In less than 600 days, the USL is expected to launch a new first-tier league: USL Premier. That may seem like a long time, but clubs across the Championship have begun preparing for a step up the pyramid.
Details regarding the new division (and a corresponding promotion and relegation system) are scant, but that hasn’t stopped individual clubs from forging ahead. Though Atletico Dallas – a 2027 expansion team in the USL Championship – hasn’t publicly confirmed their application to USL Premier, their signing of Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is the clearest example yet of first-tier ambition spreading across the league.
Hernandez will debut in the Championship, but he signed a two-year deal with a club option for a third season. In other words, he could star in the USL until the 2029 season – the second year of Premier play. Chicharito will be 41 years old by then, but he remains one of the most popular athletes in North America and profile elevates Dallas into a new stratosphere relative to their peers.
Between their groundbreaking first signing and the use of the Cotton Bowl as a home venue, Atletico clearly intends to be a flagship club for the USL. Time will tell if other organizations meet that new standard.
The USL did not respond to a request to comment on the status of USL Premier.
Stadium question marks
So far, four clubs have publicly acknowledged a D1 bid. Louisville City and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, two of the USL’s longstanding anchors, intend to be part of the Premier division. Though only in their first year of operation, Sporting Jax claim to be “among the first applicants” to USL Premier. Finally, a post-North Carolina FC group based in Raleigh and led by Steve Malik has also announced a bid.
The tie that binds those groups together? Stadium plans – or, at a bare minimum, loose public statements about a stadium. Louisville is a half-decade into their run at Lynn Family Stadium, which transformed the club into the most financially viable in the USL. Pittsburgh’s planned expansion of FNB Stadium could be similarly revolutionary. Jacksonville’s shovels haven’t touched the ground yet, but the club confirmed advancement in the regulatory process this week. The Raleigh group, meanwhile, hasn’t made any public progress, though their bid announcement explicitly mentioned the need for a 15,000-seat facility.
