The USL Championship is one of the most successful professional soccer leagues in the world, reaching a population of more than 84 million and fueling the growth of the game across North America. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, the USL provides unparalleled club support with a growing team of more than 50 professionals across 17 departments, ranging from operations to marketing, communications and sponsorship.
The USL Championship has a national media partnership with ESPN, wherein all league matches are broadcast on ESPN+, ESPN3 and across linear channels. The league also operates USL Productions, which includes a state-of-the-art facility that produced and distributed more than 500 league matches and more than 1,000 hours of original content to national partners, local affiliates and international markets throughout the 2018 season.
History
The USL Championship was formed when two existing professional leagues were combined into a single league property before the 2011 season. The league was designed to help ensure the long-term stability of professional soccer in North America and featured 12 teams in a pair of six-team divisions during its initial campaign. Among the league’s founding members were five longtime USL clubs with more than 100 years of operation among them – the Charleston Battery, Harrisburg City Islanders (now Penn FC), Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, Richmond Kickers and Rochester Rhinos.
Over the course of the current decade, the sophisticated business model that provides the foundation for the USL Championship has allowed the league to grow into the largest professional soccer league in North America, with more than 35 current members that include world-class ownership groups. The league’s current club owners also hold stakes in teams that compete in the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, Minor League Baseball and the NBA G-League. In January of 2017, after a thorough application review process, the U.S. Soccer Federation granted the USL Division II status beginning in the 2017 season, recognizing the significant investment and high level of operating excellence within the USL Championship and its member clubs.
2024 Teams
- Birmingham Legion FC
- Charleston Battery
- Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
- Detroit City FC
- El Paso Locomotive FC
- Hartford Athletic
- Indy Eleven
- Las Vegas Lights FC
- Loudoun United FC
- Louisville City FC
- Memphis 901 FC
- Monterey Bay F.C.
- The Miami FC
- New Mexico United
- North Carolina FC
- Oakland Roots SC
- OKC Energy FC
- Orange County SC
- Phoenix Rising FC
- Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC
- Rhode Island FC
- Sacramento Republic FC
- San Antonio FC
- Tampa Bay Rowdies
- FC Tulsa
Expansion Teams:
- Brooklyn FC (2025)
- Milwaukee Pro Soccer (2025)
- USL Pro Iowa (2025)