The USL Super League will kick off play in August. Designated by the US Soccer Federation as a Division 1 women’s league (alongside the more established NWSL), the league will start play with eight clubs.
Here is an update on each club.
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Brooklyn
I have no updates on this club other than an assumption that much like the USL Championship club beginning play in 2025, they will be playing at Maimonides Park.
Carolina Ascent FC
Last week the Charlotte area club was named the Ascent FC. Philip Poole has been named as the Head Coach of the club which will play at American Legion Memorial Stadium - where the capacity drop to 10,500 in 2021 has made it a nice home venue for the Charlotte Independence on the men’s side.
Unlike the other USL Super League clubs, Carolina has plans to place a team in the USL W League this summer. The model of linking USL League 2 teams to USL professional clubs on the men’s side has been implemented by several clubs and Carolina evidently wants to replicate that model.
As for hiring Poole, that’s a logical coach given his local ties and long-term experience with both the USSF and local programs.
Dallas/Fort Worth
The club has pledged to be making some announcements soon. But it feels like they’re already very late in the game. Nonetheless, their are signs of life.
DMV club
Things aren’t moving as hoped for the prospective Washington DC club per my reporting. The club I am told has identified a potential head coach in college ranks. That’s the good news.
But the rest, in my view isn’t so good. With DC United facing an MLS HQ imposed deadline to launch an MLS Next Pro and also taking on this project, I am fearful it’s not going to get done properly.
There are other stakeholders with ownership in the club beyond DC United, but given the late hour, do they have the expertise to launch correctly?
I’ve spoken to multiple people around the Northern Virginia/DC soccer community who are concerned about this club’s situation. This having been said, it’s still March but if we’re in this same position six weeks from now, I’d begin to panic.
Fort Lauderdale United FC
The club has hired Deon Graham as its CEO. Graham comes from the entertainment and spirits industry. The club has also announced former Burnley and Seattle Sounders defender Tyrone Mears as its Head Coach as well as Jerome Samuels from Weston FC as Sporting Director.
The club will play at Nova University however, I am told groundbreaking has not yet happened to get the facility ready for August. A full build-out of what should be a 7,000 seat facility will not happen until 2025 at the earliest.
Additionally, a Supporters Group has launched to back the club - The Everglades County Collective.
Lexington SC
Lexington Sporting Club has chosen to use their existing branding for their USL League 1 club in the USL Super League. This is a similar strategy to Sporting Jax which will launch in either 2025 or 2026.
Michael Dickey has been named as the club’s Head Coach which is quite an interesting hire. I’ve been familiar with him since the mid-1990’s but had lost sight of him ever since he left a job with the Jordanian National Team many years ago. He’s an experienced, veteran hand in women’s football.
Spokane Zephyr FC
Having just successfully launched the Velocity on the men’s side, Aequus Sports is likely to have a similarly strong launch on the women’s side in August.
Tampa Bay Sun
Probably the most impressive launch of all, we’ve already covered Tampa Bay in detail on this site in our Florida Soccer Report. The Tampa Bay Sun hired one of the best soccer/football minds around in Christina Unkel as club President and Denise Schilte-Brown who at South Florida won more conference titles than I can count (seriously, USF won a lot with her as coach). Having identified leadership at an early stage and having a big launch with Mayor Jane Castor present, this club is away and rolling.
While they seek to build a permanent purpose-built soccer-specific stadium the club will play at a spectacularly renovated Howard W. Blake H.S Stadium after striking a deal with the Hillsborough County School Board.
I see this and all I see are 4 teams that still need 24 months to be ready for launch, 2 teams that might actually be ready for launch and 2 that if there was actual organization within this thing would be ready for launch.
Why do I get the pit in my stomach feeling I always tune into that this league does not kick a ball in anger in August...or does in maybe January with a 'round robin' tournament just to say they played this year. When half the league is no where near ready when by this point in the game you should already have the entire back room technical support staff ready, team making feelers for sponsorship deals and tickets being sold, and let's not forget a 'commissioner who has gone into hiding' it gives me the impression they bit off more than they could chew to start this year.
Thanks for a timely summary, Kartik! To clarify, DC United --a MLS team- is supposed to launch a women's USL Superleague side and NOT a NWSL team? Would this be the only example of a MLS team associated with the USL Superleague?