. he club was competitive and finished in 3rd place in the West in it’s first season.

How Can This Help MLS/USL Clubs?

A relationship like San Jose and Reno is perfect for D3 teams. Not every single team has to be like this, but, I think there should be several like this model. As we have seen, the USL has not slown down with expanding their clubs, so who knows how many clubs can be in the league 5 years after the league starts.

Take a team like Birmingham for example.

The USL announced that there will be a team in Birmingham in 2019. They are following what Nashville did and in 2018 will field a team in the PDL. So what about all the other talent in the state? Well there is only ONE team in the “fourth division” in the state of Alabama. USL D3 has visited three cities in the state that all look poised for soccer. I can see two clubs in the USL D3 league within five years.

So what can a team like USL Birmingham do? Feed one of these new clubs players. Let a team have it’s own identity but run the technical side of things. I know that this isn’t the most popular thing to do, but if clubs in the USL want to become competitive in a league that is growing like ramped, then this is a way to go.

Look at Atlanta United.

After being in the MLS for only one year, the club is fielding a team in the USL in 2018. Why? Because of the vast amount of talent in the state of Georgia. ATLUTD has done a fantastic job building their academies and signing home grown’s. After seeing all the talent that they have built up, they knew they needed to let their academy players get first team minutes with top notch competition. That is why they needed a team in the USL and have one of the best academies in the country.

Steel Army-Pittsburgh Riverhounds Supporters (Photo Credit: Rzebrasky/Wikipedia Commons

We can also see MLS clubs who don’t have a reserve side in the USL field a 2nd or B team in the USL D3. With all the rumors of Orlando City pulling OCB from the USL in 2018 and starting back up in 2019 in the new D3 are the new possibility. DC United and FC Dallas are the other two clubs that have been rumored to field a team in the USL. But maybe they don’t have a stadium that fits the requirements(5,000 minimum for D2, 3,500 minimum for D3), so the new D3 league might be a new possibility for MLS who are looking to have a reserve team.

Loaning

Sending players out on loan in the US is crazy. Not many details are released about players going out on loan and that makes it hard to keep track of them. But with a new D3 league, this will give more players at the D2 level to make a name for themselves. Many clubs in the MLS have brought up great players who have the talent to be on a MLS roster, but fall too low on the depth chart to get first team minutes. We see this all the time with young players on MLS rosters but continually get loaned out the USL clubs for playing time.

This will help out MLS and USL teams with younger players. If a MLS club has a young player who they know has MLS talent but can’t get first team minutes or first team minutes on a USL team, a D3 team will be a great fit. Not all USL rosters boast a roster full of young american players. Many USL clubs are now spending money to get a experienced foreign player who can get them get wins. USL teams care about developing talent, but they also want to win championships, which has become a problem lately.

This will help out those MLS clubs who don’t have a team in the USL but don’t want to lose their player. This will be perfect for teams like New England who could loan out players close to home base in cities like Manchester, Portland, or Providence if they get a team. Keep young players loan out close by but get enough playing time.

Even for USL teams this league will help them. For example, Louisville City can loan out a young player that they know won’t make the first team roster to a team in Lexington to get playing time. Even though loan deals are confusing in the US, we can see more clubs loan players out here and develop their game.