United Soccer Coaches: An American soccer institution seeks to rebound after a near-financial collapse

January’s United Soccer Coaches Convention drew more than 7,000 attendees to Chicago, including award winners and their families, presenters, staff and guests.

Of the 4,000 admission-paying attendees (the coaches) more than 1,500 were first-timers.

Among the returnees, many had been coming for decades — in some cases, as far back as the 1960s and 1970s. 

The newcomers at 2025’s “world’s largest gathering of soccer coaches” wouldn’t have noticed subtle signs of something awry, like the generic, unlaminated credential badges, or that the shirts attendees traditionally receive upon check-in didn’t sport the United Soccer Coaches logo.

Nor would they have been in on quiet conversations of concern: that Chicago could be the last Convention. 

The rumors — that United Soccer Coaches was in financial dire straits and this year’s event happened only because U.S. Soccer (headquartered in Chicago) provided financial support — were indeed facts.

United Soccer Coaches launched in 1941 as the NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) — with the mission to: encourage the development of soccer in schools and colleges; better publicize the sport; organize clinics to better teach the sport; enroll more soccer coaches in the NSCAA to better achieve the above goals.

To that it added the honoring of players — All-Americans — coaches, teams and administrators — leading to what’s now more than 10,000 awards annually.

So what went wrong? Why did United Soccer Coaches need to borrow money from U.S. Soccer and its own foundation to host this year’s convention?

How did an organization, which averaged net revenue of $530,000 in the fiscal years 2013-16, based on Form 990 tax filings, end up with losses of $554,300 and $939,400 in 2022 and 2023?  (United Soccer Coaches’ Form 990 tax return for the year ending Aug. 31, 2024, is not available.)

The Chicago Convention ended up a success, from the participants’ points of view and financially.

“Chicago was huge for us, both monetarily and visually,” said United Soccer Coaches treasurer Greg Hubbard. “It’s not going to be the last convention. Philadelphia (January 2026) is already in planning.”

Current membership is more than 8,000, not drastically lower than during peaks in the past, Hubbard said. Requiring coaches to be members for their players to qualify for all-regional and All-American teams, and other awards, helps maintain membership stability. As does the College Services program membership for regional and national rankings. (Membership isn’t required for high school ranking eligibility.)

Membership fees from coaches and convention revenues from attendees and exhibitors are two of United Soccer Coaches’ three main sources of revenue.

The third is fees from coaching education courses. But United Soccer Coaches suffered a severe decrease in revenue from coaching education that stemmed from U.S. Soccer’s decision in 2015 to end its equivalency policy. It had traditionally allowed coaches who had gone through extensive (40-120 hours) NSCAA education to skip lower U.S. Soccer courses.

Heading U.S. Soccer’s coaching education department at the time was German Jurgen Klinsmann during his tenure as men’s national team coach and technical director.

The two organizations had previously worked somewhat cooperatively in coaching education, and it was common for the nation’s top coaches to be involved in both organizations. Among those who criticized the federation’s move was World Cup and Olympic-winning coach Tony DiCicco.

Coaches with comprehensive NSCAA credentials now had to re-start at the bottom of U.S. Soccer’s licensing pathway. And United Soccer Coaches, no matter how appealing its menu of courses, lost the coaches who realized only U.S. Soccer licenses qualified them for the most lucrative club jobs in their profession, while NSCAA diplomas had no U.S. Soccer prerequisite value. The Federation even began requiring its “B” license for coaching the very young age groups at elite clubs. 

At its height, in the tax year ending Aug. 31, 2013, United Soccer Coaches’ education revenues were $2,402,704. By the tax year ending Aug. 31, 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic, they had fallen to less than $1 million, and for the tax year ending Aug. 31, 2023, they were $463,880. There are, of course, corresponding expenses related to the education programs, but the revenue picture reflects a dramatically changing business.

Covid caused the cancellation of the in-person 2021 convention scheduled for Anaheim, California. United Soccer Coaches, which pulled off a virtual convention in January 2021, received Covid-relief funds, but was obligated to hold its 2024 convention in Anaheim under the terms of a long-term agreement to rotate the convention in five major cities.

West Coast conventions draw lower crowds and the United Soccer Coaches lost money on the Anaheim convention at the worst possible time, following consecutive years with heavy financial losses. It could no longer afford to maintain its entire staff of 25-30 employees at its Kansas City headquarters. Many were laid off or their positions weren’t filled.

By mid-2024, the only hope of the venerable association surviving would be to pull off the hosting of the 2025 convention — and then plot a way forward.

It was in 1956 when the NSCAA’s “annual meetings” in New York City became “conventions.” In 1963, Max Doss set up a table with goods from his Upper East Side soccer store. In 1974, the NSCAA Convention moved to Boston, its first convention outside of New York City, and began its tradition of moving to various venues, with Chicago hosting in 1975.

The convention’s commercial part, which in the early years consisted of the shoes, balls and gear that Doss displayed, grew magnificently into large exhibition halls. The 2020 Baltimore convention had 263 exhibitors.

The convention norm became 200-plus sessions, hundreds of meetings and 30-plus meal/social functions, as Tim Schum describes in his 2022 book, “Relentless: The Story of American Soccer and the Coaches Who Helped Grow the Game Paperback.” The number of participants hit the 10,000-14,000 range. For many years, Major League Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League held their college drafts in conjunction with the convention, drawing soccer fans and media.

Future Convention Sites
2026 Philadelphia
2027 Kansas City
2028 Baltimore
2029 Anaheim
2030 Philadelphia
2031 Chicago
2032 Baltimore

Enabling grassroots coaches to attend sessions conducted by famous coaches and soccer luminaries, domestic and international, has also been a major convention attraction. 

I can count up to 17 World Cup coaches I met at conventions, including five winners.

In Chicago, Emma Hayes, the USWNT’s gold-medal winning coach, presented to an SRO audience. She started by stating that her experience at the 2002 United Soccer Coaches Convention “guided me my entire career.” 

Late on the final night in Chicago, I heard rumors of better news — including that only half the money borrowed was spent. 

Five weeks later, I spoke with Hubbard and vice president Mike Lynch, who’s set to become United Soccer Coaches’ next president.

“Last summer we were certainly confronted with a financial crisis that put the Chicago convention at risk, as well as the viability of the association,” Lynch said. “We approached U.S. Soccer, ‘Is there any way you can help us out here?’ They were able to do that to get us through.

“It looks like we’re going to get on the other side, which is good, but we’re still in a very hiring-freeze kind of mode, watching every penny. That’s the reason why we are restructuring the board, because we felt there was an urgent need to change our governance to be more effective.”

The restructuring is designed to create a new United Soccer Coaches board with directors who have “very specific experiences and resumes … to help us control our national office staff costs, picking up some of that labor while certainly providing value to our members,” Lynch said.

U.S. Soccer’s support in the form of a line of credit, loans to be paid back with interest, has ensured a 2026 convention.

“The loan is still out there,” Hubbard said. “We’ve made payments against it, so it’s coming down. … There will be future discussions [with U.S. Soccer]. … We’re working to figure out where do we need to be inside the soccer landscape. That may include partnerships and agreements with other organizations inside the soccer landscape, but all those things are still to be determined.”

Hubbard added, “The good news is we’re current on everything. [The Chicago convention] gave us the ability to pick our head up, take a breath and start to look forward again knowing that we’ve got some stability again. So the organization is in much better standing than it was a year ago.”

In the summer of 2024, Lynch said the staff was reduced to half, but, “hats off to them, working their tails off, managed the entire awards cycle – all the All-American teams and everything.” The Kansas City staff today consists of about 10 full-time employees.

Lynch said it’s normal for businesses and organizations to be challenged with reinventing themselves, and that United Soccer Coaches overcame financial challenges in the past. 

“We feel like we’re in a fairly stable position,” he said. “We’re still reconciling and evaluating what it looks like between here and beyond Philadelphia.”

Follow Us

• Facebook
• X