The easiest way to describe it is that it’s a “Bridge League” that is intended to better bridge the gap between Amateur and Pro for players, teams and even referees, admin, and front office staff. The idea has been in the works for little while now and has come up in conversations both internally and externally.
We’re planning for a 2027 launch. We will use all of 2026 to work with interested targets to finalize our application and onboarding process. This will be to ensure the travel distance for teams is palatable.
We’re planning for an April through October regional league play with national semi-finals and a national final to complete prior to Thanksgiving.
This would be a 20-24 game season in approximately a 30 week window, which would allow for teams with extreme weather times to sort some appropriate bye-weeks that are best for their organization.
This model will be a good fit for amateur clubs looking to compete at a higher level with a longer season calendar or clubs that have ambitions to play at the professional level in the future.
We see this as an opportunity to become an incubator for clubs with aspirations of moving into the third tier (lowest professional tier) of the American soccer pyramid. Currently, the operating budget for top amateur clubs is $75-100k per season. Meanwhile, the operating budget for a third-tier professional club is roughly $3.5 million, making the jump from amateur to professional near impossible. Finding a middle-ground that can help incubate the organizations and prepare them to make the jump is an important option.
We project operating budgets for clubs to be between $400,000 to $800,000 plus, but those may vary depending on region or club structure.
Rosters can be made up of compensated and non-compensated players.
The league has reached an agreement to be sanctioned by USASA, but we are continuing dialogue with US Soccer to be sanctioned through the Federation.