MLS drops U.S. Open Cup, which showcases soccer’s charms

Being different did not stop record attendance this year, a blockbuster broadcast deal and the arrival of Lionel Messi. The 29-team circuit is doing just fine.

And amid all the quirks, the league does observe most soccer conventions. Since its birth in 1996, MLS has participated in a 110-year-old national tournament, known as the U.S. Open Cup, that has involved amateurs headquartered at a discount liquor store to first-tier sides owned by billionaires.

But in a late-day news drop Friday, MLS announced it will skip the tournament next year. Like a child having a sandbox tantrum, MLS is taking its toys and going home. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has grumbled about the Open Cup for years, but no one expected him to lead a full-scale exodus.

MLS to skip U.S. Open Cup, nation’s oldest soccer tournament

The league has not completely cut ties: It will send developmental squads from MLS Next Pro, its self-created third division. The Seattle Sounders, for instance, will be represented by the Tacoma Defiance — a fitting nickname under the circumstances.

Such action is the equivalent of the Premier League clubs en masse ditching the FA Cup and entering their under-21 squads.

Venting on social media, some MLS fans fumed about the league thumbing its nose at tradition, while those who support smaller clubs seethed about losing the chance of beating the big boys in a single-game, knockout competition.

So why did MLS withdraw? In Friday’s news release, the league said the Open Cup would “provide emerging professional players with additional opportunities for meaningful competition.” Many MLS teams call up young players for the competition, it reasoned, so why not use a squad full of them?

The other reason cited by the league rang truer: “The move also benefits the MLS regular season by reducing schedule congestion, freeing up to six midweek match dates.”

In other words, the calendar is full and something had to go.

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But MLS created the congestion by launching a massive new tournament that no one asked for. Debuting last summer, the Leagues Cup involves all 47 MLS and Mexican Liga MX clubs and consumes four summer weeks.

MLS has long obsessed over tapping into the Mexican American market, and the Leagues Cup became the latest vehicle to accomplish it. The tournament also provided more live content for MLS’s broadcast partner, Apple TV Plus, which is paying up to $2.5 billion over 10 years; MLS doesn’t own Open Cup broadcast rights.

Aside from the Leagues Cup, MLS’s docket includes the 34-game regular season, playoffs and All-Star Game. Early next year, 10 MLS teams will compete in the Concacaf Champions Cup (formerly the Champions League), which is the annual regional championship modeled after the famed European competition.

MLS schedule-makers also must take into account large-scale international events held in the United States, such as the 2024 Copa America, 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, probably the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup and 2026 World Cup.

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It’s a lot, and so MLS unloaded the Open Cup. It hasn’t ruled out returning. “MLS remains committed to working with [the] U.S. Soccer [Federation] to evolve and elevate the Open Cup for everyone involved in the years ahead,” the league said.

To be fair, the Open Cup is a flawed tournament. Conceptually, it seems like a winner. Practically, it has sputtered in the shadows.

Some MLS teams move early-round home games to smaller, alternative venues because, until the late stages, ticket demand is low. Managing a busy schedule and tight roster, coaches often hold out regulars in favor of reserves and prospects.

Some non-MLS venues are substandard. Financial rewards are small. TV coverage is limited and a confusing number of online platforms show matches.

The tournament just means much more to the lower divisions than to MLS.

Last May, Garber criticized the Open Cup and its organizer, the U.S. Soccer Federation, the sport’s domestic governing body.

“From our perspective,” Garber said during a USSF board of directors meeting, “it is a very poor reflection on what it is we’re trying to do with soccer at the highest level.”

Despite its flaws, the Open Cup offers something MLS doesn’t: consequences and charm. Without fear of relegation and with a low threshold for making the playoffs, MLS’s regular season is monotonous.

The Open Cup, meantime, is like the NCAA basketball tournament — if the NCAA were to invite teams from all three divisions, plus NAIA schools.

A lower-division club packs a humble park for a muscular visitor. A journeyman who dreams of an MLS contract scores a once-in-a-lifetime goal from great distance. A goalkeeper who plays soccer as a side hustle makes the clinching save in a shootout.

These are the moments that help make soccer so appealing in much of the world. It’s Grimsby Town, from England’s fourth flight, pulling off five upsets against higher-tiered opponents, including Premier League’s Southampton, to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals last spring.

It’s third-division Union Omaha advancing to the U.S. Open Cup’s quarterfinals in 2022 and second-tier Sacramento Republic playing for the title the same year.

It’s D.C. United winning the 2013 crown amid a 3-24-7 regular season. That was the most recent of United’s three Open Cup titles, which rank fourth among MLS teams. Because United is the only U.S.-based organization yet to launch a MLS Next Pro team — it has plans to do so in Baltimore — D.C. will have no presence in the 2024 tournament.

Since 1996, only one non-MLS team has won the trophy. The Rochester Rhinos, now defunct, sprung from the second division in 1999. But that misses the point. It’s the journey and storylines that make the Open Cup special — and what make soccer like no other.

MLS, though, has put its own self-interests ahead of the game at large. For that, Garber and the league deserve a red card.