Changes are coming to amateur soccer this year, or so fans have been told for the last decade.

Every year leagues make promises of new approaches, better consolidation, more effective structuring, but general things have remained the same. But 2025 may be different.

Announced in July 2024, The League for Clubs is preparing to launch this year as a brand new amateur league. But while the name might be new, the league is full of clubs that are household names in the amateur game. Tulsa Athletic, Kingston Stockade, Napa Valley 1839, and close to 50 other clubs are set to help launch the new League, with plans to reshape the way amateur soccer has been run in this country.

The League was founded by some well-known soccer operators including Sonny Dalesandro (Tulsa) and Dennis Crowley (Kingston). After years of operating within other leagues, the time felt right to make the jump to founding their own league. Crowley is hoping to change the way leagues are run, allowing members to bring new ideas in and see what is possible through cooperation. “When you create something new, it’s a canvas for everyone to bring their ideas to. It’s a fundamental change for us and we want transparency, openness, and partnership.”

For backing, The League is running under the umbrella of the WPSL, which has operated in the women’s amateur soccer game for close to 30 years. Founded in 1998 by soccer icon Jerry Zanelli, the WPSL is now led by President Sean Jones. He admitted that the idea of being involved with a men’s league was not part of his plans. “I literally got up at our annual meetings and said ‘We will never have anything to do with a men’s league.’”

But after Tulsa Athletic was suspended for an entire season in 2024, the Tulsa-based Jones started talking with Dalesandro. The Tulsa Athletic co-founder expressed that he was impressed with the way the WPSL was doing things – keeping costs low, managing travel costs – and tried to talk Jones into the idea of men’s soccer.

“The conversation went on for a while, then the founders got on the phone with me so I could hear them out. After that phone call, I said, ‘If we’re going to do this, we’re not taking a single member of our staff from the women’s side. We’ll clone what we’re doing and find great people to take what we’re doing in the WPSL and duplicate it.’”

One of those great people is Jones’ son-in-law, Casey Cantor, who’s worked for almost a decade in the front office of FC Dallas. He’s now a member of The League’s board of directors, helping shape the league as it progresses towards kickoff. However, he’s quick to credit the founders, all of whom are soccer operators at the amateur level with setting the tone early on.

“The experience they bring is what will set us apart from other leagues,” said Cantor. “The work they’ve done from the beginning has helped us gain traction early on.”

According to Cantor, The League should launch in 2025 with over 50 clubs, in 3 or 4 regions (there’s still many moving parts as the season nears). That would still leave The League smaller than the other two major operating leagues in the amateur space, the NPSL and the UPSL, but leadership is working to fill the map in ways that benefit member clubs, reducing travel costs.

One of the more interesting part of The League’s long-term plans is partnerships with existing regional premier leagues.