Moment or Movement? (Part 3)

How Should We Interpret Soccer's Current Momentum in the United States?

Part 3 (American Soccer Landscape)

Okay so with Americans going abroad, we are definitely seeing momentum similar to how we saw it in pop-culture, mostly with European through-lines. Foreshadowing much? But what about things happening on our side of the pond? What is happening on U.S. soil that should make you stop and take notice?

Well for one quick answer, we are co-hosting the 2026 World Cup, bringing all of the world’s soccer attention to our borders. And with that we have to prepare.

So, it could be that we want to prepare for it the same way you’d prepare for meeting your girlfriend’s dad for the first time. You know he is a Chicago Bears fan. So as you actively avoid the words “Kick,” “Field Goal,” “Doink,” and “Cody,” you casually work the two facts you’ve memorized into the conversation: “How about Mike Ditka, Buddy Ryan and those ‘85 Bears” and “Devin Hester, best returner of all time.” But when faced with any question that requires more than a two sentence superficial understanding, you start sweating and trying to make eye contact with your girl to come intervene.

Hmm... maybe it would be better if part of our preparation was a little more in depth, a little more structural. For that, we have to look at the soccer landscape as a whole in the States. And we kind of have to look at the Super League again. I know...I thought we were done with that too.

So, for a long time there was really only one professional soccer pyramid, Major League Soccer and the ever rebranding lower leagues, now firmly on the books as the United Soccer League (MLS and USL). This pyramid has tiers, for example we can say MLS is at the top of their pyramid, followed by USL Championship, USL League One, and USL League Two (semi-professional). If you want an easily digestible parallel, it’s like MLB, AAA, AA, and A baseball. Like most other sport models in the U.S. this pyramid operates on a closed franchise model.

A good way to think about it is actually to think back to the Super League closed system. The MLS/USL system is that closed, Super League, NFL, NBA franchise model. Leagues sell teams as products (franchises) to owners in specific markets. Teams play a regular season, if they do well they get in the playoffs, advance and eventually a champion is crowned. However, there is no form of promotion or relegation between these entities. So for example even if Indy Eleven, a USL Championship team, wins their league, and FC Cincinnati are the worst team in the MLS, it doesn’t really matter, because both are staying put in their leagues. There are no real punishments (losing money via relegation) for losing, and no real rewards (earning money via promotion) for winning other than winning itself.

Now this model alleges to pit the best of the best (in reality the richest of the rich; not always synonymous) against each other, like NFL and NBA teams, so theoretically it offers an enticing product without pro-rel components. And as an American sports fan, I gotta be honest, I have never questioned this model before with leagues like NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL. Maybe that is just because I have never seen an alternative, or maybe billionaire franchise owners can just genuinely produce a better product because of their better funding. But as an example of another pitfall to this model, I also don’t really follow MLB or NHL. That’s because Indiana never had a team. Which leads me to my next point.

Perhaps even worse than these lack of merit-based outcomes like promotion or relegation, is the fact that in a closed system, you also have the pay to play element. In other words, the teams involved essentially form a private club, and to get in you have to have X amount of money, a big enough market, meet a long list of criteria, etc. These barriers to entry harm the growth of sport at the highest level. Go back to my example of not having a baseball or hockey team. Indy has minor league baseball and hockey teams. But without the opportunity to enter the majors, these teams are stuck in smaller leagues, with a less impressive product and no path or real incentive to improve, with less coverage, less marketability, and no chance of earning the money that comes with the TV deals and sponsorships of the top leagues. Even as we have seen with Indy Eleven on several occasions, despite their athletic merit, desire and qualification to join the MLS, they have been kept out one way or another.

If you wanted to take it a step further, this closed model stifles the growth from the ground up. The ability to start a grassroots team and turn it into a professional entity, regardless of the quality of team, players, or staff, is almost entirely dependent on money. At least, it was.

Enter NISA, 2019. National Independent Soccer League (NISA). NISA currently has just one pro level commensurate, with USL League One or AA baseball, but also has two semi-professional tiers, Nisa Nation (for truly independent clubs) followed by Affiliate Leagues (for regional amateur leagues). Their website describes it quite well here.

NISA, albeit only a few years old, is committed to building an open system. So in a few years, when there are a handful more teams you will see a full fledged pro-rel system. Teams from NISA Nation will have the chance to play their way into the NISA professional tier, and NISA pro teams will have to fight to stave off relegation.

Cool, but why do you care?

NISA marks the most recent paradigm shift in the U.S. soccer landscape and maybe the beginning of a whole revolution. They are the first fully professional American league to embrace a promotion and relegation open system. Not only that, but they seem to be thriving and stirring up lots of excitement in the process. In many ways, what NISA is doing is the exact opposite of the Super League. While the rich American owners like the Glazers and Kroenkes tried to poison the European model and were chased out by mobs, NISA is bringing the beloved European model to our shores and is being met with warm embraces from fans across the country.

Do you think that would be possible without the momentum we’ve been discussing?

Not only would it not have been possible but now, the momentum it is vehemently contributing to it. New leagues and teams are quite literally popping up every week. There’s investment in new clubs, existing clubs, local clubs, youth clubs, facilities, communities and more. You have grassroots teams winning championships at the professional level. You have clubs borne by communities that have a vested interest in seeing them succeed. And in a more obvious way, there are just literally more professional and semi-professional teams, creating more opportunities for players and player development. All of this because there is now a real avenue for growth and success for clubs and players alike. This gets back to accessibility, but now in regards to playing.

But, to give credit where it is due, the MLS and USL both did and do an incredible amount to grow the game in the U.S. And for what it's worth, if you saw the success the NFL and NBA have, why would you try reinventing the wheel? They are also investing in new teams, even if it’s new franchises, and investing in communities, even if they’re adopted. But NISA, and the 51 players in Europe, and maybe even Ted Lasso wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for the work that the MLS and USL started and continue. The work that NISA now builds on. Scratch that, the momentum they started. Or shoot, maybe we should call it, the movement they started.

Conclusion

Across these three pieces, we have examined the current state of soccer in the U.S. from a pop-culture perspective, a player-based perspective, and a U.S. infrastructure perspective. So in an effort to answer the question we set out to investigate, are we witnessing a moment or a movement?

It would appear that in pop-culture we are seeing real change. Even if we can’t guarantee at this point the cultural relevance or content creation around soccer stays this high, we do know that the accessibility improvements are structural and here to stay for a while.

As far as Americans playing abroad, our participation numbers may fluctuate in the future. Do we feel comfortable that the small nuggets of history and cool facts and firsts will be anything more than memories in 20 years? But, one change that will stick, the stigma around American players, and subsequently the pathway to Europe. All it took was a few young stars to show the rest of this generation the way and open the door. If nothing else permanent comes out of this increased participation in Europe, blazing the trail for the next American star is movement enough.

And here at home, well this might be the easiest one to answer, with the birth of America’s first pro-rel league in NISA. A new league feels like substantial change, but maybe the movement is deeper than that too? Every week, there are new leagues and teams, creating new avenues for players and coaches. That level of accessibility to playing the sport should theoretically also give us the chance to develop even better players and coaches. And with those better players and coaches we should ultimately gain an even stronger presence in the most popular sport in the world. And maybe we will even see an NFL inspired by the Super League backlash and the open system consider relegating the NFC East. Throw the Jets in there too. Now that would be a movement.

So the next time ESPN sends you an annoying push notification about “This American Soccer Player Did This Cool Thing,” right before you click that little grey x, take a second and appreciate the moment, as a part of the movement.