Beyond the 90 Podcast

Developments have not been positive this week so far. Federal mediators have been sent away and both sides are increasingly dug in.

Events are fluid- it appears we will play this weekend, but with some major caveats. And playing this weekend does not mean a strike is less likely.

In fact, I think the likelihood of a work stoppage at some point is increasing because real progress has not been made even with the presence of federal mediators.

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USL HQ released a statement Friday which led to a multitude of conversations over the weekend that I had with parties within the USL family. We also discuss the larger environment in the country around society, business politics, and labor, analyzing how that impacts this dispute.

As has been the case during this part of labor dispute, BT 90 remains your best source for news and information going forward.

I want to quickly note before you watch the video that to authorize a strike is different than actually striking.

There remains time for negotiations, but the players have indicated if there is no further progress, which was quite clearly there has not been in the last month, then they are ready to strike.

A lot to unpack in this video.

Explaining why there is a conflict between owners and USL HQ I’m terms of selling expansion franchises. And how PRO/REL could solve this.

USL has been on the front foot the last few years but now it feels MLS NP is back in the game.

As reported by our Alex Ashton, Tormenta FC which has been one of the strongest USL clubs at developing players and selling them upwards over the course of the last decade will not field a professional men’s team in 2026.

Yet again, when a crisis hits the American lower divisions, the governing body for the sport in this country is nowhere to be found. There is plenty of culpability in all of this with USL as we have talked about the last few days in some of the articles I’ve written, and we will return to that as a theme in the near future.

But today I want to focus on US Soccer and their lack of involvement/interest in the lower divisions.

I keep hearing from folks “my club isn’t one of the bad ones.”