The Houston Dynamo won the 2023 US Open Cup. In 2024, like the rest of the MLS, their first team will not participate. (Photo by Jason Allen/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
MLS effectively forfeited the 2024 US Open Cup on Friday, a decision that wiped out decades of history, sparked shock and backlash across American soccer and exposed the league's self-interest.
It was a “disgraceful” decision, “absolutely terrible” and “fucking pathetic,” fans screamed on social media. It is “shameful” and “insulting”, “stupid” and “disgusting”, “embarrassing” and “disrespectful”.
It caught the U.S. Soccer Federation by surprise and angered some non-MLS clubs — the main victims in a one-sided power struggle for control of the sport (and its dollars) in America.
The Open Cup is the country's oldest football competition, a centuries-old knockout tournament that anyone can take part in. It offered amateur and semi-pro teams the opportunity to train and dream with top professionals – until now.
MLS owners voted this week to enter their reserve teams, rather than their first teams, for the 2024 tournament. They spread the news across US Soccer, the public and the entire soccer ecosystem on Friday evening, just as USSF personnel were gathering for a Christmas party. They said the league “remains committed to working with the association to further develop and enhance the Open Cup for all involved in the coming years.” But their intention was clear – because commissioner Don Garber had already signaled it.
Garber, a longtime U.S. Soccer board member, said during the public session of a board meeting in May that the Open Cup was “a very poor reflection of what we want to accomplish with soccer at the highest level.” Translation: It was the least glamorous of the various competitions MLS teams competed in and the most difficult to monetize.
It was also part of a problem whose temperature continued to rise: MLS calendars were becoming increasingly crowded. Each team played 34 regular season games. Some played up to a dozen more in the playoffs and CONCACAF Champions League. The Open Cup became a burden for many – and a time when the starters were taking a break and testing the reserves even before MLS mandated it.
Skipping the Open Cup therefore “benefits the MLS regular season by reducing schedule congestion and freeing up to six midweek game dates,” MLS said in its statement Friday.
Not to mention, it seems to hurt almost everyone else.
It could hurt the second-tier United Soccer League, whose commissioner said in a statement Friday that the news was “a surprise to us.” This will have a tangible and intangible impact on soccer's ability to grow in all non-MLS markets, as it will dampen interest in the Open Cup, which gave non-MLS clubs visibility and platforms that they often struggle to build can.
And maybe that's the point. By harshly criticizing the rest of American soccer, the MLS distances itself from it, asserts its dominance, and focuses on competitions that the MLS, and only the MLS, controls (and from which it can profit).
MLS can control (and benefit from) the League Cup, the main reason for “schedule congestion,” the month-long midseason tournament that MLS and Mexico's Liga MX inaugurated last summer. It is 108 years younger than the Open Cup; But it's designed to attract new fans — namely Mexican Americans — and their wallets. So it's consistent with MLS strategy. The owners have for decades artificially limited competition and their own spending to build sustainable businesses – which in turn would theoretically allow them to spend more and boost American men's soccer as a whole.
And in many ways that is the case. The league's growth has been good overall for the U.S. men's national team and youth soccer, as well as the long-term development and popularity of the sport in this country.
But it sometimes grows by pushing others aside and suppressing them.
“Lamar Hunt should be rolling in his grave.”
In short, that's why Friday's announcement caused such an outcry.
“They are trying to own all of soccer in the United States by killing what doesn’t belong to them.” complained Christos FCa Baltimore-based amateur club that completed a fairytale Open Cup run in 2017.
Peter Wilt, a former Chicago Fire general manager who then dedicated his career to minor league football, called out the fans “To boycott MLS until they return to American soccer’s finest and oldest tournament.”
Lamar Hunt, an MLS founder and soccer pioneer who was so influential that the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup now bears his name, “should be rolling in his grave,” Wilt wrote on X.
Others were stunned or confused. Others asked pressing questions. Among them: What about U.S. Soccer's “Pro League Standards,” which state that if a league wants to be recognized as a “first division,” all “U.S.-based teams participate in all representative U.S. Soccer and CONCACAF “You have to take part in competitions?” you are entitled”?
US Soccer said in a statement Friday evening that it was “currently reviewing” the MLS decision.
It wasn't notified until Friday and clearly wasn't happy. But it has little impact; it would not dare refuse to recognize MLS as its premier men's league; and it would almost certainly not impose a severe, politically risky punishment.
Of course, this is why the MLS has shamelessly moved forward. It was encouraged by its growth (and by Lionel Messi). You can afford to cause trouble because US Soccer needs MLS now more than MLS needs US Soccer.
The flood of questions continued late into Friday night. This also included one about continental qualification. The winner of the 2023 Open Cup secured a spot in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup – an expanded, renamed North and Central American Champions League. Would this apply to 2024-25? And if an MLS reserve team won the Open Cup, would it play against the best in CONCACAF? Or could it simply transfer its Champions Cup spot to the MLS first team?
These answers are in the hands of CONCACAF and have yet to be determined.
They leave room for bright spots and perhaps even positive developments. USL teams could realistically qualify for the Champions Cup now. They may not receive the publicity that the Sacramento Republic received in 2022 en route to the Open Cup final due to a series of upsets. But their chances of winning American soccer's oldest trophy just skyrocketed.
That could actually breathe life into a tournament that has struggled for relevance in the 21st century. The romance and sheer concept of the Open Cup always trumped the actual product. MLS teams would enter in the third round; roll out fringe lineups by the quarterfinals; get serious when a trophy appears on the horizon; and raise it without exception. They had won every edition since 1999. What fun is this?
The MLS Players Association didn’t like it. Relatively few fans watched it. Garber said he didn't really mind because the quality of the games was low on “subpar fields.” That's why he and his league discussed the future of the tournament with US Soccer throughout the summer and fall.
And then, at least in 2024, they gave up on it.
“This dream is now shattered”
They could have used their influence and marketing power to strengthen it. That's what literally every other major soccer league in the world does. The English Premier League competes in the FA Cup; German Bundesliga teams start in the DFB Cup; Barcelona and Real Madrid are aiming for the Copa Del Rey.
Instead, MLS made an unprecedented leap away from tradition, away from the many humble shoulders on which American soccer stands, a leap so bold that many looked through it and saw greed.
MLS could still back down. It could return in 2025. It could still work with US Soccer to promote the tournament and realize its potential. But for now?
“This is incredibly disappointing news to say the least,” Ballard FC, a fourth division club based in Seattle, said. wrote on X. “Clubs like ours dream of the opportunity to compete against the top competition and have worked so hard to make that dream a reality.
“That dream is now shattered.”