Promotion And Relegation In USL – A Union Omaha Supporter’s View

Cautious Optimism Rules The Day

Cross-post from Who Gives a Hoot! and Beyond the 90’

I’m going to start this by saying that I am a massive fan of promotion and relegation (Pro/Rel). I love the idea that every game might mean something and that I’m not going to have to suffer through a team doing their best to lose on the chance of drafting the next franchise player. I love the idea that those who have earned their place in the league (for better or worse) are where they deserve to be and not where they paid to be. I also realize it’s not a system for every league, and that’s ok.

But the announcement this morning of the USL committing to a Pro/Rel isn’t without some trepidation on my part, especially as it pertains to a team like Union Omaha.

The USL has been discussing some form of Pro/Rel at least since the formation of USL League One in 2019. The traditional naysayers of this structure were right, at the time, for all the reasons why not to implement it at that time. Money is always the first consideration, and generally the first thing to sink implementing a new idea. In this case, the league has needed to get established and make sure teams were financially stable just to exist, let alone move back and forth between divisions. Even that has seen casualties with teams like FC Tucson and CV Fuego leaving League One while Northern Colorado Hailstorm, Lansing Ignite, and Rio Grande Valley have ceased operations all together.

Also at issue were US Soccer’s (USSF’s) Professional League Standards (PLS) which define what a league needs to have to get sanctioning within appropriate tiers. The biggest things that might hold a team back from promoting might be the following requirements (from the USSF PLS Men’s Division 1 standards, dated 17 March 2023):

– 75% of the league’s teams must play in metropolitan markets of at least 1,000,000 persons

– League stadiums must be enclosed, and have a minimum seating capacity of 15,000

– Each team ownership group must demonstrate the financial capacity to operate the team for five years.

– Each team must designate one principal owner with a controlling interest who owns at least 35% of the team and has the authority to bind the team.

– That individual owner must have an individual net worth of at least US $40,000,000, exclusive of the value of his/her ownership in the league and his/her primary residence.

– The principal owner, together with all other owners, must have a combined individual net worth of at least US $70,000,000 exclusive of the value of ownership interests in the league or team and primary personal residences.

For contrast, the same standards for Division 2 include:

– 75% of the league’s teams in markets of 750,000 persons

– Minimum seating capacity of 5,000

– Ownership group financial capacity to operate the team for three years

– Ownership net worth requirements are US $20,000,000 (principal) with no further requirement for Ownership group net worth.

And Division 3 standards include:

– No metropolitan market population requirement

– Stadium capacity of 1,000

– Principal owner net worth requirement is US$10,000,000

So while the money thing is a huge issue, not only in league sustainability, but also sanctioning within US Soccer (see NISA…), it’s not the only thing. Stadium issues and market population become the 1,000th paper cut in many cases.

Consider Union Omaha in this case. Promotion last year doesn’t change much on the stadium front. Werner Park has an official capacity of 9,023. But were the Owls able to secure promotion again to a Division 1 league, suddenly we are outside of PLS standards and a threat to that league’s D1 status.

Similarly, we’re ok on population. The Omaha Metro Area’s 1,001,010 population (per stats from Grow Omaha dated 17 March 2025) meets both D2 and D1 standards. And even if it didn’t we could still participate in those competitions provided the rest of the league met the 75% threshold. Assuming that the Omaha Metro continues on it’s approximately 3.5% growth per year since the 2020 census, there should be no issues for us on promotion.

So at issue becomes the stadium and the personal wealth of Gary Green as principal, and the remainder of the ownership group.

While I won’t report nor speculate on personal wealth, I can draw some hypotheticals. I’m trying to imagine an owner who meets standards for D3 at a net worth of US $10,000,000. How feasible is it in an off-season to double your personal net worth? How feasible in (possibly) two years to quadruple that, and ensure the rest of your group (if any) has a cumulative $30,000,000 to meet these standards. I’m not fully sure (else I’d likely be a millionaire myself!), but it’s in the realm of the possible that this becomes a roadblock.

That roadblock will either have to be revisited and revised by USSF, or waived. The good news on that front is that USL is smart enough to have at least hedged their bets that USSF will be accommodating along that front—something I honestly never thought I’d write. That possibility becomes more realistic every day, and it moves us closer to the federation actually helping grow the sport and leagues in this country vice just abdicating everything in favor of MLS.

So now we come to the number one thing Union Omaha supporters have been screaming about—a stadium of our own. When news of the downtown stadium dropped last year it was met with hopeful exuberance. When news of the collapse of the deal dropped earlier this year, it was met with an equally disappointed despair. The 9,000+ capacity stadium we call home now is only going to help us through the end of this season. There have been promises of plans in the works (and I do fully trust that there are), but the plan being held close to the chest has frustrated the fanbase.

The stadium plan coming to reality has always been key to our attempted promotion to USL Championship, so nothing changes on that front. What does change is the timeline we have, and what the team is looking to accomplish.

If the team wants to be in Championship when the new 2028 D1 league and Pro/Rel are slated to start, they will have to work on getting that stadium solution sooner rather than later. If they are confident in winning their way up the ladder, they can take their time (notwithstanding the need for a place to play in 2026).

The warning here is that there has to be a deliberate path. A stadium deal done incorrectly can not only impact the ability to play, but also could put a major dent in the financial requirements for included in the PLS. We can’t mortgage the future here by accepting a bad deal that puts either the ownership group or the taxpayers of the Omaha Metro in a bind just to be able to meet those ambitions.

To bring this back around, this Pro/Rel system has to take the same deliberate approach. Union Omaha is not going to be the only team in the USL that has these issues or questions. A lot of this will have to rely on some help from USSF on those roadblock PLS, or on the league itself to help supplement those teams. That is going to rely on money.

The problem with finances is that USL teams rely mostly on game-day sales (tickets, merch, etc.) to make up their budgets. Unlike most world leagues with Pro/Rel, there isn’t a massive source of external investment to help the teams soften the blows of relegation or match the competition of promotion. The most common place to get that external investment is in selling the broadcast rights to the league.

The USL partnership with ESPN+ and CBS has grown over the last couple of years, but it’s not been good enough to provide teams the revenue that would be required with moving up and down the pyramid. This is, again, something that I’m certain USL HQ is working on, and I’m going to trust the process that there are plans in the works to sell broadcasters on the highs, lows, and watchability of the new pyramid. That doesn’t mean we’re going to get the massive deals that the English Premier League or Major League Soccer pull in, but I do believe USL has the product and vision to encourage more broadcast investment going forward. That will not only translate to smoother transitions, but should also translate to better and more accessible coverage as the broadcast companies become true partners in the success (or failure) of the new structure.

So as pertains to Búho Nation, this should absolutely be a time of celebration and hope, but also of deliberation and caution. The fact that we don’t fully know the structure is a good thing. The fact that USL will be dropping more information is a good thing. The fact that they are putting this out now is a good thing. That all means there’s work being done and a lot of time to get this right between now and 2028.

I often say that hope is the first step on the road to disappointment. But with a tempered and steady step, it can lead to the dream of a new age in the sport we love. Let us move forward, deliberately and in Union.