The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional soccer league in the United States that began play in 2011.

[3] On September 8, 2010, the United Soccer Leagues formally announced the creation of USL Pro in a press release.

[5] With the departure of the Portland Timbers to MLS in 2011 and the defection of the Puerto Rico Islanders to the NASL[6] from USL-1, the Austin Aztex were the only remaining USL-1 team not yet a part of USL Pro.

On September 22, 2010, the "Caribbean Division" of USL Pro was announced, with teams from Puerto Rico and Antigua and Barbuda signing on to compete in the league.

The two division playoff winners met in the USL Pro Championship at the home venue of the team with the better record.

New York would not be returning to play, with the former National and American Divisions being dissolved to form a single, eleven-team league table.

While the 2013 season would feature partnered competitions between USL Pro and MLS Reserve teams, four Major League Soccer clubs opted to affiliate with an existing USL Pro team, agreeing to loan at least four MLS players to their affiliate: Sporting Kansas City with Orlando City SC, the Philadelphia Union with the Harrisburg City Islanders, D.C. United with the Richmond Kickers and the New England Revolution with the Rochester Rhinos.

USL Pro nearly doubled the number of teams in the league for 2015 in large part due to MLS franchises following the path taken by the LA Galaxy II.

These MLS franchises joined four independent expansion teams that were previously announced for Colorado Springs, St. Louis, Tulsa, and Austin.

[63] On February 9, 2015, FC Dallas announced it would add Arizona United SC as its USL Pro affiliate.

The 25th franchise was awarded to Lone Star, LLC and the team would be named Rio Grande Valley FC.

Floods damaging House Park midway through the 2015 season forced the team to relocate to a high school facility.

[80] On October 25, 2016, the USL added two teams from the North American Soccer League (NASL): the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Ottawa Fury FC.

[82] On August 31, 2016, Kyle Eng sold his majority share of Arizona United SC to an investment group led by Berke Bakay and was rebranded as Phoenix Rising FC.

[83][84][85] Ivory Coast Soccer Legend Didier Drogba later purchased a share of the team and played the final two seasons of his career there.

[111] The league also approved several other expansion locations in Austin,[112] Birmingham,[113] Memphis,[114][115] Chicago,[116][117] Oakland East Bay, Hartford,[118] Albuquerque,[119] El Paso,[120] Loudoun County, Virginia,[121] and San Diego.

A spokesperson for SLFC told Sports Illustrated in August 2020, "The ownership decided that with the financial impact of COVID-19 and MLS on the horizon, it didn't make sense to continue operations.

[134] On December 2, 2021, Charlotte Independence decided to drop down to the third tier USL League One for 2022, with the goal of better serving its youth players, as well as the fact that a new expansion franchise in the city Charlotte FC was joining Major League Soccer that season, with whom several Independence players had signed for.

[135][136] On December 3, 2021, Oklahoma City Energy FC announced that it would temporarily suspend soccer operations and would not compete in the 2022 USL Championship season.

[137] The decision came after Energy FC's home field at Taft Stadium, which is owned and operated by the Oklahoma City Public Schools, would undergo major renovations that directly overlap with the 2022 USL Championship season and will resume play for the 2023 USL Championship season in its temporary home at Taft Stadium.

[138] This came after OKC Energy FC reached an historic agreement only roughly a month earlier renewing their lease with the school district for Taft Stadium.

[139] After OKC announced that they would impose another hiatus for the 2023 USL Championship season, they have since come out with a new majority ownership group, Echo Investment Capital that would build a stadium in Bricktown with part of the money reserved from the city's MAPS 4 penny tax initiative, with plans to return for the 2027 USL Championship season.

[152] On August 24, 2023, San Diego Loyal ownership announced that the team would shut down at the end of the season due to an inability to find a "viable near- and long-term stadium solution".

[158] On March 7, 2024, it was announced that Brooklyn FC, originally vying for a spot in League One, would instead move their efforts to try to get a team in the Championship by 2025, along with getting their women's side to play in the inaugural USL Super League season in 2024, both playing at Maimonides Park, the home also to baseball's Brooklyn Cyclones.

[250] Beginning with the launch of ESPN+ on April 12, 2018, all USL matches moved to the over-the-top service, with 18 games of the week and the championship continuing to air on one of ESPN's linear channels.

Although the ESPN+ match streams are not blacked out in-market, individual clubs are also allowed to syndicate the USL-produced broadcast to local television stations.

[252] The English-language commentary team for the USL Championship on ESPN has included Mike Watts and Devon Kerr since 2018.

[259] This broke the USL Pro's previous record for attendance at a regular-season match of 20,231 set by Sacramento Republic in its home debut on April 26, 2014, at Hughes Stadium.

[262] Cincinnati broke the regular season record again on August 5, 2017, at Nippert Stadium, drawing 25,308 against Orlando City B.

[263] Cincinnati broke the record once more in their final home regular season game as a USL team on September 29, 2018, drawing 31,478 versus Indy Eleven.