MLS teams won’t compete in 2024 U.S. Open Cup, developmental clubs to participate instead

Major League Soccer teams will not compete in the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the league announced Friday. Instead, MLS will have its developmental teams, which play in third-division MLS Next Pro, partake in the nation’s oldest ongoing tournament, which was first held in 1914.

The league will reassess its first teams’ involvement after the 2024 season to determine whether this change will become the new standard for participation.

According to MLS chief communications officer Dan Courtemanche, MLS has been in discussions with U.S. Soccer about this potential change “for several months, probably going back to August.” EVP of sporting product and competition Nelson Rodríguez has been leading those talks from MLS’s side. Among the chief drivers of this decision was an aim to decrease schedule congestion after Los Angeles FC played a record 53 competitive games in 2023.

For the U.S.-based MLS teams, there will be anywhere from one to six fewer games on the schedule for their first teams following this swap. The league began a new installment of the Leagues Cup in 2023, with every MLS team playing at least two games and up to seven in the month-long tournament with Liga MX. However, there are no plans to pull Montréal, Toronto or Vancouver’s first teams from the Canadian Championship.

“The MLS announcement today about the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was a surprise to us and contrary to recent public statements,” USL president Paul McDonough said in a statement Friday. “We will speak with U.S. Soccer, and with our owners, before making any further public comment about MLS’s position.”

At a U.S. Soccer board of governors meeting in May, MLS commissioner Don Garber stated that the U.S. Open Cup was “a very poor reflection on what it is we’re trying to do with soccer at the highest level.” Speaking from his podium during his state of the league news conference in Columbus, Ohio, last week, however, his tone was one of unity across the entirety of the domestic soccer landscape.

“I made those comments because I believe if we’re going to have our professional teams competing in a tournament that is the oldest tournament of its type, we all need to embrace it — from our federation to our respective leagues — and give it the profile and give it the support that it needs,” Garber said of his comments in May, “If we can’t do that, then we all should meet together and decide that there needs to be a new plan. I will say that I’m pleased that our competition group and U.S. Soccer have been working together since that last U.S. Soccer board meeting and have been working on ways to evolve the U.S. Open Cup so that it can be more valuable to everybody. That process is ongoing.”

This year marked the first of a new broadcast deal for the U.S. Open Cup, with some games featured on B/R Live as well as their YouTube channel. As the tournament reached its final stages, cup matches were also shown on Paramount+ via the CBS Golazo Network, including a “star cam” fixed solely on Lionel Messi during Inter Miami’s semifinal win over FC Cincinnati. As is often the case in the modern streaming landscape, viewing figures for U.S. Open Cup matches were not shared by Turner/HBO or CBS.

Currently, D.C. United is the only team without a developmental team in MLS Next Pro. The team’s former USL affiliate Loudoun United was sold to independent owners and still competes in the second-division USL Championship. As a result, D.C. United will not have any participation in the 2024 U.S. Open Cup, Courtemanche confirmed.

One source briefed on previous discussions with U.S. Soccer said that the league explored expanding MLS rosters significantly for the Open Cup to allow teams to choose when to rotate in Next Pro players. However, that was dismissed as an alternative. The decision to replace first teams with developmental teams was discussed at Wednesday’s MLS board of governors meeting in New York.

It’s unclear how this move will be approved in the face of the Professional League Standards, a USSF document that guides the sanctioning and structure of leagues within the U.S. soccer pyramid. Under the guidelines for a first-division men’s outdoor soccer league, one of the first points for sanctioning is that all “U.S.‐based teams must participate in all representative U.S. Soccer and CONCACAF competitions for which they are eligible.”

The Independent Supporters Council, the central body for American soccer supporters, shared its “deep concern” about MLS’s decision in a statement Saturday, calling it “not only a disservice to the fans but also to the sport itself.”

“It undermines the inclusive nature of American soccer, where dreams and ambitions are nurtured on the principle of open competition,” the group said, urging the league to reconsider. “The decision threatens to erode the very foundations of the sport’s heritage and its connection to communities.”

In June, MLS Players Association executive director Bob Foose told The Athletic that “the U.S. Open Cup is certainly not something that our players look forward to.”

“We haven’t taken a formal MLSPA position on the U.S. Open Cup,” Foose said. “I will say my personal opinion is that it’s not at the level that our players should be playing at. At this point, the venues aren’t there; the facilities aren’t there. The structure of the tournament isn’t contributing to making MLS a better league, and I think it’s something that ought to be pondered.”

With these planning talks being held between MLS and U.S. Soccer, Courtemanche added that “key partners” were informed of the news in the final hour before Friday’s announcement. The USL Championship will now be the highest-ranking league in the pyramid to partake in the U.S. Open Cup, with the last non-MLS champion being the 1999 Rochester Ragin’ Rhinos.