USL Championship Expansion: Winter 2024-2025 Update

Everything you need to know about the 12 cities targeted for USL Championship expansion

The USL Championship has 12 active expansion cities in place, roughly half of which were announced this year. Only one new club is slated to join the league in 2025; eight are ostensibly aiming for 2026.

What’s the latest news in each of the dozen target markets? Let’s dig in.

For a USL League One status update, check out this article from USL League One Updater.

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New teams, date changes highlighted.

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2025 Expansion

Lexington Sporting Club¹

In August, Lexington announced that they would join the USL Championship for 2025 and are well on their way to that goal. Founded in 2023 as a member of USL League One and located a mere 80 miles away from Louisville City, Lexington exercised a stadium-contingent clause in their agreement with the USL to cement their move up the pyramid.

That venue, known simply as “Lexington SC Stadium” for now, is presently in operation and played host to the end of the club’s 2024 campaign in League One. Additionally, Lexington’s USL Super League side has played their entire schedule at the new facility. While attendance has been middling thus far - the women’s side is hovering around the 2,000 mark on average - Lexington has big plans to grow their presence ahead of the Championship season.

The new venue is a major upgrade in terms of location, alcohol sales, and revenue control. Even pre-stadium, however, spending has never been an issue for Lexington. Per sources, Lexington footed a Championship-level wage bill even while in League One. The club will hope to finally attain success under new manager Terry Boss as a member of the Championship’s Western Conference in 2025.

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2026 Expansion

Brooklyn FC

Initially announced as a USL League One club set to join up in 2025, Brooklyn FC elevated themselves up toward 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. That same organization has fostered a multi-club ownership model across international lower leagues, with a portfolio including investments into Switzerland’s FC Locarno and Italy’s Ascoli FC.

Back stateside, Brooklyn’s first-division USL Super League women’s team began play in August as part of the league’s inaugural campaign. Originally meant to compete at 7,000-seat Maimonides Park in Coney Island, that side had to relocate to Manhattan’s Rocco Commisso Stadium for the Super League’s fall season because of sub-standard field conditions. A move to Brooklyn proper is expected when the Super League returns in the spring.

The surprise relocation to Manhattan stifled what was expected to be a strong Brooklyn-centric marketing push. The Super League team has averaged an attendance below 1,000 fans per game so far,² but the real test will come upon Brooklyn FC’s debut in their eponymous borough.

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. No other 2026 expansion side has shown similar sporting progress.

Santa Barbara Sky

Santa Barbara was initially announced in 2022 as a USL League One market for 2025, much in the same vein as Brooklyn FC. In November, however, it was announced that the club would acquire Memphis 901’s franchise rights and join the USL Championship in 2026 instead.

The Sky originally intended to play at 10,000-seat La Playa Stadium at Santa Barbara City College, but they’ve since pivoted to 17,000-seat Harder Stadium on the campus of UCSB. Though the two venues are a mere 20 minutes apart, Harder Stadium is in a slightly less vivacious area of the city and is further from downtown. However, it’s a more modern venue better suited to second-division play on a pure infrastructural level.

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. No formal plans exist to level up to the USL Super League.

Though Santa Barbara represents one of the smallest markets in the USL Championship, it provides a valuable foothold on the West Coast and in the Pacific time zone. Much of the league’s expansion slate is concentrated in the eastern half of the United States, whereas the Sky provide a natural partner for clubs like Orange County SC and the Las Vegas Lights.

Buffalo

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.

Unusually, the Buffalo initiative was announced without a primary investor. For reference, he USSF’s Pro League Standards require a second-division club’s majority owner to maintain a net worth of $35 million or more. Progress has been allegedly been strong in finding that money. Per Marlette:

From an investment standpoint, the local investment community has taken to this idea strongly. People believe in it and are putting their money behind it.…I’ve had some really good conversations with principal net worth type people. We’ll see how those continue to advance, but I’m completely satisfied with where we are.

That investment will go a long way in funding the club’s self-built, soccer-specific stadium. The goal is for that venue to be privately financed to as great a degree as possible. Buffalo Pro Soccer has identified two potential locations as they continue to make progress on that front, and they’ve received the endorsement of the local city council.

The USL was previously represented in Upstate New York by way of the Rochester Rhinos, and Buffalo itself is famous for passionate fandom behind the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. Additionally, the Buffalo market's metro population surpasses USSF minimums for a Division II city.

Ozark United FC

Since the last update, USL Arkansas has revealed their brand as Ozark United FC, a clean way to capture their regional focus. The club’s U-20 academy team has also continued to excel in the build-up to senior men’s competition in 2026.

Majority owned by Warren Smith - the founding visionary behind the Sacramento Republic and San Diego Loyal - with Arkansas-based businessman and former soccer player Chris Martinovic, Ozark has plans for a $20 million stadium seating 5,000. That project is aiming for 2026 completion, in time for that year’s USL Championship season.

The club will represent the urban cluster of Fayetteville, Bentonville, and Rogers while playing their matches in the latter. A stadium site has been acquired but not yet publicly revealed at the time of writing.

Though the Northwest Arkansas metro area has a sub-million population and would represent the Championship’s second-smallest television market, the lack of professional competition is an upside. Media partners like CBS have previously noted the value of smaller but more attainable markets³ in the Ozark mold.

Though the club has announced intentions to start a professional women’s team, Arkansas is not represented in the USL Super League’s list of future clubs. On the bright side, Ozark has already announced a partnership with Charly - familiar from collaborations with San Diego Loyal ad Memphis 901 - as their future kit provider.

Sporting Club Jacksonville

Christened Sporting Club Jacksonville at the end of 2023 after an initial launch in late 2022, the USL Jacksonville initiative has pushed back to a 2026 start date. The club’s majority owner is Richard Caplin, a locally-based hedge fund investor and entrepreneur, although the ownership group is headlined by Tim Tebow⁴ and Jacksonville Jaguar great Fred Taylor.

Though the club intends to build a stadium, a temporary stay at an existing venue is almost certain for 2026. When Jacksonville’s USL Super League side kicks off in the fall of 2025, they will compete at Hodges Stadium on the campus of the University of North Florida.

Jacksonville is a contested market, with Robert Palmer aiming to revive the Jacksonville Armada organization in MLS Next Pro; the putative third-division club is also aiming for a 2026 launch after delays. The city is valuable because of its recent history of supporting lower-league soccer, its geographic proximity to other Florida-based clubs, and its municipal population near the million mark.

Sporting Jacksonville has been the more active of the two rival efforts, and they’ll gain a first-mover edge when the Super League team debuts next fall. Small but invaluable initiatives like a soccer-specific news show on the local ABC affiliate go a long way in building goodwill ahead of the internecine conflict. Moreover, an active social media presence has assuaged supporters (and USL sickos) in a way that most other expansion efforts have failed to match.

Des Moines

USL Pro Iowa was launched with intentions for a 2025 start which have since been postponed until 2026. The club is the outgrowth of the existing Des Moines Menace, a current USL League Two side. The Menace and Iowa are owned by Rob Krause, the longest-tenured owner at any level in the United Soccer League and CEO of famed Midwestern rest stop chain Kum & Go.

Krause took over Parma in Serie B in 2020, helping to lead the club back to Serie A this year. His Menace drew national attention during the 2024 US Open Cup by making an admirable run and signing former stars like Sacha Kljestan and AJ DeLaGarza.

The initiative’s future depends on a still-gestating stadium project that continues to work its way through the political machine. Public funding was first committed to the 6,300-seat, $95 million venue back in 2021, but the road to fully funding the project has been long and winding. In recent months, Polk County has upped their contribution from $7 million to $17 million, while the Iowa Economic Development Authority has re-approved a maximal contribution of $23.5 million.

A 2026 start is still a question mark, but USL Pro Iowa is very much showing signs of life.

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.⁵ 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. By any reasonable assessment, this initiative is all but dead.

Milwaukee

Milwaukee Pro Soccer was launched aiming for a 2025 start but delayed to 2026 thereafter, and little has been heard from the club in recent months. The organization’s last tweet came in May, and the only news of note has been a Bloomberg report that Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt was mulling an expansion of their partnership with Forward Madison to also include USL Milwaukee.

The club has announced plans for a stadium project in the city’s Iron District as part of a larger $220 million development including apartment complexes and the like. Groundbreaking is expected in the spring of 2025, and 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.

Team owner Jim Kacmarcik is from the area, and he made his fortune in metal stamping after graduating from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His club drew eyeballs at the end of 2023 thanks to a wildly fun naming competition. The contest is down to ten choices now, with such spectacular possibilities as “Cream City” and “Milwaukee Tall Boys” still on the table. No updates have come since then.

The overall outlook? Not bad. Stadium construction is expected to take about 16 months, which would make for a tight timeline for the 2026 season. Undoubtedly, though, work has continued behind the scenes.

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2027 Expansion (and Beyond)

Garland

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 home to 250,000 residents. Garland is about a half-hour drive from Frisco, home of MLS’ FC Dallas, and an hour northeast of Mansfield, the future home of MLS Next Pro’s North Texas SC.

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.

Plans are in place to build a stadium ahead of the 2027 season. Such a facility would anchor a mixed-use entertainment district in Garland. No concrete news has popped up regarding that project beyond the initial launch announcement.

In a terrific interview with 3rd Degree, Valentine confirmed prior interest in the league; he once sought to purchase the Las Vegas Lights and re-locate them to Dallas. The expansion club’s chairman also dismissed concerns about the long-delayed revival of the Austin Bold franchise in Fort Worth.

This expansion team does not have ties to Dallas Trinity in the USL Super League. Trinity plays at the Cotton Bowl (roughly 30 minutes south of Garland) and has drawn more than 3,500 fans per match in their debut season.

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 recently approved $71 million in funding for an 12,300-seat stadium, one that will begin construction in 2025 ahead of completion in time for the 2027 USL Championship season.

What once seemed like a soon-to-be defunct market is looking like a potential feather in the cap of the USL. Exciting times in Oklahoma.

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.

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 raised during that deliberation.

We’ll see what gives relative to the December 31, 2024 deadline on the negotiations. For now, Roswell is relatively quiet.

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1. While we’re in this League One-to-Championship territory: expect Union Omaha to eventually follow the “stadium clause” path that Lexington is currently treading. Omaha’s 7,000-seat stadium project has made solid progress and will make the club a 2026 or 2027 contender.

2. I’ll note that yours truly thought the fan experience in Inwood was great.

3. Per Court Jeske, then USL CCO: ”Once we sat down with CBS and started talking about how we could deliver messaging to…the Indianapolises, the Tampas, the Spokanes of the world, their eyes lit up.” If Spokane qualifies, Arkansas sure does.

4. I owned Tebow jerseys from Florida, the Broncos, and the Jets. Childhood sports fandom is a helluva drug.

5. The convention center owner said he didn’t want to sell to the soccer team because "I'm looking for something a little more exciting," We love a valid business reason, don’t we folks?