Fire First Team Will Not Participate in U.S. Open Cup; Fire II to participate in Chicago Derby
The United States Soccer Federation announced changes to the U.S. Open Cup format for 2024. As had been rumored, MLS participation in the tournament is being severely curtailed in 2024, and only eight MLS first teams will participate, not including the Fire.
The other 11 U.S.-based MLS teams who did not qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup will instead send their MLS Next Pro squads, starting in the competition’s first round, while second-division USL Championship teams will enter in the second round and MLS first teams will enter in the Round of 32.
Every first round matchup will pit a professional team, whether from MLS Next Pro, USL League one or NISA, against an amateur team, a change from the most recent tournament format in a move designed to boost the profile of the matchups for amateur sides. MenInRed97 has learned that Chicago Fire II will host Chicago City SC, in the second Chicago Derby pitting a professional team against an amateur one in as many years; Chicago House AC are slated to face Minnesota United's MLS Next Pro team in the first round. First round games are scheduled to be played between Tuesday, March 19 and Thursday, March 21, just a few days after the first MLS Next Pro matches of the season on March 15.
The eight MLS teams participating are the Houston Dynamo FC, as reigning champions, and then the top seven U.S.-based teams in MLS that did not qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, based on their finish in the 2023 regular season standings.
Those teams are Atlanta United, FC Dallas, Los Angeles FC, Real Salt Lake, the San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders and Sporting Kansas City. The Sounders and Sporting Kansas City are, along with the Fire, the only four-time winners of the Cup from MLS. The Sounders and Sporting Kansas City will both have a good chance of becoming the first team from the league to win the Cup a fifth time, an opportunity now not afforded to the Fire.
D.C. United, who do not have a MLS Next Pro squad and were not amongst the top finishers in the league last season, will not participate in the tournament at all.
In a statement, U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson made it clear that this format will be specific to the 2024 edition of the tournament.
The changes come at a time of unique schedule constraints on men's soccer in the United States: With the country set to host Copa América this summer, the Club World Cup in 2025 and the men’s World Cup alongside Canada and México in 2026, the schedule crunch is acute. MLS Commissioner Don Garber has acknowledged that the league will have to pause for a portion, if not all, of the World Cup Tournament in 2026, making that year even more challenging than 2024.
Sources familiar with the thinking of U.S. Soccer leadership have said that the federation’s goals are to find a format that could be agreed upon during these years with an eye towards creating an exciting format after those scheduling challenges have passed, with a goal of ensuring the U.S. Open Cup’s viability during the schedule crunch.
MenInRed97 has been told that the new format will be married with a new financial model for the participating teams, designed to ensure that every team in Cup competition breaks even or makes money as a result of their participation, something that has not always been the case.
In a press release describing the new format, the U.S. Soccer Federation noted several new commercial partners for the Cup, as well as “significantly increased travel reimbursement.” MenInRed97 can confirm that includes travel reimbursement to amateur teams during qualifying rounds, a first for the history of the tournament.
Still, the format changes will undoubtedly be a disappointment to many Fire fans and players, who have long treasured the team’s storied history in the Cup. Sources familiar with league deliberations at the December vote that initially called MLS participation in the Cup into question have told MenInRed97 that the vote by team owners was contentious, and the result was not entirely expected, something not typically the case in those situations. MenInRed97 can confirm that the Fire were amongst the teams who wished to continue first team participation in the Cup, however, now they will not have the chance to participate regardless. Furthermore, Major League Soccer did not inform teams whether they would be participating (and for those that are, whether participation would be in the form of their first team or Next Pro squad) until the past few days, which may create roster issues for some Next Pro squads.
After the league's vote was announced last year, Garber cited schedule congestion as the reason to send Next Pro teams instead of MLS first teams, but it is far from obvious that reducing schedule congestion will result in better league results: In 2023, the Fire were 1W-2D-1L following their Open Cup games, slightly (if insignificantly) above their average across the season on a points-per-game basis, while the team lost its next six matches following a 16 day break after being eliminated in the Leagues Cup, failing to score in five of those contests.
It remains unclear how the 2024 tournament format is compatible with the U.S. Soccer Federation’s Professional Licensing Standards which state that all teams in a Division I Men’s Outdoor League must participate in “all representative U.S. Soccer and CONCACAF competitions for which they are eligible,” given that MLS Next Pro teams compete in a separately-licensed, lower-division league.
With the exception of the Houston Dynamo, MLS teams in CONCACAF Champions Cup competition are not participating in the Open Cup via either their first or MLS Next Pro teams, and D.C. United is not participating in continental or Open Cup competition at all.
It is expected that the first round matchups, including the Chicago Fire II’s amateur opponent, will be announced in the coming days.
