Mostly known for its prominence in college football and basketball, Hawkeye state will now welcome its latest sports addition. Now, fans in Des Moines, Iowa, will also have a soccer team to root for, as the USL Championship will welcome their still unnamed team.
Notably, it’s been a couple of years since Kyle Krause and the Krause Group got the nod and the vote of confidence for this project. But even though the team has yet to make its debut and will still need to wait a little longer, it’s finally a reality:
“It’s an exciting day for the USL Championship,” said USL CEO Alec Papadakis. “Iowa has a rich soccer history, and Pro Iowa will bring a long-awaited national and international spotlight to Des Moines. Kyle Krause’s longtime commitment to the game, the community, and the USL is without equal.
He is the very best person to bring professional soccer to Iowa, and the new Pro Iowa Stadium will be a crown jewel not just for the USL, but for soccer in the United States. Krause Group’s experience operating soccer clubs here and in Europe will help this new franchise become a source of great pride for the people of Des Moines and the state of Iowa.”
Des Moines Gets Another Team
Krause also showed his excitement for bringing the fourth Minor League team to the city, as they also have the Iowa Wolves of the G-League, which are affiliated to the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, Iowa Cubs (affiliated to MLB’s Chicago Cubs), and Iowa Wild (AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild).
“This announcement has been years in the making,” said Kyle Krause. “We’re thrilled to bring a new professional soccer club here with USL. This is a great opportunity to add another enticing benefit to living in central Iowa. We are excited to showcase Des Moines on a national and international stage. We could not have done this without the foundation laid by Iowa’s soccer community. The support for and success of the Menace has been a key factor in creating the right environment to support a USL Championship club.”
Getting To Know The USL
For those who don’t follow the USL Championship Soccer, it’s the second-tier soccer tournament in the nation, sitting just below Major League Soccer (MLS) and featuring 28 clubs.
It also features the USL League One and USL League Two, which are the lower tiers of the tournament. Also, there are the USL Super and USL W for women’s leagues. You can find here more information on how to bet on the USL and MLS games in Iowa.
The USL campaign usually runs from March through October, featuring a 32-game regular season. The 28 clubs are divided into two conferences (Eastern and Western), and each club faces every conference rival twice per regular season, facing inter-conference rivals in the remainder of the schedule.
Then, depending on seeding, the top seven teams from each conference will advance to the USL Cup Playoffs, with the best team from each conference getting a first-round bye. Then, all teams are re-seeded again after the quarterfinal matchups.
The USL Cup Playoffs are played as single-elimination games, with the conference champion with the best regular-season record later hosting the USL Cup. Notably, since the league’s inception in 2011, no team has won more regular-season titles than Orlando City (3), with them and Louisville City FC holding the record for the most championships (2).
Also, San Antonio FC is the reigning champion as of 2022, so it’s evident that the soon-to-be-named Iowa team will have to fight its way to the top, but at least they can always count on the Hawkeye state’s diehard fans to be by their side.