As of the 2025 MLS season, the league will have 30 teams — 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, with the addition of San Diego FC.
MLS began play in 1996, its creation a requirement by FIFA for awarding the United States the right to host the 1994 World Cup.
[6] Nate Silver of the ESPN-owned website FiveThirtyEight has argued that there is a case to be made for the inclusion of MLS in the major professional sports leagues of North America.
The most popular sports league in Canada, and widely followed across the northern U.S., the NHL has expanded southward in recent decades to attempt to gain a more national following in the United States, in cities such as Dallas, Miami, Nashville, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Raleigh, and Tampa, with varying success.
These leagues usually lack TV contracts for popular network TV or mainstream cable channels, draw more modest attendance, and generally pay significantly lower salaries than the major sports leagues.
The first season of Major League Rugby began in May 2018 with seven teams ranging from the Pacific Northwest to the Southwest.
The top four teams make the playoffs for a spot in the final, the winner receives the American Championship Shield.
At the top of the United States league system, it is the country's primary competition for women's soccer.
[23] Following the 2017 season, the league dropped to 9 teams following the demise of two charter members, one of which was replaced by a new franchise.
The league originally uses a competitive model that radically differs from those of other U.S. professional leagues—its eight teams play a tour-based schedule.
Starting in 2024, the teams were aligned into Eastern and Western conferences, and the regular-season schedule was expanded to 10 games.
After the PHF's 2022–23 season, the league was purchased by a group led by investor Mark Walter and tennis great Billie Jean King, and was shut down to make way for the PWHL.
Many teams, such as the Minnesota Whitecaps, operated independently to give women a place to keep playing after their college careers.
[26] It later added the Whitecaps for the 2018–19 season, the Toronto Six for 2020–21, and the Montreal Force for 2022–23, and adopted the Premier Hockey Federation name starting in 2021–22.
The CWHL began paying its players a stipend in 2017 to compete with the NWHL, based largely off its expansion into China.
[27] The CWHL ceased operations in 2019 citing that the two leagues could not coexist, splitting the potential sponsorship revenue, and still be financially feasible.
Due to these conditions, over 200 players released a joint statement announcing their intent to not participate in any North American professional league for the 2019–20 season.
[30] Members of the PWHPA hold tournaments in various locations in support of their cause for a creating a fully professional women's league.
Currently the WNBA is one of two fully professional women's sports leagues operating in North America.
Founded in 1996 and beginning play in the 1997 season, it is the longest-running active American professional women's sport league in history.
[17] As WNBA attendance has fallen, both the Atlanta Dream and Washington Mystics have moved from arenas seating over 18,000 to ones with less than 5,000; the New York Liberty made a similar move, but had planned to return to an NBA arena in 2020 after being purchased by an NBA team owner[34] (said return was delayed to 2021 due to COVID-19).
It declared bankruptcy and shut down after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to prematurely end its inaugural season.
The USFL and XFL merged after their 2023 seasons to form the current United Football League.
The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league with teams across the United States and two franchises in Canada.
The AHL and the ECHL are the only minor leagues recognized by the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the National Hockey League Players' Association, meaning any player signed to an entry-level NHL contract and designated for assignment must report to a club in either the ECHL or the AHL.
The highest level of minor league baseball, Triple-A, features high level major league prospects almost ready to join the majors playing in large cities without MLB franchises, while each successively lower class (Double-A, High-A, Low-A, and Rookie) features players with correspondingly less experience and, generally, playing in smaller markets.
The league began its regional draft process in late-August 2020, and a series of exhibition games in September 2020.
The NBA created this team as an alternative to college basketball for elite high school prospects.
The USL Championship is a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada that began its inaugural season in 2011.
In the 2023 season, all US-based MLS teams except D.C. United will field their reserve sides in Next Pro.