USL First Division


The United Soccer Leagues First Division was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2010.
During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States and Canada league pyramid behind Major League Soccer. It was operated by United Soccer League and was the successor of the old A-League, which existed from 1997 until 2004.
Several teams left the league in 2009 to form the new North American Soccer League, with the intent of running their own second tier league. Following a brief legal dispute, the two leagues operated in tandem under United States Soccer Federation mediation as the USSF Division 2 Professional League in 2010 before the split became final. The teams that remained in the First Division were merged with the USL Second Division in 2011 to form USL Pro.

History

When the A-League became the USL First Division in 2005, the league comprised 12 teams: Atlanta Silverbacks, Charleston Battery, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, Portland Timbers, Puerto Rico Islanders, Richmond Kickers, Rochester Raging Rhinos, Seattle Sounders, Toronto Lynx, Vancouver Whitecaps and Virginia Beach Mariners. The Calgary Mustangs, Edmonton Aviators and Syracuse Salty Dogs, all of whom competed in the final A-League season in 2004, folded during the offseason, and did not take up their places in the new league.
The Seattle Sounders won the inaugural USL1 championship, beating Richmond Kickers on penalty kicks in the championship game after a 1–1 tie in regulation time. The Vancouver Whitecaps won the first of their two USL1 titles in 2006 by beating the Rochester Raging Rhinos 3-0 in the championship game, while Seattle won their second title in 2007 by overcoming the Atlanta Silverbacks in a one-sided 4-0 final. Vancouver won their second USL1 championship in 2008 by beating the Puerto Rico Islanders 2-1 in the first USL1 final to feature no American teams; the championship went north of the border again in 2009 when Montreal Impact won their first USL1 title, beating Vancouver 6–3 on aggregate over two legs in the first all-Canadian affair.
On August 27, 2009, multi-national sports company Nike agreed to sell their stake in the United Soccer Leagues to Rob Hoskins and Alec Papadakis of Atlanta, Georgia-based NuRock Soccer Holdings, instead of to the USL Team Owner's Association, a group comprising the owners of several USL First Division clubs. In the months that followed, several prominent TOA members began to voice their concerns about the state of the league in general, its management structure and ownership model, the leadership of USL president Francisco Marcos, and about the sale of the league to NuRock, which the TOA felt was counter-productive and detrimental to the development of the league. Within several weeks, a number of TOA member clubs threatened to break away from USL and start their own league; this break away became official on November 10, 2009, when the majority of USL-1 clubs, as well as one of the expected 2010 expansion franchises, applied to the United States Soccer Federation, the Canadian Soccer Association, and FIFA for approval to create a new North American Soccer League, reducing the league's membership to just three teams.
After lawsuits were filed and heated press statements exchanged, the United States Soccer Federation declared they would sanction neither the NASL nor the USL First Division in 2010, and ordered both "camps" to work together on a plan to temporarily allow their teams to play a 2010 season. The interim solution was announced on January 7, 2010 with the USSF running the new USSF D2 Pro League comprising clubs from both USL-1 and NASL. All 12 teams from the USL First Division and the NASL competed in the USSF D2 Pro League in 2010, which was won by the Puerto Rico Islanders.
On September 8, 2010, the USL announced the formation of USL Pro which would merge the USL First Division and USL Second Division to begin play in 2011. The merger is meant to consolidate USL's position within the American professional soccer landscape and focus on commercial growth and professional development of soccer in 4 main regions throughout the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. The First Division was formally dissolved following the completion of the temporary season to make way for USL Pro.

Expansion and contraction

Prior to 2010, the league had a steady rate of expansion and contraction. Richmond was voluntarily relegated to the USL Second Division in 2006 to cut costs, Toronto was voluntarily relegated to the USL Premier Development League in 2007 because of MLS expansion, and on March 30, 2007 the Virginia Beach Mariners folded just prior to the start of the 2007 season due to an ownership dispute which left the team without financing. These teams were replaced by two new teams: the Carolina RailHawks from the Triangle region of North Carolina, playing out of Cary, and California Victory, a team in Northern California under the ownership of Dmitry Piterman which folded after the end of the 2007 season, having played only one season.
In November 2008, the Atlanta Silverbacks announced that they would sit out the 2009 season to "reassess the landscape," and would possibly return at a future date.
Similarly, the Seattle Sounders left prior to the 2009 season due to the imminent entrance of Seattle Sounders FC into Major League Soccer. Their spot in the league was taken by the Cleveland City Stars, who won the USL Second Division title in 2008, and voluntarily moved up to USL-1 for the 2009 season, folded at the end of the year. On December 2, 2009, Inside Minnesota Soccer reported that the USL had asked the City Stars to terminate the contracts of all the players, as the franchise was to be dissolved. Posting an email addressed to all players under contract with the Cleveland City Stars and written by team president Jonathan Ortlip and executive director Aaron Tredway, the club executives went on to accept the decision to terminate the franchise.
On June 19, 2008, an announcement was made that an expansion slot had been awarded to a Tampa Bay, Florida-based franchise led by main investors Andrew Nestor and Hinds Howard of Citrus Ventures. The plan was for the club to join the league in 2010 and be named the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

Expansion rumors

Possible cities mentioned for future campaigns included Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Syracuse, New York. Syracuse had had a highly attended team in the A-League from 2002–2004, but it folded due to stadium issues, having ground-shared with the local baseball team. Fort Lauderdale also had a history of teams from the NASL, American Soccer League, and USL First Division. There was also discussion that Argentinian team River Plate is interested in putting a second USL team in Puerto Rico, as well as discussion that recent start-up team, the San Diego Flash may also join either the USL or NASL.
Prior to the 2009 NASL split several other cities had been mentioned as being locations where future USL-1 franchises might be launched, including St. Louis, Missouri, Orlando, Florida, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Detroit, Michigan, Hamilton, Ontario, San Antonio, Texas and Ottawa, Ontario. On September 1, 2009, a group from Ottawa formally applied for USL-1 team, contingent on the approval of updates to Lansdowne Park. The team would share a field with the Ottawa Redblacks football team. The Ottawa ownership group has subsequently committed to the NASL.

Structure

Unlike most other nations, there is no system of merit-based promotion and relegation in the American and Canadian pyramids, meaning that the champions of USL-1 could not move up to Major League Soccer and, similarly, the worst teams in MLS were not in danger of being demoted to USL-1. However, some USL-1 teams had in the past chosen to take voluntary relegation to a lower level of the USL system, often to reduce operating costs, while teams had also decided to move up to USL-1 after finding success at the lower levels.

Playoff format

The top seven teams advanced to the playoff tournament, with the Commissioner’s Cup winner receiving a bye into the semi-finals. Each round consisted of two legs, the lower seeded team hosting the first leg, and the higher seed hosting the second. Prior to 2009, the final was played as a single leg at the higher seed's stadium. After the first legs were completed, the lowest remaining seed played the Commissioner's Cup winner, and the higher seeds played each other. The highest remaining seed hosted the penultimate game of the Finals. The playoffs started the week after the completion of the regular season, and typically ended in mid-October.

Teams


DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Define $now = 09/01/2014
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:22
Period = from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2014
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:lightline value:rgb
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a current club
id:Former value:rgb # Use this color to denote a former club
id:USSFD2 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a USSF D2 season
id:MLS value:rgb # Use this color to denote a club that moved on to MLS
id:NASL value:rgb # Use this color to denote a club that went to NASL
id:USL value:rgb # Use this color to denote a club that went to USL league
id:PDL-D2 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a club that went to PDL
id:Hiatus value:rgb # Use this color to denote a club that was on hiatus for a period but returned
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2008 text:Atlanta Silverbacks
bar:1 color:Hiatus from:01/01/2009 till:12/31/2010
bar:1 color:NASL from:01/01/2011 till:end text:NASL
bar:2 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2009 text:Charleston Battery
bar:2 color:PDL-D2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USL 2nd Div
bar:2 color:USL from:01/01/2011 till:end text:USL Pro
bar:3 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2009 text: Minnesota Thunder
bar:4 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2009 text:Montreal Impact
bar:4 color:USSFD2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USSF D2
bar:4 color:NASL from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2012 text:NASL
bar:4 color:MLS from:01/01/2012 till:end text:Montreal Impact in MLS
bar:5 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2009 text:Portland Timbers
bar:5 color:USSFD2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USSF D2
bar:5 color:MLS from:01/01/2011 till:end text:Portland Timbers in MLS
bar:15 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2009 text:Puerto Rico Islanders
bar:15 color:USSFD2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USSF D2
bar:15 color:NASL from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2012 text:NASL
bar:6 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2005 text:Richmond Kickers
bar:6 color:PDL-D2 from:01/01/2006 till:12/31/2010 shift: text:USL Second Division
bar:6 color:USL from:01/01/2011 till:end text:USL Pro
bar:7 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2009 text:Rochester Rhinos
bar:7 color:USSFD2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USSF D2
bar:7 color:USL from:01/01/2011 till:end text:USL Pro
bar:8 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2008 text:Seattle Sounders
bar:8 color:MLS from:01/01/2009 till:end text:Seattle Sounders in MLS
bar:9 color:Former from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2006 text:Toronto Lynx
bar:9 color:PDL-D2 from:01/01/2007 till:12/31/2014 text:USL PDL
bar:10 color:Full from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2009 text:Vancouver Whitecaps
bar:10 color:USSFD2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USSF D2
bar:10 color:MLS from:01/01/2011 till:end text:Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS
bar:11 color:Former from:01/01/2005 till:12/31/2006 text:Virginia Beach Mariners
bar:12 color:Full from:01/01/2006 till:12/31/2009 text:Miami FC
bar:12 color:USSFD2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USSF D2
bar:12 color:NASL from:01/01/2011 till:end text:Fort Lauderdale Strikers in NASL
bar:13 color:Former from:01/01/2007 till:12/31/2007 text:California Victory
bar:14 color:Full from:01/01/2007 till:12/31/2009 text:Carolina RailHawks
bar:14 color:USSFD2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USSF D2
bar:14 color:NASL from:01/01/2011 till:end text:NASL ; USL
bar:20 color:Full from:01/01/2008 till:12/31/2009 text:Austin Aztex
bar:20 color:USSFD2 from:01/01/2010 till:12/31/2010 text:USSF D2
bar:20 color:Hiatus from:01/01/2011 till:12/31/2011
bar:20 color:PDL-D2 from:01/01/2012 till:12/31/2014 text:USL PDL †
bar:20 color:USL from:01/01/2014 till:end text:USL Pro
bar:21 color:Former from:01/01/2009 till:12/31/2009 text:Cleveland City Stars
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/2005
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightline unit:month increment:6 start:01/01/2005
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: tabs:
text:
  1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space.
<#
†The Austin Aztex have been awarded a USL Pro franchise and will begin play in 2015 in that league.







Regular season champions (Commissioner’s Cup winners)

Most successful clubs

League average attendance

All-time USL leaders

RankPlayerGoals
1 Eduardo Sebrango100
2 Mark Baena86
3 Paul Conway79
4 Doug Miller77
5 Mauro Biello76
6 Jason Jordan70
7 Chance Fry68
8 Domenic Mobilio65
9 Jamel Mitchell64
10 Kevin Jeffrey61

RankPlayerAppearances
1 Mauro Biello320
2 Nick DeSantis245
3 Lloyd Barker242
4 Nevio Pizzolito228
5 Scott Jenkins220
6 Lenin Steenkamp219
7 Bill Sedgewick218
8 David Diplacido217
9 Steve Klein211