The United States will soon have a second-division women’s professional league for the first time. WPSL Pro plans to launch late next year as a second-tier league, the organization announced on Wednesday.
The league’s original intent was to launch in the third division, but league and club investors saw an opportunity to scale up and fill a gap in U.S. Soccer’s pyramid.
“WPSL Pro is the bridge that’s been missing — not just for players, but for the communities, investors and brands ready to be part of the next chapter in women’s sports,” Sean Jones, the league’s co-founder, said in a statement.
The league expects to launch with an abbreviated fall season after the 2026 men’s World Cup, with a full April-to-October season beginning in 2027.
Each team will pay a $1 million franchise fee, a league spokesperson confirmed to ESPN, and the league expects to launch with 16-20 teams.
Fifteen teams have already been confirmed by the league, including an announcement on Wednesday of a team in Cleveland, Ohio, backed by several leaders of the group that recently fell just short of landing an NWSL expansion team.
The Cleveland group plans to build a $50 million, 10,000-seat downtown stadium for the women’s team and an MLS Next Pro team, which is a slightly scaled-down version of its NWSL proposal.
Second-division professional women’s soccer has not previously existed in the United States. The USL Super League initially planned to launch as a second division, but changed course during the U.S. Soccer licensing application process and launched as a first division in August, giving it the same designation as the incumbent NWSL.
Nothing in U.S. Soccer’s bylaws prevents multiple leagues from occupying the same tier. USL recently announced that it would launch a men’s first division to rival MLS.
U.S. Soccer sets minimum standards for each level of play through its Pro Licensing Standards. A second-division women’s professional league must have at least six teams to apply for sanctioning. All stadiums must seat at least 2,000 people, and principal owners of teams must have a net worth of at least $7.5 million.
A WPSL Pro spokesperson told ESPN that the league is exploring the idea of giving players equity in the league. Organizers of WPSL Pro believe they can address a gap in the player development pathway.
There are a limited number of professional opportunities for women’s players and, to date, no professional opportunities below the top tier of the pyramid.
“We are building WPSL Pro for players, for clubs, and for communities — and we’re excited to deliver a league that can unlock the still untapped potential of women’s soccer at scale,” said Benno Nagel, co-founder and project director of WPSL Pro, in a statement.
WPSL Pro was born from the amateur WPSL (Women’s Premier Soccer League), which launched in 1998 and has grown to well over 100 teams that serve primarily as offseason homes for college players.
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