Even when you travel to the other side of the world to enjoy the pinnacle of world football, everything somehow pulls you back to the issues and how we can grow the game in Australia. 

And on a sunny, beautiful day at Oakland Roots and Soul SC’s exceptional training base, which has been converted into the Socceroos World Cup HQ this month, we explored how a second tier club has built its way up on community values and purpose driven ethos to galvanise a city gutted by the exit of three major sports franchises, while also driving fan engagement that has driven 8,000 average crowds in the US soccer pyramid’s second tier. 

We also chatted about promotion and relegation.

That tier is about to change; while there is still a ceiling to Major League Soccer, with its $450 million expansion fees and a caveat requiring a billionaire owner, the United Soccer League is about to shake things up and expand in 2028, adding a USL Premier tier above the current USL Championship, with USL League One to become a third division.

There will be promotion and relegation between those tiers. 

“We have not had that in the United States before,” explained club president Lindsay Barenz.

“A lot of people in the United States obviously are familiar with the concept because that’s how soccer works most places around the world, but we’ve not had it here in the United States.

“We’re going to see a level of intensity and enthusiasm around games, especially towards the end of season where you’re fighting for promotion or you’re trying to avoid relegation that is unlike anything you see in sport because of that system.”

For the Oakland Roots, they’re aiming for the Premier tier.

“We want to be the best team. So we’re gonna work very hard to be able to join (the top division) and do the best we can.” 

Since the explosion of the MLS, the growth of the USL has helped in areas that haven’t had access to the riches required to be in the glamorous top tier but have passionate soccer bases. The tiers in America have not just helped the depth of the sport but also all the elements that football in Australia often cries for.

“(The MLS, since) it’s blown up and and what everybody found was the demand for soccer in the US was high outside of New York and DC and LA and and Seattle and people love the game and they wanted the game in their hometown,” head coach Ryan Martin explained.

“So now you have teams like Tulsa and Phoenix and Indy and Pittsburgh and Detroit that are all in this league and where they couldn’t get into maybe an MLS franchise, they have a professional team, a group that they can call their own and and rally behind. And when you start to go to some of these places and you see the support – we have as one of the top in the league, but other clubs are just as excited for their group as well. 

“It makes it for a fun league… the league’s growing and it’s growing at a fast rate.” 

He continued: “And this league in the last ten years has really taken off. There is a push for promotion and relegation from the second to third division in 2028, which would make things a lot more interesting all across the table and I think that would increase what the league is trying to do. So this club is on the forefront of wanting to be one of the top ones in the league, and we’re excited for where we are now but more importantly where we can go.”

The prospect of promotion and relegation is seeing the landscape already change a lot, Martin added.

“You need more players obviously when you start looking at depth and when you start looking at three tiers of soccer, then you start to figure out, where can I bring players in.

“We’re starting to find even in our our league and our tier here, I think we have four players playing in the World Cup this year, that are currently are rostered in the USL championship, that are playing in the World Cup for different teams, and that’s a first for a second division in the US. 

“So it just shows the growth.”

Martin says the league is probably equivalent of a third or fourth tier in the UK or Germany. 

“But with the ambition of getting higher and continuing to improve our level and keep growing it.

“The league office brought over a technical director (Tony Scholes) who is big in the UK in the Premier League and they want to really push the league forward and make it watchable and make it more competitive and bring more teams in with bigger markets.

“We’ll see where it goes from there.”