On Wednesday, US Soccer announced it will be launching a brand new knockout competition for the highest tier of professional women's soccer in the United States.
The Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup will feature teams from both the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the USL Super League (USLSL).
The champion of the competition walk away with a $1.1 million prize, which comes out of a total prize pool of over $1.7 million. The Crest Cup winner also earns a spot in the Concacaf W Champions Cup. The launch date of the Crest Cup has not been finalized at this time, with US Soccer saying "The date for launch will be determined upon consultation with key stakeholders in the ecosystem."
"Women’s soccer continues to be one of the most dynamic and inspiring forces in sport," US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. "The Crest Cup will create meaningful impact by bringing people together, attracting investment in the future of the game, and ensuring that excellence, inclusivity, and opportunity remain at the heart of women’s soccer in the United States."
Establishing the United States as the epicenter of women’s club competition ⚽️
— Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup (@CrestCup) October 14, 2026
📰 https://t.co/m5giyqKMTN pic.twitter.com/M7InzHUU3F
The tournament is named after Atlanta United FC owner and major US Soccer donor Arthur Blank, who recently gave the federation $50 million for a new national team training facility in Georgia.
ESPN's Jeff Kassouf reported in May that the top women's soccer leagues in the United States were discussing launching this tournament, and the news confirming creation of the Crest Cup was first shared by Flo Lloyd-Hughes of The Cutback on Wednesday morning.
Flo Lloyd-Hughes
Don't call it the 'Women's US Open Cup'
The Crest Cup will feature a single elimination, knockout format, similar to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup on the men's side.
However, unlike that competition, the tournament will not be open to every women's soccer team in the country. The inaugural edition of the tournament will feature only clubs from both of US Soccer's Division I-sanctioned professional leagues, NWSL and the Gainbridge Super League.
That would mean the two proposed, not yet launched second-division leagues, NWSL Division 2 and Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) Pro, would be excluded. The same goes for amateur and semi-professional leagues around the country such as the WPSL, United Women's Soccer, or USL W League.
In their report, ESPN noted that WPSL Pro was part of initial conversations about the cup back in the spring.
The only meaningful national knockout competition for women's soccer outside of the professional ranks seems to be the Women's National Amateur Cup, a competition only open to amateur teams in the United States Adult Soccer Association. That was won by the Rochester Lazers earlier this summer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The official website for the Crest Cup does mention the tournament could potentially see other teams within the women's soccer pyramid in future editions.
US Soccer confirmed it is actively collaborating with league officials to align playing calendars. Also, it is expected cross-league matches would be common. The NWSL currently has 16 teams and the USL Super League has eight. Even with expansion expected for both leagues, the leagues will likely have different numbers of teams. So expect some NWSL vs NWSL action in these non-league matches. If MLS in the Open Cup has taught us anything, it's that those kinds of matchups don't usually go over well from a fan perspective.
Gotham vs Brooklyn?
This competition would finally give fans a competitive outlet to see NWSL teams take on teams from the recently formed USLSL in a meaningful match.
Considering that a federation spokesperson told ESPN that they expect the draw for the tournament to consider geography for matchups, there are a number of inter-league fixtures between geographically close teams that could turn heads.
The Orlando Pride could face one of three USL teams from Florida in Fort Lauderdale United FC, Sporting Club Jacksonville, or the Tampa Bay Sun FC. Likewise, Lexington SC and Racing Louisville could have an all-Kentucky clash - following up on their friendly from July 2025.
But probably the biggest potential clash would be the two-time NWSL champions, Gotham FC, taking on Coney Island's own Brooklyn FC. Since BKFC launched for the inaugural Super League season in 2024–25, the two sides have never met in a match, including friendlies.
When Gotham moves across the Hudson River to Etihad Park, the match will become a battle of the boroughs between Queens and Brooklyn. Something the city hasn't had on a professional scale in a decade since the days of the 2010s New York Cosmos and New York City FC playing in the 2015 and 2016 US Open Cups.
The Crest Cup will also mark the first time Super League teams have a pathway into the Concacaf W Champions Cup. As a Division I-sanctioned league, USLSL teams are supposed to have a direct pathway into that tournament following a two year probationary period. If math is to be believed, that is supposed to end with the 2027 edition of the continental championship.
It remains to be seen if the confederation will grant the USLSL direct spots based on league performance, or use the new Crest Cup as a justification that those are not needed.
The United States is expected to get three spots in next year's W Champions Cup, with the NWSL Shield and NWSL Champion expected to get one of those, each.
As far as precedent goes, Concacaf did grant the similarly Division I Canadian Premier League its own spots to qualify for the men's Concacaf Champions Cup, despite Major League Soccer having three teams in Canada, and those teams having another pathway to qualification via the Canadian Championship.
