TAMPA, Fla. – The USL Championship today announced its 2024 schedule, with the league’s 14th set to kick off on Saturday, March 9 with a nine-match slate.  Each team will play 34 matches in the quest for spots in the 2024 USL Championship Playoffs. The full 408-game regular season unfolds over 34 weeks and concludes on Oct. 26. 

Great rivalries, rising stars, and compelling storylines have the USL Championship primed for a third straight year of attendance growth after drawing more than 2.3 million fans through the gates in 2023.   

This year, expansion side Rhode Island FC embarks on its inaugural season as a club, led by Head Coach Khano Smith. North Carolina FC returns to the Championship after exercising its option to move up from USL League One, where the club played three seasons, including its 2023 title-winning campaign. 

The USL also announced today that Rio Grande Valley FC has ceased operations. Founded in 2015 as a development team for MLS club Houston Dynamo FC, RGV FC was granted permission in 2021 to remain in the USL Championship, provided it continued to meet all league and federation requirements. 

To maintain two 12-team conferences, Memphis 901 FC and FC Tulsa will move to the Western Conference this season. (See format & conference alignment below) 

• VIEW IN FULL: The Full 2024 USL Championship Schedule 

• READ MORE: 15 games to circle in the 2024 USL Championship regular season 

The 2024 USL Championship season will mark the first in the league’s new historic four-year broadcast agreement with CBS Sports, through which USL Championship contests will air on network television for the first time. More details on the 2024 national broadcast schedule and broadcast partners will be announced in the coming weeks. 

Among the early season marquee matches are:  

• March 9: North Carolina FC rekindles its rivalry with neighboring Charleston Battery, winners of the 2023 Eastern Conference crown.  

• March 9: 2023 USL Championship title winner Phoenix Rising FC begins its defense against 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinalist Birmingham Legion FC. 

• March 16: Rhode Island FC fans experience the club’s historic debut as New Mexico United comes to Beirne Stadium in Smithfield, R.I. 

• April 6: If you don’t know the LIPAFC rivalry, just watch Louisville City FC vs. Indy Eleven – then you’ll know. 

The season will conclude with a full slate of 12 games on Saturday, October 26, which will feature a blockbuster interconference clash as Louisville City FC hosts Phoenix Rising FC at Lynn Family Stadium. Additionally on the final day of the regular season, the Tampa Bay Rowdies will play host to Indy Eleven and Sacramento Republic FC will face Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC in what could be crucial in-conference matchups.

SCHEDULE FORMAT AND CONFERENCE ALIGNMENTS 

The 2024 USL Championship season will see the league divided into an Eastern and Western Conference with 12 teams in each conference. Each club will play its fellow conference opponents in a home-and-home series for 22 games, and then play each of the 12 teams from the opposing conference – six games at home, six away – to make up the 34-game schedule. 

2024 USL Championship Conference Alignment 

2024 USL Championship Playoffs 

At the conclusion of the regular season, the top eight teams in each conference will qualify for the 2024 USL Championship Playoffs, which will kick off on the weekend of November 1-3, 2024.  

The USL Championship Playoffs will remain a single-elimination format and a fixed bracket format. The postseason will culminate in the 2024 USL Championship Final on CBS on a to-be determined date between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25, 2024.