North Carolina FC soccer club to rejoin USL Championship league in 2024
The Triangle’s top men’s soccer team is once again stepping up its level of competition..
North Carolina FC, which plays its home games out of WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary and has been playing in USL League 1 since 2021, announced Monday morning it will exercise its option to elevate to USL Championship beginning next season, in 2024.
USL Championship is the top level of the United Soccer League’s men’s soccer pathway, featuring 24 teams in 2023, and is sanctioned as a Division II league by U.S. Soccer. NCFC previously competed in Championship from 2018 through 2020 before team owner Steve Malik announced in 2021 the club would step down to USL League 1, a Division III league that had its inaugural season in 2019.
After three years of steady growth in League 1, the club is returning to Division II.
“We are incredibly excited to compete in USL Championship once again,” Malik said in a release Monday. “This league has world-class talent across the country, and we are thrilled to be able to bring even higher-level soccer to the Triangle. We have extremely passionate and savvy sports fans in our area that demand competitive excellence from their teams. We hope that by returning to a league that is well established and highly respected, both nationally and abroad, our community will be excited to support our team and embrace this new challenge with us.”
With the addition of North Carolina FC and expansion side Rhode Island FC, USL Championship is expected to have 26 teams in 2024, with Charleston Battery, Loudoun United, Louisville City FC and Memphis 901 FC being the closest, geographically, to the Triangle.
“For us, this is the perfect time to move up to the USL Championship. We’ve made sweeping upgrades to our front office infrastructure while growing out of the pandemic and we feel confident we’re in a place to compete at this level, both on the field and organizationally. We owe it to our fans and community to deliver the best possible product while ensuring the stability and viability of the club for the future,” club president Francie Gottsegen said.
NCFC history
NCFC traces its roots to the birth of the Carolina RailHawks, which began play in the USL in 2007. That team was an immediate player in the U.S. soccer landscape, winning the 2007 Southern Derby Cup with one match remaining in the contest. The RailHawks finished their first USL season in eighth place in the league table, securing the league’s final playoff spot on the last day of the regular season.
Beginning in 2009, the RailHawks worked with several other clubs in North American to form the NASL, a move that divided the elite soccer community, spawned lawsuits from rival leagues, and split the allegiance of the U.S. Soccer Federation and Canadian Soccer Association. A year later, the NASL and USL officially split, and by 2012 the NASL received full sanctioning from the USSF.
In the meantime, the RailHawks were sold to Traffic Sports USA.
In 2013, the NASL moved to a split-season schedule, but the Railhawks continued their strong play in other national and international competitions. They defeated MLS teams LA Galaxy and Chivas USA to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup. In 2014, the RailHawks again defeated Chivas USA and the Galaxy to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup, despite falling short of reaching the NASL playoffs.
Malik purchased the franchise in 2015, and in 2016 the club hosted West Ham United at WakeMed. West Ham became the first Premier League team to visit the Triangle region of North Carolina. The game ended in a 2–2 draw in front of a record-breaking crowd of more than 10,000.
In 2017, Malik announced the team was leaving the NASL and rejoining the USL, where it began competition at the Championship level. The club made the playoffs in 2019. But, in 2021, in the throes of the pandemic, Malik decided NCFC would drop a level to play in USL League 1.
NCFC made its League 1 debut in the 2021 season and finished among the bottom teams in the league as it restructured itself under new leadership. In 2022, NCFC climbed to the middle of the pack in the USL League 1 standings, and in 2023 NCFC is 11-4-4 through 19 matches — approximately two-thirds of the season — and is in first place.
This story was originally published August 7, 2023 at 10:05 AM with the headline "North Carolina FC soccer club to rejoin USL Championship league in 2024."
