USL Players Association Authorizes Strike As League Announces Promotion/Relegation Future

The union’s first contract ran out December 31, and players have stepped up the pressure, even as the league announces plans to join the rest of the world.

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As the twenty-five teams in the USL’s top league, called Championship, approach a new season, it’s worth looking at two important recent signs of change in the professional soccer organization perennially in the shadows of MLS.

Last season, on Nov. 22, players for FC Tulsa and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds staged a protest as they walked onto the field before the league’s title game, wearing shirts that read, “USL HQ: Pro/Rel? Try Pro Standards First.” 

The message alluded to what the Player’s Association is fighting for in only its second contract since the union formed in 2018: healthcare, year-round contracts instead of month-to-month, and safe working conditions. 

But it also staked a position on the USL’s announcement in March that it would become the first in the U.S. to institute promotion and relegation, with the addition of a new, top-flight league in 2027.

The plan is for the new league to be a US Soccer Federation-sanctioned Division One, at the same level as MLS. With the Championship categorized as Division Two and USL League One as Division Three, the three leagues will be connected via the same promotion/relegation system used in England, Spain and the rest of the football-playing world. 

Major League Soccer does not have promotion or relegation, where  teams finishing at the top of the table in  lower leagues  can get “promoted” into higher  ones, while teams finishing at the bottom get “relegated” to lower leagues.  Promotion and relegation – often referred to online as “pro/rel”– allows for clubs in smaller markets to rise all the way to the top. The enormously popular television series, “Welcome to Wrexham,” follows one such club that leverages the popularity (and money) of its new Hollywood owners to rise multiple levels and into global football relevance. If the club in North Wales earns a spot in the Premier League this season, it will make history, becoming the first to achieve four consecutive promotions in England’s top five football divisions.

As for the USL, the organization added weight to its plans by announcing in November that Tony Scholes, currently chief football officer for the Premier League, will be tasked with running the Division One league.

But for the USL Player’s Association, all these heady plans were putting the cart before the horse.  As the final year of their first contract ended, union leadership had already been negotiating for what it calls “professional standards” for nearly a year  and a half, said Connor Tobin, executive director of the association.

From Standardization to Professionalization

Tobin started as a player and  led the union to its first contract in 2021. For the first time, most players were guaranteed a minimum payment of   $2,600/month–although that could be partially reached through housing, healthcare, or other benefits.

The first contract also took a  step toward addressing a lack of uniform standards in the USL. “The league itself is privately held. When you buy a team, you’re buying a franchise. It’s a lot like a fast food chain,” said Tobin. “They make their money in different ways, so there was a lack of standardization. You go to Club A and it’s super professional. Then you go to Club B and you’re walking into conditions that don’t even meet the bare minimum. So, with our initial contract, we were trying to get all these businesses pointed in the same direction - and because of that, it’s about as thin (a contract) as you could possibly see in the professional world.”

Now, players want to take the next step. The final match of the league’s top division - the USL Championship - provided an opportunity to begin elevating what Tobin describes as an impasse in negotiations.

“In the first contract, we made massive sacrifices,” Tobin summarizes. “Now, the pace of change has to pick up. Is promotion/relegation going to work for the clubs? Or for the league? Regardless, it will not work without stability.”

A Championship Match-up and Moment of Protest

The USL’s top league’s title match underlined the league’s growing popularity in the United States. Nearly 10,000 fans were in attendance, and national broadcasts on CBS, ESPN+, TUDN, SiriusXM FC, and local stations drew  a national audience of more than a half million.

As players came onto the pitch for the national anthem, their t-shirts displayed the players’ union’s take on the state of the league. Supporters in the stands held signs with similar messages. 

By fighting for better benefits,  USL players follow in the footsteps of increasingly militant  unions in other sports leagues. In the summer of 2025, players with the Seattle Sounders wore a similar shirt during a Club World Cup match. The National Women’s Soccer League’s union is currently pushing back against sexist and racist attacks on players. Writing for Sports Illustrated, Ben Steiner noted that the players’ associations for MLS, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, and Professional Hockey Players all stepped up to share their support for the women’s union on social media. 

Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO–which encompasses most of the United States’ labor unions, with nearly fifteen million workers– has been following these developments closely. “Professional athletes embody the labor movement’s core values: teamwork, solidarity and collective action,” said  Shuler. “The AFL-CIO is deeply committed to supporting players across professional sports, including the USLPA, as they negotiate a new contract. At a moment when so many workers are organizing for a better life, the leadership these talented athletes are showing helps strengthen our entire movement.”

For the USL union, the major changes underway with regard to pro/rel won’t be successful unless contract negotiations are successful. 

“For us, it’s about: ‘give us your plan,’” Tobin said. “We want to understand this. [USL] wants to do a contract that extends across the three divisions they currently have and into this new one. They want to do pro/rel. When there’s not a concrete plan, that certainly slows things down. How do we get in the same ballpark on issues without one?”

The negotiating impasse comes as the WNBPA - the Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association - announced that its members had overwhelmingly approved a national strike if worker demands aren’t met. 93% of eligible players participated in the vote and 98% of that group voted in favor of authorizing a strike, per the organization. 

In an end of the year statement from the USLPA, the organization wrote,“Over the past four-plus years, we have watched the USL expand rapidly. We have witnessed the launch of new leagues, including the women’s Super League and the announced launch of a Division 1 league. We have seen announcements of new stadiums and ambitious growth plans. We have heard public discussions about promotion and relegation. Now it is time to take care of the players who make this league possible.”

On February 26th, the USLPA announced that its members had taken the same step - rejecting the league's latest offer and "authorizing the player-led bargaining committee to take all necessary steps, including calling for a strike if required."

USL CEO Alec Papadakis called the promotion/relegation plan “a new chapter in American soccer.” But until there’s a contract that players can sign off on, that chapter may never  be written.