US Open Cup Can Deliver the High-Stakes Soccer US Needs

The newly appointed Major League Soccer commissioner, Larry Berg, does not support promotion and relegation for the league, although he welcomes the pressure created by high-stakes matches. During his first press conference, Berg was asked about promotion and relegation and replied, “I don’t believe it suits our league, but there are other ways to make regular-season games more consequential, as well as matches in the playoffs.”

Pointing to the World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Berg highlighted the excitement surrounding the tournament. He said that millions of people throughout North America directly experienced its intensity, atmosphere, fan culture and emotion. He described the knockout fixtures following the group stage as matches with genuine consequences, where elimination was always a possibility.

But what if a comparable competition already existed within the American game?

There is already a nationwide cup open to both amateur and professional clubs. It predates the World Cup and delivers underdog stories, varied supporter traditions and the tension and uncertainty of elimination soccer.

Founded in 1913, the US Open Cup has survived while several professional leagues have disappeared. It remains the country’s leading domestic cup tournament, comparable to England’s FA Cup, Germany’s DFB Pokal and the Copa do Brasil. Because American professional leagues use closed, franchise-based structures, the competition is unusual in allowing clubs from different leagues and levels to face one another. Despite its historic importance, however, the tournament has recently entered a difficult period.

MLS and USL, the country’s two principal men’s professional league organizations, are both expanding and increasingly appear to be competing for territory. That growth has created a risk that the Open Cup will be neglected. MLS has already attempted to withdraw from it entirely.

By 2023, the competition was in a relatively healthy position, with every eligible professional club participating and a record total of 71 professional entrants.

The tournament was producing stories rarely seen elsewhere in American sports. El Farolito, a club that emerged from a San Francisco burrito restaurant, became the leading amateur side in two of the previous three editions, while second-division Sacramento Republic reached the 2022 final. These achievements were beginning to generate broader national attention. In 2023, US Soccer assumed responsibility for promoting the competition from MLS marketing organization Soccer United Marketing (SUM), while Lionel Messi appeared set to participate. The cup seemed to have a strong base for future growth.

That momentum soon faded. At the end of 2023, alongside Messi’s arrival, the expansion of the SUM-promoted Leagues Cup and SUM’s departure from the Open Cup, MLS announced that its clubs would no longer take part. Public criticism eventually produced a compromise under which a limited number of MLS teams participated, but the competition has not returned to its previous position.

Only 16 of the 27 US-based MLS clubs entered the 2025 tournament, the latest edition unaffected by the World Cup. With the number of professional teams continuing to rise and the World Cup added to the domestic schedule, USL likewise entered only 17 of its 24 Championship clubs in 2026.

There is still optimism that complete professional participation could eventually return. At a minimum, qualification could become fairer and more closely tied to sporting results, ensuring that leading teams are included.

MLS will move to a fall-to-spring calendar next year, while USL intends to develop into a three-level professional system. Both changes could reshape the cup, but they may also create opportunities. Scheduling Open Cup fixtures near the start of the MLS season would bring immediate pressure to a period when one regular-season defeat usually has limited impact. In the cup, one loss means elimination.

USL hopes the tournament will support its effort to complete a self-contained professional pyramid. The organization plans to introduce a new Premier competition in 2028 at the same officially sanctioned Division I level as MLS.

USL president and CEO Paul McDonough says the creation of Premier is intended to complete the structure of the men’s professional game.

McDonough explained that the long-term plan is for Premier and the Championship to become national, single-table competitions of roughly 20 clubs each. League One would continue expanding through a regional format. Together, those divisions would provide the basis for promotion and relegation, establish a connected professional pathway and make competition across all three levels more significant.

USL’s plan to adopt promotion and relegation, along with McDonough’s emphasis on meaningful matches, closely resembles Berg’s desire for fixtures carrying greater consequences. MLS and USL may use different approaches within their own leagues, but the Open Cup provides a rare opportunity in American sports for clubs from the two systems to compete directly against each other.

If future Open Cup places are awarded according to results from the previous season, USL wants qualification to be determined on merit. McDonough believes clubs should earn entry through their performances. When cup qualification is at stake, more fixtures become important and more teams retain a competitive objective throughout the campaign. In his view, that benefits both the tournament and the wider sport.

MLS has recently selected Open Cup entrants largely from clubs not already involved in the Leagues Cup or Concacaf Champions Cup, rather than consistently sending its strongest teams. Participation has therefore resembled a secondary reward instead of an opportunity for leading clubs to pursue another title. Under this system, the past two winners, Los Angeles FC and Nashville SC, were unable to defend their championships. Messi has also been excluded from the tournament during his first two complete MLS seasons and will not participate in 2026. The Open Cup depends on elite MLS clubs and prominent players just as much as it benefits from memorable lower-division runs.

For USL clubs, the tournament currently offers their only route into continental competition. McDonough describes the Open Cup as an essential part of the country’s soccer tradition and says USL has remained committed to backing it.

He says USL intends to help the cup and the sport continue growing. The competition also allows its clubs to pursue an ambitious goal: winning the trophy provides an opportunity to qualify for Concacaf competition, an achievement every team can target.

Pressure, meaningful competition and matches with real consequences are central to the Open Cup’s appeal. If soccer in the United States hopes to sustain the enthusiasm generated by the World Cup, this historic tournament offers an ideal foundation. It should be treated as a priority and supported with serious investment wherever possible.