From the perspective of New York Red Bulls II, the final four for USL Cup 2016 has worked out rather well. The II team thought it had earned the right to host USL Cup - if it could get to the final - when it won the league's regular season title. But USL reneged on that promise when (we're guessing) it realized it might be blowing its chance to have a crowd of 30,000 in Cincinnati or 11,000 in Sacramento on primetime TV.
So instead of determining hosting rights for the final based a team's on-field performance for the regular season, USL has asserted its right to pick the host it thinks will put on the best show for ESPN U.