USLD3: New league set to announce Tormenta FC as first ever club

After a very busy 2017 visiting interested sites across the US, the new third division league, USLD3, is set to reveal its first ever club on Thursday.

Building upon the success of the USL in the second division and their affiliation with the PDL in the fourth division came the announcement of a new third division league. In fact, at the moment, it will be the only third division league in the US. The USLD3 (finally naming TBD), is set to debut in 2019, but the league has an exciting 12 months ahead.

Over the course of 2017, league officials traveled throughout the eastern half of the United States visiting over 20 cities who expressed interest in bringing clubs to the new league.

The first club and start of announcements

During 2018 the league will announce multiple cities participating in the inaugural season, official league branding, structure, schedule, etc. To kick off events, the league is set to announce South Georgia Tormenta FC as the first USL D3 club. The event will be live streamed on Facebook tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET.

Tormenta FC

The club was founded in 2015, playing in the South Atlantic Division of the PDL. Quickly a success with the local community, management led by Darin Van Tassell began to consider ways to expand the organization. In 2017 the club revealed plans to build a new 5,000 seat stadium (D3 requirement) in Statesboro, GA, that could be expanded to 10,000 seats (D2, USL standards).

Expect the club to maintain a side in the PDL, while adding this new USLD3 team. Back in the fall, I spoke with team president Darin Van Tassell to discuss the formation of Tormenta FC and the club’s ambitions as they looked towards the third division.

Future Promotion & Relegation?

Naturally, soccer fans will immediately start thinking ahead about promotion and relegation now that the third division will be filled. While the idea does become more viable considering USL will operate leagues across divisions two through four, that’s getting way too far ahead.

A big component of forming USLD3 was to bridge the gap between USL and PDL, stadium size requirements, budgets, etc. Expect several PDL clubs (like Tormenta FC) to move up and several USL clubs (like some MLS2 sides) to slide down into D3. This will not only allow clubs to better align at the scale they currently wish to operate at, but also help USL reach full compliance across all clubs at the D2 level.

Next: USL: 2018 Schedule and Conference Alignment Set

Check back in about five years once the leagues have stabilized on promotion and relegation considerations. For more on the USLD3, head to www.usld3.com.