Major League Soccer stated on Friday that it will not enter teams in the 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. It is a move that means the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) sanctioned Division I soccer league will not compete in the country’s national cup competition next season, similar to how all La Liga teams refuse to compete in Spain’s Copa del Rey or all English Premier League teams refuse to compete in the FA Cup.
The MLS will send’reserve’ teams to compete in the US Open Cup in 2024.
Though soccer in the United States is generally thought to lack the history, longevity, and prestige of its European counterparts, the US Open Cup defies this idea and has a history comparable to its counterparts worldwide. The available Cup’s first matches were played in November 1913, more than 82 years before the debut season of MLS, and, unlike franchise-based, closed-shop sports leagues across the US, the Open Cup is, as its name implies, available to all teams at all levels of the American soccer pyramid.
Before being forced to halt because to the Covid epidemic, the Open Cup was the world’s second-longest continually operating cup competition, after only the Irish Cup. Given that Canadian teams compete in MLS, the Open Cup is the United States’ sole professional men’s national soccer title.
MLS stated in a press release that it “plans to be represented by MLS Next Pro clubs in the 2024 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.” This means that MLS will send clubs from a Division III league – its equivalent of reserve squads – to the 2024 edition. According to Jeff Rueter of The Athletic, DC United, which does not have an MLS Next Pro squad, will not be represented at all.
The departure of MLS teams, as well as the charade of entering MLS Next Pro teams in a feeble attempt to remain represented, demonstrates an arrogant attitude toward the event and the entire soccer ecosystem in the United States. A national cup competition requires participation from its top-tier teams just as much as it need the depth and romanticism that lower-tier participation provides. A cupset is made by two people. Every giantkilling necessitates the presence of a giant.
MLS head coaches were among the many stakeholders who were not consulted in this decision, which denied them the chance to make history with their own clubs and compete for one of US soccer’s major prizes. Consider the Houston Dynamo and coach Ben Olsen’s 2023 season without an Open Cup victory. It loses a significant portion of what distinguished it and made it so enjoyable for club workers and fans. The coach should make the decision on whether to rotate or introduce youth players in cup events, but this tournament has now been taken away from them entirely.
Fans of MLS teams were also not consulted. “MLS’s withdrawal of their first teams from the Cup is not only a disservice to the fans, but also to the sport,” said the Independent Supporters Council (ISC) of North America in a statement. It contradicts the inclusive ethos of American soccer, where hopes and ambitions are fostered via free competition. The decision threatens to undermine the sport’s legacy and its relationship to communities.”
The MLS will not enter clubs in the US Open Cup in 2024.
It is becoming increasingly evident that the league just treats fans as customers. Much of the rest of the world’s top-level soccer tries to do the same, with varying degrees of success, but MLS is more brazen in its approach. MLS fan guidelines are even referred to as “supporter privileges,” as if to convey the impression that fans should consider themselves fortunate that the league allows them to participate. The league is fortunate to have such active fanbases, which give character and personality to these single-entity league franchises.
So, why has MLS withdrawn? One of the stated reasons was that not participating in the Open Cup “benefits the MLS regular season by reducing schedule congestion, freeing up to six midweek match dates.” In July, MLS partnered with Liga MX to stage a completely new World Cup-style event in the midst of the MLS regular season. It’s ludicrous for MLS to claim “schedule congestion” as an excuse to cancel the Open Cup when it just created a brand-new event from scratch this year.
Perhaps MLS is concerned about the rise of soccer below it, and the decreasing distance between itself and the Division II-sanctioned USL Championship. When MLS teams are knocked out of the Open Cup by USL teams, it contradicts the league’s presentation of itself as the premier – and only – league in America. It sees the rest of soccer as competition and seeks to suffocate it. By withdrawing from the cup, MLS is simultaneously affecting markets in other leagues and undermining a tournament with a longer history than the Leagues Cup, which is 110 years older.
Control will be a big factor in MLS’s decision to abandon the Open Cup. Control over marketing, media, and storyline – something the Open Cup lacks. The Leagues Cup was televised on Apple TV+ as part of MLS’s Season Pass subscription program. The Open Cup, which is currently administered and marketed by the USSF, was open to other broadcasters, with CBS eventually doing an admirable job of honoring it. It received more attention last year under USSF marketing than it ever did under MLS marketing arm Soccer United Marketing, which managed it until the end of 2022. Now that it is no longer under its control, MLS wants out.