The USSF Announced 2024 U.S. Open Cup Plans

The USSF has announced the plan for the 2024 version of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. It was announced earlier this season that MLS planned on having its MLS Next Pro sides represent MLS in the competition. After being faced with large pushback across social media, from large names within the U.S. soccer, and from other professional leagues… MLS and USSF decided to work together on a format that worked for both sides. 

USSF announced that there will be eight MLS clubs representing themselves at the full Division 1 level; Atlanta United FC, FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo FC, Sporting Kansas City, Los Angeles FC, Real Salt Lake, San Jose Earthquakes, and Seattle Sounders FC. There will be an additional nine MLS Next Pro clubs that will represent their MLS side in the competition; Austin FC II, Crown Legacy FC, Chicago Fire II, Colorado Rapids 2, Los Angeles Galaxy II, Minnesota United FC 2, New York City FC II, New York Red Bulls II, and Portland Timbers 2. That leaves twelve MLS sides not represented in the 2024 version, three of them are Canadian clubs that do not play in the tournament. Of the remaining nine clubs left, eight of them are playing in the CONCACAF Champions Cup… leaving D.C. United as the lone club not represented OR playing in another cup competition. 

Now in my personal opinion, this is still an embarrassing result of the USSF and MLS working together for a solution. The first division soccer league within any country should be playing in and represented in the country’s domestic soccer cup. MLS should have expanded roster rules and spending in order to have all their clubs play in potentially five different competitions. We are in a different day and age of Major League Soccer, and the league’s owners need to expand roster rules and spending to help continue the growth that we are seeing within the league. Now, I do understand that the U.S. Open Cup was slipping more and more in relevancy for MLS sides… the 2024 version of the competition will have the winner take home a CONCACAF Champions Cup spot and $300,000. To put this into perspective, the 2023 Leagues Cup winners, Inter Miami CF, took home multi-millions of dollars in prize money. The USSF has ignored the U.S. Open Cup competition for YEARS now and if this isn’t an eye opening situation to refresh the competition then we will see more of this in the future. 

I don’t fully support either side of the argument here 100%. MLS is wrong for not expanding its rosters and clubs to a point to play in all the competitions that they’ve signed their clubs up for (Leagues Cup…). MLS now has a new TV deal, dedicated TV studios, a major global impact on/off the field, and… Lionel Messi. They need to adapt with the times and expand to a modern higher level. However, Major League Soccer’s clubs did not find the U.S. Open Cup important, the prize money being the largest factor. Less than $1m for the prize money for a domestic cup competition is embarrassing. The USSF needs to restructure and prioritize what should be the top club cup competition for the federation. There needs to be a focus on lower division clubs getting hosting responsibilities, a larger prize pool, and making the competition worthwhile to play in for all clubs involved. This is an eye opening situation and everyone, on all sides, needs to make some major changes to their decisions around the U.S. Open Cup.