2019 USL Championship season
The 2019 USL Championship season is the ninth season of the USL Championship and third under Division II sanctioning. This is the first season in which the league is operating under the name "USL Championship," having used the name "United Soccer League" through 2018. The season began on March 8, 2019, and concluded on October 20, 2019; with each team playing 34 matches. 36 teams competed in the 2019 USL Championship season, split into 2 conferences of 18 teams each. Louisville City FC are the two-time defending USL Cup champions. The 2019 season is the  last for the current version of Nashville SC. The club's identity transferred to a Major League Soccer team that started to play in 2020. Additionally, this season was the last for Ottawa Fury FC. On November 8, the club announced that it had suspended operations; Fury FC had received sanctioning from its country's governing body, Canada Soccer, but was denied by U.S. Soccer and the continental governing body of CONCACAF. Teams. The following teams are playing in the 2019 USL Championship season: Competition format. The season began the weekend of March 8–10 and will conclude the weekend of  October 18–20. The 2019 USL Cup Playoffs are expected to begin October 25–27, and conclude with the final match November 14–18. This is the first season where the USL teams will only play teams within their own conference for regular-season and playoff games until the USL Cup final. Thus, each team will play a balanced home-and-away schedule against each of the other teams in its conference, resulting in a 34-game schedule. Playoffs. Format. The top 10 teams from each conference will qualify for the playoffs. Each conference will have a "play-in round" where the 7  seed will host the 10 seed and the 8 host 9. The lowest remaining seed will then play the 1 seed and the other play-in survivor will play the 2 seed to form an 8 team playoff bracket. Each of the 8 team playoff brackets will consist of teams within their respective conference and the matches will be hosted by the higher seed. The USL Cup will be the season's only match that involves teams from different conferences; it will be hosted by the conference champion with the better regular-season record. USL Championship Final. Championship Game MVP : Konrad Plewa (SLC) Attendance. Average home attendances. Ranked from highest to lowest average attendance.