Find out how El Paso was able to land a new USL soccer team. Bret Bloomquist/El Paso Times
A United Soccer League franchise, the second tier of American soccer, always seemed a more realistic fit for El Paso than Major League Soccer, and now the USL is a reality.
MountainStar Sports Group has been awarded a franchise in America's second-tier soccer league, an international professional league that will expand to 38 teams when El Paso joins in 2019. The yet-to-be-named team will share Southwest University Park, and ownership, with the El Paso Chihuahuas.
Watch: Watch MountainStar's big announcement live here
"This is by far the highest level of soccer El Paso has ever had," MountainStar CEO Josh Hunt said, and its the first outdoor soccer since the El Paso Patriots of the fourth-tier Premier Development League folded in 2013.
Hunt and MountainStar president Alan Ledford compared the USL to Triple-A baseball, and there are also comparisons to the Bravos soccer team in Juarez that MountainStar is involved with.
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"We want people to see the team as standing on its own," Ledford said.
While El Paso USL - the working name until a nickname is announced - could sign a player development agreement with an MLS team, as 21 teams in the USL have done, the roster and the payroll will mostly be taken on and assembled by MountainStar, which will be hiring a front office for the team separate from the Chihuahuas.
The USL includes teams in major sports markets such as San Antonio, Ottawa, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, as well as essentially minor-league affiliates in places like Toronto and New York.
There is no salary cap in the league and salaries are not made public, but above-average players are estimated to make around $2,000 a month.
Unlike the Ascenso MX the Bravos play in, the USL is not a promotion-relegation league, meaning the teams can't earn their way into the MLS by its play on the field.
"You could get into a pretty good discussion about the level of play" in the Ascenso versus the USL, Ledford said.
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The team will play 16 home games and 16 road games from mid-March to mid-October, with the playoffs to follow, so the season is mostly concurrent with the Chihuahuas. Logistically, Ledford estimated the quickest turnaround to convert the stadium would two days, so the baseball team could play a get-away game on Thursday and the field could theoretically be ready for a Saturday night game.
Currently, Memphis, Reno, Louisville, Tulsa and Nashville all feature stadiums that host both a USL and a minor-league baseball team, so the leagues have a history of working together on scheduling. Southwest University Park now will host games of some sort virtually every weekend from April through September.
Ledford said talks had been ongoing with the USL for the past two years after the MLS suggested that league would be a better fit in terms of market size.
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El Paso USL will also be eligible to qualify for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, which potentially could bring an MLS opponent to El Paso. MountainStar will also try to bring in MLS teams for friendly games (exhibitions) and obviously there could be friendlies with the Bravos.
Ledford and Hunt said their biggest priority was giving El Paso another entertainment option.
"Our mission statement is how we can improve the quality of life through team sports and entertainment," Hunt said.
"Quality of life sometimes gets overlooked," Ledford said. "That's the centerpiece of everything we do."
As for the logistical problems of scheduling around the Chihuahuas and occasionally against UTEP and the Bravos, "When you have this problem, it's a good day," Hunt said.
Bret Bloomquist may be reached at 546-6359; [email protected]; @bretbloomquist on Twitter.
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