Danny Dichio head, coach of Detroit City FC celebrates with supporters after defeating Michigan ... More Stars FC, 1-0, in a third round 2024 U.S. Open Cup game. Getty Images for USSF The second-tier USL Championship had its first of two regular season broadcasts over the airwaves last Sunday, and the results were very encouraging for the league’s front office. According to league sources, the match between Phoenix Rising FC and San Antonio FC drew an average audience of 444,000 viewers and topped out at 760,000 over the latter portion of the match. That’s enough to make the regular season clash the most-watched match in USL history, even more than last year’s nationally televised championship game. And it’s in line more or less with how MLS regular season games on Fox used to perform before the league launched its MLS Season Pass serivce. Of course, USL would like to spin the number into evidence that the league is growing in popularity, especially since the operator of leagues at the second through fourth tiers of U.S. pro soccer tries to build momentum toward its USL Division One project. With a tentative launch year of 2027 or 2028, the USL’s aim with Division One is to create a league that will rival MLS as a USSF-sanctioned Division I competition. But the reality of these figures is a little more complicated. MORE FOR YOU Google’s Android Update—Bad News For Samsung And Pixel Users ‘NYT Mini’ Clues And Answers For Thursday, April 10 Trump’s Tariff Pause May Help China’s Clothing, Electronics Billionaires Probably Fortunate Timing One thing the USL almost certainly benefitted from on Sunday is a kickoff an hour after the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game over on ABC. At first that sounds counterintuitive. The Women’s title game between UConn and South Carolina averaged 8.5 million viewers, more than 17 times what the USL match averaged. However, UConn dominated the contest from start to finish, meaning some viewers who tuned in may have been prompted to browse other channels once it became clear that the outcome wasn’t in doubt. That almost certainly explains the huge variation between the USL’s average audience and its peak viewership at almost double the size. Bad For MLS More Than Good for USL At the same time, by drawing ratings that are continously similar to what MLS games used to draw on Fox, the USL may be proving that among the average American TV viewer, there is little difference between the two. An audience of less than 500,000 is still pretty small in a nation of roughly 340 million, suggesting that both MLS and USL have a long way to go before getting on the radar even of American soccer fans. The English Premier League and Liga MX both regularly perform better with their respective American TV packages. But the fact that casual viewers don’t seem to differentiate between MLS and the USL championship suggests that USL will at least have a real opportunity to convince those fans that its Division One is worthy of Dvision I sanctioning, shoud it be received. That public perception may be more important than the sanctioning itself. CBS Should Still Be Pleased Perhaps no broadcasting company is doing more to promote the beautiful game on English language TV in the U.S. than CBS and Paramount. From its excellent UEFA Champions League and Serie A coverage on the CBS Sports Network and Paramount+ app, to its launch of the CBS Sports Golazo online channel, to status as a broadcast partner for the NWSL, USL and now U.S. Open Cup, CBS is really the only English-language company out there investing in televising both the domestic and foreign game. The fact that USL audiences are showing genuine growth, even if incrementally so, should be reaffirming to all the focus the company is paying to the domestic game, wheh others like NBC and ESPN have most of theirs abroad. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Editorial StandardsForbes Accolades