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HERRIMAN — Real Monarchs SLC will be playing in a new league next year.
No, the Monarchs — the second-division affiliate of local Major League Soccer side Real Salt Lake — aren’t moving any time soon.
But the team’s current league, the United Soccer League, will rebrand beginning with the 2019 season to form part of a three-tier system of lower-division soccer in America.
The current 33-team USL will become the USL Championship, with USL League One and USL League Two falling underneath the pyramid of the organization, the organization announced Tuesday.
The new structure is similar in naming to England’s pyramid, including the English League Championships, League One and League Two that operate below the English Premier League.
Despite such similarity, the USL currently has no plans to implement a promotion/relegation system within its structure, according to a source within the league.
“We are bringing three leagues under one central brand that will uniquely represent the USL’s vision for the future and give rise to local passion in new cities currently without professional soccer,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said in a statement.
USL announced the formation over a year ago of a U.S. Soccer-backed Division III league that will begin play in 2019, and began moving teams within its organization almost immediately. For example, FC Tucson — which was once a rival of the BYU men’s soccer team in the Premier Development League — will move up to Division III, while Toronto FC II — the second-division club of MLS side Toronto FC — will move down from USL.
Teams formerly associated with the PDL will be merged into the new USL League Two, including Utah's Ogden City SC. BYU left the PDL to rejoin the collegiate club ranks in 2017, when Ogden City joined.
The new USL League Two will remain a semiprofessional league, with large numbers of college soccer players who join a club during the summer break.
The rebrand will go into effect after the USL’s championship game. Real Monarchs, which is second in the Western Conference with an 18-5-7 record, has clinched a playoff spot with three matches left in the regular season.
The club returns to Zions Bank Stadium at 7 p.m. MDT Saturday against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks. The Monarchs' home finale is next Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m.
