After weeks of uncertainty and power struggle surrounding the U.S. Open Cup, the 2024 tournament is set to go forward, but perhaps with only eight MLS teams, United Soccer League president Paul McDonough told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday.
Two other sources with knowledge of the situation cautioned that the exact extent of MLS participation has not yet been finalized. But, after talks of potentially canceling the 2024 Open Cup altogether, the U.S. Soccer Federation — which owns and operates the tournament — has decided to forge ahead with it, as ESPN reported earlier this week.
Many USL clubs, however, aren’t happy. “It’s very emotional,” McDonough said in a phone interview.
Some of the 47 who’ve qualified — 24 from the second-tier USL Championship, 12 from third-tier USL League One and 11 amateur qualifiers from USL League Two — even considered spurning the 2024 tournament “based on principle alone,” McDonough said. But on Wednesday afternoon, USL officials informed U.S. Soccer that all will participate, a source confirmed to Yahoo Sports.
The Open Cup is America’s longest-running soccer competition, a century-old knockout tournament brimming with lore, akin to England’s FA Cup or Spain’s Copa del Rey. Around 100 men’s professional, semi-pro and amateur clubs enter or qualify each year. The lower-tier teams cherish and benefit from the opportunity to face MLS giants. Their occasional upsets are central to the Open Cup’s charm.
But in December, MLS owners voted to effectively ditch the 2024 edition, sparking outrage throughout the sport.
U.S. Soccer initially denied the MLS request to enter reserve teams. “We thought this was put to bed in December,” McDonough said.
He and USL clubs were “caught off guard,” then, when a U.S. Soccer official called in late January to say that there’d be changes to the Open Cup format, and “we’re probably not looking at full MLS participation,” McDonough said.
U.S. Soccer and MLS had remained engaged in separate dialogue, which reached the tops of both organizations, sources said. USL understood and shared some of MLS’ frustrations with the financials of the Open Cup. Its relevance has lagged, dragged down by a lack of investment. It was a money-loser for most participating clubs.
But U.S. Soccer, McDonough and others said, had acknowledged this. The federation committed to upping its investment; to…