USL Relegation-Promotion Plans Reshapes Stadium Design Discussion
HOK sports architecture firm explains how USL's relegation and promotion plans in the United States can change the way stadiums get designed
The HOK-designed American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte. Peter Brentlinger The prospect of promotion and relegation coming to U. S.
sports for the first time thanks to USL soccer has ramifications beyond the teams on the pitch, reaching into the stands and helping redefine the way USL stadium design occurs. The USL announced plans to shift to a three-tiered promotion-relegation system—like what is common across international soccer—creating three distinct divisions within USL teams shift through based on results on the field. Each potential move comes with ramifications.
And each ramification comes with a revenue benefit or drawback, especially as young USL teams continue to work to create dedicated fan bases. “I think that the philosophy of relegation and promotion is very novel to the U. S.
Introducing it here is refreshing, but it creates an uncomfortable zone,” Rashed Singaby, HOK director of sports, recreation and entertainment and design principle on multiple soccer stadiums within the U. S. , tells me.
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