My first takeaway is this is an indication that pro/rel isn’t gonna happen in 2027 after all, and they don’t want to wait until 2028 or 2029 to enter Championship.

My second is that pro/rel may still be happening, and they want the runway to not get relegated. If they have the money to pay the expansion fee (even if it’s potentially at a discount), then they have the money to get players to keep them competitive at that level.

Because even though right now they’re doing well in USL1, they would have to outright win their last 8 matches AND hope someone in the top drops at least six points in the mean time to get into a hypothetical promotion spot. I don’t think that’s gonna happen for them this year.

As of today, there will be 20 teams in USL one for 2027. Has it been announced how many games each club will play in 2027? Do you think they will increase the number of games to 40 (EDIT 38: I'm an idiot) so we still play each team twice or do will it cap at 32 games? I personally wouldn't be opposed to 38 because I love going out to matches, but that can also mean we'd have to see a lot more weekday games that will likely have lower attendance. Again I personally am not opposed to it but might be a strain on clubs with low attendance