Going into 2026, the operations of the United Soccer League (USL) are very much at a crossroads. The league’s issues have piled up this offseason, from North Carolina FC announcing it would not field a team this year, to South Georgia Tormenta FC doing the same thing with just two weeks until the season began, or to two USL League One expansion teams delaying their launches due to a lack of proper preparation. Despite all this churn, by far the biggest concern is the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between USL players and owners, which expired following the conclusion of the 2025 season and has not yet been successfully renegotiated.
CBA negotiations are difficult and often tense, as evidenced by this country’s long history of player lockouts. Famously, MLB had a three-month work stoppage in 2022 before an agreement was reached. The NHL lost an entire season in a lockout in 2004-05, and most recently, WNBA players authorized their players’ association (WNBPA) to strike if necessary. In this sense, USL is not breaking new ground; however, USL is positioned much differently from other American sports leagues.
As a minor league, at least in terms of player quality, the USL is not negotiating with the world’s greatest soccer players, creating a unique challenge for it in the American sports ecosystem. Whereas the WNBA and NHL need to give concessions to the unions to retain their star players, that same dynamic does not exist in USL, as star players often move to MLS or abroad in search of higher pay and better opportunities.
The old CBA, ratified in 2021, was outdated by 2025 due to the league’s rapid growth. But because USL does not have strict salary caps or roster regulations, a majority of, though not all, teams were already paying most of their players well above the agreed minimum standards. This is another key distinction: USL owners often find themselves in a much more precarious financial position than those in the major leagues.
USL, despite exhibiting rapid growth, is still far from profitable. Almost every franchise loses large sums of money each season. Many of the owners can afford to pay more in wages and benefits, such as Weidner Family Homes, the owners of the Switchbacks, yet others will likely be further imperiled by a rise in required spending. Take Loudoun United, for example, a USL Championship team in Loudoun County, Virginia. Loudoun has struggled with attendance since entering the USL in 2018, and conditions at the club have been described as extremely unprofessional. CBA renegotiation affects clubs like Loudoun much more than successful teams like the Switchbacks. For some, a rise in expenditure may be inconvenient; for others, it may be the final nail in the coffin.
So what are the players’ demands? There are three key points that the United Soccer League Players Association (USLPA) has highlighted. First, most players did not have full-year contracts. With a two-month offseason, USL teams tend to offer 10-month contracts to players, leaving them to either save responsibly during the season or find temporary employment to cover the two unpaid months.
Second, around a quarter of players were not offered health insurance by their clubs in 2025. This is based almost entirely around the teams themselves; those that do not offer health insurance are likely the same teams most at risk of folding if costs rise dramatically. The third point is likely to be the most pivotal part of negotiations; a quarter of players made less than $35,000 last year, a minuscule salary for a professional athlete in the United States.
The problem for the USLPA is that they simply do not have the leverage or bargaining power that larger leagues do. On the other side of the argument, because soccer is so popular worldwide, USL players can simply play in other leagues, leaving the USL without the players it needs. So that leaves both parties at an impasse, with the season rapidly approaching and little urgency on the league’s side. Teams made their offseason moves under the assumption that CBA talks would be resolved before the season starts; that looks increasingly unlikely.
Locally, this could mean that the Switchbacks’ season gets postponed. The 2026 season cannot be played until the CBA is addressed, and the inability to do so reflects badly on both the USL as an organization and its individual clubs.
What USL players are asking for is very reasonable: a level of professionalisation in a league that keeps touting lofty ambitions, such as becoming a Division I league and implementing a promotion-and-relegation system. It’s time for USL to pay players in line with those plans.