United Soccer League announced on Friday that all games in the US Open Cup involving teams in their leagues will be streamed on league platforms. This comes after concern that the first round of the competition, which includes teams from the USL League 2 semi-pro league, would not have a platform to air for fans of the competition.
The 2024 competition is one that is unique due to the conflict between US Soccer and Major League Soccer, the designated first division, attempted to remove themselves from the oldest soccer competition in the country. An arrangement was made instead to include eight MLS teams along with the reserve squads for the remainder, who play in MLS Next Pro, a designated third division in the country.
For their part, USL will have 47 clubs participating in the Open Cup with many of those being semi-professional from the academy and semi-professional USL League Two. The games will be split between the YouTube channels of USL and US Soccer with certain games only being on the league’s official website the day of the games.
The first round will encompass Tuesday through Thursday, March 20th to 22nd. New York Red Bulls II will take the place of New York Red Bulls MLS side this Wednesday against Hudson Valley Hammers at Monclair State University at 7:30 PM.