The MLS supplemental draft had a number of incarnations in US soccer :
19-640: From 1996 to 1999, all players playing in the United States playing professionally in the United Soccer Leagues were eligible for the MLS Supplemental Draft, where they could be selected by all Major League Soccer teams. Players graduating college were entered into a separate MLS College Draft . The division between the two was eliminated in 2000, when they were combined into a single MLS SuperDraft . In 2003, MLS held
38-757: A Supplemental draft to distribute players who were signed by the league after the SuperDraft. From 2005 to 2008, with the expansion of developmental rosters , the creation of reserve teams, and contractual limits on the length of the MLS Superdraft included in the MLS Players Union Contract, MLS re-instituted the Supplemental draft, which was held after the SuperDraft those years. In 2009 and 2010, due to roster changes resulting in fewer developmental spaces, MLS again discontinued
57-597: A best of three series in 1998 and a best of five series in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and a home-and-home series in 2012 and 2013. In 1989, the Southwest Indoor Soccer League added a summer, outdoor season known as the Southwest Outdoor Soccer League. In 1990, the league dropped both "indoor" and "outdoor" from its name as it ran both a semi-professional indoor and outdoor season. By 1995, the outdoor season had grown to such
76-605: A minor indoor league associated with Major Indoor Soccer League . The league began with five teams, all owned by individuals who owned or operated indoor soccer arenas in the Southwest United States. League headquarters was in Austin, Texas. In 1986, Marcos' team, the Austin Sockadillos , entered the league giving it six teams. By 1989, the league had set its sights on greater prospects than remaining
95-625: A national level. By 1996 , MLS was also up and running and a number of top A-League players left to join it. In 1996 the A-League and the USISL Select League , both operating as USSF Division II leagues, agreed to merge. Six of the seven remaining A-League teams, the Montreal Impact, Colorado Foxes , Seattle Sounders , Rochester Raging Rhinos , Vancouver 86ers, and Atlanta Ruckus , and two planned A-League expansion teams,
114-509: A semi-professional indoor league. The league quickly expanded and added an outdoor season in 1989. In 1991, the league renamed itself the United States Interregional Soccer League. By then, the outdoor league overshadowed the indoor league which continued to slowly dwindle in importance. By the 1997–98 season, only five teams remained indoors while the outdoor season had over a hundred teams divided into
133-559: A size that the USISL, as it was known at the time, split the league into two levels, the aptly named, fully professional Professional League and the semi-professional Premier League. In 1996, the USISL added a third, higher, Select League. This was formed from the strongest teams from both the Professional and Premier League. The Select League, along with the competing A-League , both received official Division II status from FIFA. However,
152-522: A small, semi-professional indoor league. A 1989 press release stated, "It is envisioned the league will be part of the USSF's plan to professionalize soccer in the USA prior to the 1994 World Cup, and the league plans to push its teams to be considered for the "three-tiered first, second and third divisions" plan the USSF envisions for soccer." The USL began operations in 1986 as the Southwest Indoor Soccer League,
171-464: A soccer league. It featured several established clubs and its roster of players included several members of the United States men's national soccer team . Despite this they lost out to MLS. Despite rebranding itself as the A-League in 1995, it faced increasing competition on two fronts. The USISL had initially confined itself to organizing regional leagues but by 1995, it began organizing on
190-538: A three-division structure. This led the league to stop running an indoor league. In 2010, the USL began to consider relaunching an indoor season. However, it decided instead to take over operations of the Major Indoor Soccer League ; beginning indoor operations in 2011. The champions were determined by a single games in 1987, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1998. The champions were determined by
209-762: The USL Championship , USL League One , USL League Two , and the youth league, USL Youth . A women's league, the USL W League , began play in 2022. It is directly affiliated with the United States Soccer Federation and the United States Adult Soccer Association . The USL is headquartered in Tampa, Florida . Founded in 1985 by Francisco Marcos, the Southwest Indoor Soccer League was first intended as
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#1732788053455228-539: The United States soccer league system but was the country's de facto top professional soccer league until 1995. In 1993, the APSL applied for the vacant Division I role but lost out to Major League Soccer who would begin play in 1996. For its final two seasons in 1995 and 1996, the APSL changed its name to the A-League . It was subsequently absorbed by the emerging USISL organization with six of seven clubs joining
247-751: The A-League was in decline while the USISL was expanding. In 1997, the A-League ceased operations and merged into the USISL Select League which was renamed the USISL A-League. From that point, the USL's three-level structure remained stable until 2010. Some teams left to start the North American Soccer League and the First and Second Divisions were merged to become USL Pro . American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League ( APSL )
266-425: The APSL. As part of the conditions for been awarded the 1994 FIFA World Cup , the United States Soccer Federation had agreed to launch a new Division I professional league. In December 1993, together with League One America and Major League Soccer , the APSL was one of three proposals that was put before the USSF national board of directors. At the time the APSL was the only candidate who were currently operating
285-503: The Supplemental Draft. In January 2011, it was announced that the Supplemental Draft would be re-instated. The first two rounds of the Supplemental Draft replaced the last two rounds of the SuperDraft. United Soccer Leagues United Soccer League ( USL ) is an organizer of soccer leagues in the United States. It operates several men's and women's leagues, both professional. Men's leagues currently organized are
304-830: The inaugural season would be played under two separate leagues akin to Major League Baseball : the ASL became the American Soccer Conference and featured teams from the East Coast , while the WSL became the Western Soccer Conference and featured teams from the West Coast . Teams only played other teams from within the same conference and it was not until the title decider, between Maryland Bays and San Francisco Bay Blackhawks that teams from
323-727: The new USISL A-League in 1997. The USISL (later USL) retained the A-League name until 2004 when it became the USL First Division . In 1989, a match was held between the winners of the American Soccer League and the winners of the Western Soccer League to declare a national soccer champion . On February 22, 1990, the two leagues merged as the American Professional Soccer League. To reduce travel expenses,
342-476: The two different conferences actually met in a competitive game. Throughout its existence, the league would struggle financially and its roster of teams quickly dropped from 22 in 1990 to just 5 in 1992 . However, in 1993 the league expanded when following the demise of the Canadian Soccer League , three former CSL clubs – Vancouver 86ers , Montreal Impact and Toronto Blizzard – joined
361-403: Was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League . It was the first outdoor soccer league to feature teams from throughout the United States since the demise of the North American Soccer League in 1984. The league was sanctioned as Division II in
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