USL Championship Expansion: Spring 2025 Update
Everything you need to know about the double-digit cities targeted for USL Championship expansion
It’s been an active start to 2025 in the USL, headlined by the announcements of a promotion-relegation system and a new first-tier division within the league ecosystem. Those reforms are being targeted for 2028.
First-division sanctioning – and the financial benefits associated with it – ought to exert a gravitational effect on new expansion efforts going forward, driving teams toward the top of the USL pyramid. On the other hand, buying into League One at a cheaper price point and working up the ladder via promotion has its own appeal. How expansion changes as a result will be fascinating to track.
In the meantime, double-digit organizations are still aiming to join the Championship in some form or another. I can’t claim any insider knowledge on the contractual specifics that might affect the Championship’s new clubs in terms of league landing spot, but I can provide an update on their attempts to hit the playing field.
What’s the latest news in each of the dozen-plus target markets? Let’s dig in.
Brooklyn FC
Initially announced as a member of USL League One’s 2025 slate, Brooklyn FC opted to buy into the USL Championship instead. Now, they’ve pushed back another year and will anchor the class of 2026.
As a refresher, the club is owned by North Six Group and chaired by businessman Matt Rizzetta, an organization that’s fostered a multi-club ownership model across European lower leagues. Meanwhile, Brooklyn’s first-division USL Super League women’s team began play in August.
After a stint at Manhattan’s Rocco Commisso Stadium, the club has arrived at 7,000-seat Maimonides Park in Coney Island. It’s an open question as to whether the move will boost attendance, which has hovered below 1,000 fans per game to date. Brooklyn FC got off to a rip-roaring start on the pitch, and they just fired manager Jessica Silva after a second-half slowdown. If you ask me, that’s a good sign that the people involved with this club actually care – half the battle in an expansion sense.
In the meantime, Brooklyn has hired former academy official (and New York Cosmos goalkeeper) Kevin Tenjo as their sporting director for both the men’s and women’s teams. Before the delay to 2026 was announced, rumors swirled that former Cosmos assistant Carlos Llamosa was in the running for the men’s coaching job. Llamosa took the San Antonio job instead, where he’s been a major success thus far.
I recently interviewed Rizzetta for Backheeled as part of a piece on the USL’s pro-rel vote, and all indications are that Brooklyn is still aiming for 2026.
Santa Barbara Sky
Santa Barbara’s effort was initially announced in 2022 as part of USL League One, much in the same vein as Brooklyn FC. In November of 2024, it was announced that the club would acquire Memphis 901’s franchise rights and join the USL Championship in 2026 instead.
Despite initial plans to the contrary, the Sky will use 17,000-seat (and thereby first-division compliant) Harder Stadium on the campus of UCSB when they hit the field. They’ll be sporting Puma kits when they do so, having announced a partnership with the manufacturer this winter.
Peter Moore, the former CEO of Liverpool, is the club’s primary investor. Moore boasts experience in the tech and sports apparel industries to boot, and he has advised Wrexham AFC since their much-ballyhooed American takeover.
Initial plans for a women’s side competing in the sub-professional USL W League have also been delayed, presumably until 2026 or beyond. No formal plans exist to level up to the USL Super League on that side.
Sporting Club Jacksonville
Christened Sporting Club Jacksonville at the end of 2023 after an initial launch in late 2022, the USL Jacksonville initiative is now working toward a 2026 start date. The club’s majority owner is Richard Caplin, a local hedge fund investor and entrepreneur, although the ownership group is headlined by Tim Tebow and Jacksonville Jaguar great Fred Taylor.
The club intends to build a stadium (and a division-one compliant 15,000-seater at that), but a temporary stay at an existing venue is almost certain for 2026. The site of the new facility is unclear, though the club expects to close on a lot no later than this summer.
Sporting announcements have come hot and heavy as of late. Mark Warburton, an executive with considerable experience across the United Kingdom, was hired as the club’s sporting director in March. The former head of sports performance (i.e., fitness things) for Phoenix Rising and the USMNT will reprise that role in Jacksonville. League Two and W League sides will kick off in 2025, donning Adidas gear as they do so.
Meanwhile, Jacksonville’s USL Super League side will debut in the fall of 2025, competing at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida – a likely landing spot for the men’s team in the Championship. They’ve hired Stacey Balaam, a longtime college coach, to lead that effort.
By every indication, Jacksonville is ramping up in time for 2026. They’ve made more noise in terms of making moves to actually play soccer than any other team on the list.
Buffalo Pro Soccer
Buffalo Pro Soccer was announced in the March of 2024, spearheaded by former Union Omaha general manager and Buffalo native Peter Marlette, Jr. Slated for 2026 entrance into the USL Championship, the club will pursue its own stadium project and plans to eventually found a USL Super League team.
After having received the endorsement of the local city council last fall, Buffalo Pro Soccer announced their stadium site in April. The plot is located to the southeast of downtown Buffalo and will seat 7,600 fans; the land is owned by Jon Williams, a newly-announced local investor and the CEO of an energy firm. Notably, the stadium project will be privately funded in its entirety. LaBella Associates – the architects behind Rhode Island’s venue at Tidewater Landing – has been hired to design the facility.
Williams’ investment and that of former Buffalo Bills great Reid Ferguson were announced in tandem with the stadium location news. Given that the Buffalo initiative was launched without a primary investor clearing US Soccer’s ownership net worth minimums – $20 million at the second-tier level – both additions to the club’s investment group are meaningful.
Buffalo officials have previously considered the use of a temporary venue for their slated 2026 start, but we’ll see what gives. While sporting announcements have been scanty, the organization has announced the acquisition of USL League Two side FC Buffalo’s academy and recently boasted of hitting 1,000 ticket deposits.
Milwaukee Pro Soccer
Milwaukee Pro Soccer was launched aiming for a 2025 start but delayed to 2026 thereafter, and we’re finally starting to see signs of life after a nearly two-year lull in news.
The club has long harbored plans for a stadium project in the city’s Iron District, part of a larger $220 million development including apartment complexes and the like. At least $9 million in stadium-specific funding was secured thanks to the efforts of Democratic governor Tony Evers in the face of Republican opposition.
That stadium, which will seat around 8,000 spectators, “will still be ready for the team to occupy at the start of the 2026 USL season next year” per local reports. Groundbreaking is expected this summer.
Regrettably, we’re still waiting for a resolution to the club’s 2023 naming vote. The contest is down to ten choices, with such spectacular possibilities as “Cream City” and “Milwaukee Tall Boys” still on the table. No updates have come since then, but we can dream of a Tall Boys future in the meantime.
Ozark United FC
Ozark United FC, née USL Arkansas, represents the urban cluster of Fayetteville, Bentonville, and Rogers in northwestern Arkansas. The club has announced a Rogers-based site for their 5,000-seat venue alongside some pretty mock-ups. The stadium will be part of a larger "entertainment district” development in the spirit of most other USL build-outs.
Per local reports, 2026 is still the goal, but potential construction delays mean that a 2027 start is becoming increasingly likely. Still, Ozark continues to maintain a successful U-20 academy team that continues to excel in the build-up to senior men’s competition.
The club will be majority owned by Warren Smith (the founding visionary behind the San Diego Loyal) alongside Arkansas-based businessman and former soccer player Chris Martinovic. Meanwhile, Ozark has already announced a deal with Charly – increasingly the USL’s go-to kit provider and a former San Diego partner – as their future manufacturer of choice. Whether we’ll see Charly’s design in 2026 or 2027 is the big question for now.
Des Moines
USL Pro Iowa was launched with intentions for a 2025 start, since been postponed until 2026. The club is the spiritual outgrowth of USL League Two’s Des Moines Menace, given that both are owned by the Krause family. The Krause are the longest-tenured owners at any level in the United Soccer League and the scions of the famed Midwestern rest stop chain Kum & Go.
The Krause Group took over Parma in Serie B in 2020, helping to lead the club back to Serie A. Meanwhile, the Menace drew national attention during the 2024 and 2025 US Open Cups by signing former MLS stars like Sacha Kljestan, Bradley-Wright Phillips, and Matt Hedges on their way to decent runs against professional opponents.
The Iowa initiative continues to make noise on the stadium front. Public funding was first approved for a 6,300-seat, $95 million venue back in 2021, and a number of governmental entities have re-affirmed millions of dollars in funding within the last 18 months. Most encouragingly, an additional $5 million grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority was approved in February 2025 – barely a week after the prospective club announced a new development board packed with local luminaries.
When we get down to brass tacks, 2026 is probably out of the picture. Still, Iowa is making positive noise and avoiding the vacuum of silence plaguing a few other expansion efforts.
USL Dallas
The newest expansion initiative in the league, USL Dallas was announced as a 2027 entrant to the Championship in the November of 2024. The club will play in Garland, a suburb to the northeast of downtown Dallas and the home to 250,000 residents. Garland, for reference, is about a half-hour drive from MLS’ FC Dallas in Frisco and is an hour northeast of North Texas SC’s future Next Pro home in Mansfield.
USL Dallas will be owned by four childhood friends from the Metroplex area, headlined by co-founders Matt Valentine and Sam Morton. Valentine, a successful investment banker, will serve as the club’s chairman. Morton, with ample experience in the marketing industry, will serve as the Chief Commercial Officer.
We’ve seen additions to that core group, with Brian Corcoran – father of USYNT standout and former Birmingham Legion midfielder Matthew Corcoran – named as the club’s first-ever sporting director. That news preceded a partnership with Renegades Soccer Club, a youth soccer organization reaching more than 2,500 players.
More progress is on the way. In a recent interview, Valentine noted that his club has hired the Dallas-area firm that designed Dallas Trinity’s crest to assist in their branding process. An announcement is due in May as to the team’s name and logo.
In the same interview, Valentine noted that USL Dallas’ future stadium – which will be part of a larger entertainment district and is aiming for 2027 completion – may be re-thought around the 15,000-seat minimum established by US Soccer’s first-division standards.
Weigh social media activity as you will, but USL Dallas has remained consistently active on sites like Instagram and Twitter, and they continue to host in-person fan forums on a regular basis. All the signs are positive in Texas.
Oklahoma City
The OKC Energy went on hiatus after the 2021 USL Championship season, citing an inability to adhere to stadium standards. After a few quiet years, the club was acquired over the summer of 2024 by Oklahoma City-based investment firm Echo, led by businessman Christian Kanady. Bob Funk, the club’s founder, retained a minority stake, but the immediate change in tenor was apparent.
Kanady and Echo bring major resources to the table: the firm’s mineral subsidiary recently announced a $500 million asset sale, and overall investment capital exceeds $1 billion in total value. The new ownership brings major heft to the table – not to mention the valuable local connections best represented by former OKC Thunder all-star Russell Westbrook’s eight-digit investment.
Court Jeske, a native Oklahoman and the former Chief Commercial Officer at USL headquarters, joined up as the president of Echo Soccer after the acquisition and has been the public face of the organization’s efforts. The city council approved $71 million in funding for an 12,300-seat stadium in July 2024, with the construction site commemorated in February ahead of a targeted completion ahead of the 2027 USL Championship season.
Elsewhere, OKC is down to five final name possibilities, and I’m out here putting my thumb on the scale for OKC Bison FC.
Union Omaha
In the first published version of this article, I included Omaha in the proceeding “Other Possibilities” bucket. Immediately, high-ranking club officials reached out to me to make one thing clear: they’re aiming for the USL Championship in 2027.
Union Omaha is the most successful club in USL League One in terms of on-field success. Led by manager Dom Casciato, they won the Players’ Shield and the playoff title in 2024 and continue to set the standard this season. Meanwhile, they ranked fourth in their division with an average attendance of around 3,200 last year.
In 2024, Omaha announced an effort to build a 7,000-seat stadium with the intention of moving to the Championship in 2026. It’s the same formula Lexington used to jump divisions this year, if you’re looking for a precedent.. Given some of the site-related delays that have arisen relative to the stadium district, the timeline has now been pushed back but is evidently still on track.
If league status were assigned on merit alone, Omaha would’ve been a Championship team long ago. For now, we’ll wait until 2027 to see it happen.
New Orleans
New Orleans was announced as a USL Championship city in 2022 under the steerage of experienced sports executive and New Orleanian Jamie Guin as well as the aforementioned Warren Smith. Since then, Smith has moved on to focus his attentions on Ozark United, and the Louisiana-based initiative has since gone mum. New Orleans hasn’t posted an article on their website since the summer of 2022, and their club Twitter account has gone unused since the summer of 2023.
Initially, the New Orleans organization aspired to build a venue. The hopes for a stadium project in the River District dimmed because of recalcitrance from the owner of the land the club was targeting, which is currently a convention center parking lot. Additionally, an announced USL Super League effort is no longer present on the league site.
Speaking of club lists: the USL Championship no longer has New Orleans named on the league website, either. By any reasonable assessment, this initiative is dead. But fear not, New Orleanians – there’s a potential League One team in the works, unconnected to the 2022 group.
Palm Beach
USL Palm Beach was announced in the winter of 2023, with a nebulous start date for the USL Championship and “no earlier than 2025” as the quoted timeline on the Super League front. Owned by international polo star Nacho Figueras, the club aims to bring star power in an affluent market. As of now, however, Palm Beach is not listed on the Championship website but does appear on the Super League list.
In terms of media outreach and other news, Palm Beach has been silent since the initial announcement. No stadium project is underway, at least on a public basis.
There was some intrigue in late 2024 when it was reported that The Miami FC previously considered a move to Palm Beach. Since then, Miami has announced plans to build a facility in Homestead, Florida instead. Meanwhile, Palm Beach has been absolutely silent.
Roswell
In the March of 2024, a new USL initiative was announced in Roswell, Georgia, a wealthy suburb north of Atlanta. Per the league’s agreement with the city, the parties would enter an exclusive negotiating period (ending this December) to develop a stadium and entertainment district anchored by USL Super League and USL Championship clubs.
Specifics about investors and playing timelines were not immediately forthcoming, and no further news has emerged since the announcement. Municipal government has discussed the creation of a special tax allocation district in Roswell to spur entertainment investment, but the USL project was not specifically mentioned during that deliberation.
We’ll see what gives relative to the December 31, 2024 deadline on the negotiations. Given the lack of news, this one might be on the rocks.
Other Possibilities
Fort Lauderdale United, currently competing in the USL Super League at the first-division level, intends to found a men’s club of as-yet-unknown league affiliation. The signs point to League One there, but anything is possible.
In very Roswell-esque fashion, USL HQ has entered an “exclusive negotiating period” with the city of Pico Rivera, California (located to the southeast of Los Angeles, population of 60,000ish) and an identical deal with the municipal government of Santa Rosa, California (an hour north of San Francisco, metro population of 490,000). Given what we’ve witnessed in Georgia, this is wait-and-see territory. I will say that the good folks in Pico Rivera have a chance to use their local high school’s blue field…so let’s make that happen.
And, hey, promotion means that anyone in League One could eventually be a Championship contender! For more on that, check out Alex Ashton’s indispensable League One expansion update.
USL revival of a Virginia Beach franchise will be a God send. It's crazy a club doesn't already exist
Ozark was launched with and still has no majority owner like Buffalo, Smith and Martinovic are just the founders of the club (although the club website says Martinovic will be on the club board in the future).