Can Long Island support 2 minor league soccer teams in crowded NY market? Sports business experts weigh in.

John Meindl, a self-described "lifelong soccer guy" and a professor of sport management at Farmingdale State College, praised the "powerful' ownership groups behind the two minor-league soccer teams coming to Long Island and believes the teams can co-exist in a crowded New York sports market.

Last month, president and co-founder Sara Whalen Hess and principal owner and co-founder Glenn Schneider announced the launch of USL Long Island — a working title for the team that will debut in March 2028.

That news came just 10 months after chairman Mitchell Rechler, managing partner Peter Zaratin and partner Fred Popp introduced The Island F.C., an independent team that will debut in July 2027 and compete in MLS Next Pro, the professional development league of Major League Soccer.

The two new professional teams are similar in many regards. They will play within a few miles of each other — The Island F.C. at a new modular stadium at Mitchel Athletic Complex and USL Long Island at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium. They sit in the same third tier of the U.S. soccer pyramid, though MLS and the USL are different entities. And they will debut within a year of each other.

The similarities beg the question: Can Long Island support two minor-league soccer teams?

“It's not a Coke or Pepsi type thing,” Meindl said. “I think there's certainly enough to go around. For me, just from where I sit, I want them both to thrive and I think it's good for the Island. It's good for the game.”

Meindl, a former soccer player and coach, cites the strong ownership groups as to why it could work. Meindl said he "can't say enough"  about Rechler, Zaratin and Popp, whom he called a “sport-branding genius.”

He also spoke highly of Whalen Hess and Schneider, praising Whalen Hess’ incredible soccer pedigree — she helped lead the U.S. women’s soccer team to the 1999 World Cup title — and Schneider’s network as the CEO of SUSA FC, the Central Islip-based soccer academy that is the largest on the Island.

Sab Singh, an associate professor in Farmingdale State’s sport management program, hopes to see Long Island rally around both teams — and perhaps see both teams support each other despite being competitors.

“I definitely think there's a great soccer culture on Long Island, and I think these two teams can help reignite some of that,” Singh said.

Robert Boland, a sports law professor at Seton Hall Law School, noted the challenge of the proximity between the two teams. He wondered how each plans on differentiating themselves and not canceling each other out.

Connecting with the fans

Several minor-league teams have come and gone on Long Island over the years, and Boland recognized two main reasons why minor-league teams fail. The first: They failed to identify and connect with a distinct fan base in their community. The second: They were too competitive in trying to compete with the major-league product.

Singh echoed Boland’s first point, saying that community engagement has to be at the forefront for these teams to be successful.

“It is very much of letting people know that you exist,” Singh said. “It's the essence of marketing. They can't really consume your product unless they know you're there.”

The Island F.C. did that in the summer with the World Cup, partnering with Nassau County to host three watch parties that thousands attended. President of business operations Travis Lamprecht said in July that they ultimately were successful in terms of taking season-ticket deposits, selling merchandise and getting newsletter sign-ups.

USL Long Island is in the same boat. Upon the team’s launch last month, Whalen Hess said her top objective is to get out into the community beyond soccer and asking: “How can we help? What do you need?”

Meindl wondered how the new teams will fare with the teams at the highest level. He mentioned NYCFC’s new stadium, Etihad Park, that will open next to Citi Field in July 2027 and make MLS matches easier to attend for Long Islanders.

“There's always — for what we've seen on Long Island — it's teams playing in the shadows of, or sports playing in the shadows of, bigger professional franchises, like in the case of the NFL,” Meindl said. “But today there's a market for minor-league sports, right? When you think about the major leagues, the NFL and others, I mean, the average sport fan has been priced out of it.”

A robust market

The New York sports marketplace is vast, and the soccer marketplace is getting more crowded. NYCFC and the Red Bulls are in MLS, Gotham FC is in the NWSL and also will play at Etihad Park, Brooklyn FC in the second-tier USL Championship, and the New York Cosmos (who are in New Jersey) and Westchester FC play in USL League One.

Singh said one of the biggest challenges that the new teams could face is having “the mindset that they have to be wildly successful in year one and year two.”

“They want to start off strong, no doubt,” he added. “But I think one of the things that I see being a challenge sometimes in sports when they're evaluating, whether we're evaluating teams, leagues, even companies, is are they hitting a home run in their first year?

“To be fair, I think you got to kind of give them a little bit of time to develop.”

Singh said the energy and money that is going into improving both MLS and the USL — the USL is planning to implement promotion and relegation in 2028 — can be a differentiator for these teams compared with previous minor-league franchises that haven’t been successful.

And, at the end of the day, there’s a belief that Long Island is the right place — and this is the right time — for these teams to thrive.

“This is a way for soccer to also kind of reestablish itself as, for me,” Singh said, “the preeminent sport, participation sport at least, on Long Island.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.