MLS Withdraws 1st Teams from 2024 U.S. Open Cup; Will Send Reserve Sides

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Major League Soccer announced that the league will not enter its teams into the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, according to ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura.

The league will enter teams from MLS Next Pro into the country’s oldest soccer tournament instead, which serves as a developmental league for the MLS. The U.S. Open Cup is open to both professional and amateur clubs throughout the country and has been held nearly every year since 1914, with brief absences in 2020 and 2021. The Houston Dynamo won the most recent final, defeating Inter Miami on Sept. 27 by the score of 2-1.

MLS commissioner Don Garber has expressed his negative views regarding the tournament in the past, as not all matches are available to be broadcast and are often played on subpar fields.

“I would say that they’re not games that we would want our product to be shown to a large audience,” Garber said in May, per ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle. “So frankly, I’m not all that disappointed that the audience is small. So I appreciate the enthusiasm about it, but we need to get better with the U.S. Open Cup. It’s just not the proper reflection of what soccer in America at the professional level needs to be.”

A determination regarding the league’s future involvement will be made at the end of the 2024 season after MLS Next Pro teams are entered into the Open Cup. However, the MLS released a statement that didn’t completely rule out involvement in the future.

“In recent months, the MLS sporting and competition group has been collaborating with U.S. Soccer to shape the future role of MLS teams in the Open Cup,” the league said in the statement (via Bonagura). “MLS remains committed to working with the federation to evolve and elevate the Open Cup for everyone involved in the years ahead.”

In recent years, MLS teams the were in the tournament had already begun fielding reserve sides in the early rounds.