List of soccer clubs in the United States
This is a list of soccer clubs in the United States. For clarity, teams based outside the United States that play in USSF-recognized leagues are also listed below, with their home country noted. Men's soccer clubs. Five professional leagues of soccer teams are sanctioned by the Professional Division of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF or U.S. Soccer). The top-level league is Major League Soccer (MLS) and the second level is the USL Championship. The third level leagues are USL League One, the National Independent Soccer Association and MLS  Next Pro. The USL Championship and USL League One are operated by the United Soccer League, which also operates the semi-professional USL League Two. Major League Soccer (MLS). As of 2022, MLS has 28 clubs. Charlotte FC joined the league in 2022 and St. Louis City SC is scheduled to join in 2023. Sacramento Republic FC had intended to join MLS in 2023, but its MLS bid was placed on indefinite hold after the team's lead investor Ron Burkle pulled out of the deal. USL Championship. The United Soccer League is the parent organization for the USL Championship  (USSF Division II), USL League One (applied for USSF Division III sanctioning), USL League Two, and the youth Super Y-League. National Independent Soccer Association. Launched in 2019, NISA is a USSF third division league independent from USL. Women's soccer clubs. National Women's Soccer League. As of the current 2022 season, the National Women's Soccer League has 12 clubs. Former commissioner Jeff Plush announced that the league planned to expand to 14 teams by 2020. At the time, Plush suggested that the league was in varying stages of talks with a dozen different potential expansion groups, including  some from MLS organizations. In April 2016, MLS commissioner Don Garber stated that half of MLS teams could be running National Women's Soccer League teams in the near future. In May 2017, FC Barcelona announced that it had approved a plan to launch an expansion team in the league as soon as 2018, but those plans have yet to materialize. The league's most recent expansion took place in 2021, with a new team in Louisville, Kentucky starting play as Racing Louisville FC. Two teams are set to start play in 2022–Angel City FC in Los Angeles and  San Diego Wave FC in San Diego. The San Diego team had originally been announced for Sacramento, California, but was placed on indefinite hold due to the issues surrounding the city's attempted MLS bid. The NWSL and the backers of the Sacramento bid then shifted their focus to San Diego, and on June 8, 2021, the NWSL officially announced that the San Diego team would start play in 2022 with former United States women's national soccer team head coach Jill Ellis as president.