Many over the years have compared lower-tier American pro soccer to the Wild West, and that’s not entirely off base. Long-term stability and structure could be sporadic, and leagues, teams and brands came and went. There were poachers and con-men, alliances and feuds, prospectors and entrepreneurs—some linked to the powers that be and others who chafed against them.
The United Soccer League, a multi-division organization that has been in business since the late 1980s in some form or another—and with varying degrees of solidity and success—has been the big shot ‘round these parts for the past few years.