SoccerMapd

NASL to today · 1968–2026, with archive gaps

The clubs that changed America's soccer map.

Watch clubs arrive, move and leave the map. Select a crest to see the people within its reach, then follow how the options around a community changed.

The map opens with men's pro clubs and history from 1996 to today. Choose 1968 · Original NASL under History starts to go further back. Estimated proximity uses the same 2020 Census population in every season. Coverage & method

Competitions

Top-flight plus USL Pro / Championship from 2011 and League One from 2019. Other professional leagues are outside this archive. Coverage & method

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From the country to your corner of it

When did soccer get closer to you?

Enter your hometown or ZIP code for a personal timeline of the clubs, grounds and leagues around you. Our historical archive reaches back to recorded professional leagues in 1894.

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Behind the numbers

Measuring people.
Following the game.

Read the story behind these tools →

One population, different soccer maps. We hold all 331,449,281 residents counted in the 2020 Census in place, then compare their proximity to clubs in each season. This isolates changes in soccer's geographic footprint. These are not the numbers of people who actually lived near clubs in each historical year, and they do not measure population growth.

National totals count people once. Each populated census tract contributes its population when its population-weighted center is within the selected straight-line distance of any eligible club. Overlapping club areas do not count residents twice. The combined men's and women's view is their union. County colors summarize the share of a county's population within reach, not the share of its land.

A club's reach and its only-option population. A selected club's reach includes everyone represented within its radius. Its only-option count includes just those residents with no other eligible club in range that season. These are different measures: two clubs can share much of their reach. Do not add individual club catchments to get the national total. They do not measure fan allegiance or attendance.

What changed this season. Club arrivals and departures describe changes in the selected league view; leaving that view does not necessarily mean a club closed. Recorded name, league and venue changes help explain the map. A location-research correction is labeled separately from a supported move. A club's annual gains or losses count people who also entered or left the national footprint compared with the previous year. Several clubs can overlap those same residents, so these club-level effects are not additive. Effects are unavailable beside an archive gap or before the first recorded year.

Proximity is an estimate. We use a season's sourced stadium location where researched, with an approximate home-city location otherwise. A tract's residents are represented by one population center, so results near the radius boundary are approximate, especially in large rural tracts. Distances do not represent driving time, ticket availability or practical access. Alaska and Hawaii are insets; calculations use their actual geography.

Choose the level of soccer. Top-flight pro includes the original outdoor NASL (1968–1984), MLS (from 1996), WUSA, WPS, NWSL and Super League. All covered pro leagues adds the recorded USL Pro / Championship seasons from 2011 and League One from 2019. Pro + development also includes League Two / PDL from 2011. This optional layer is development soccer, not another professional division, and its earlier seasons are outside the archive. Canadian clubs in these leagues can count as nearby options for U.S. residents. Population covers the 50 states and D.C., excluding Canada and U.S. territories.

Between the NASL and MLS: 1985–1995

The original NASL played its final outdoor season in 1984 and ceased operations in 1985. Professional soccer continued in regional outdoor leagues and indoor competitions, including the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). Several former NASL clubs moved indoors, as U.S. Soccer's NASL history explains.

In 1990, two outdoor leagues joined to form the American Professional Soccer League (APSL). MLS began play in 1996. U.S. Soccer's timeline records both milestones.

These years are unmeasured because those season-by-season club and venue records are not yet included. The gap in the men's and combined views does not mean there were zero professional clubs. Measurement resumes with MLS in 1996; professional soccer had continued in the meantime.

Other league omissions. The revived NASL of 2011–2017 is a different league and remains outside this edition, alongside MLS NEXT Pro, NISA and earlier USL predecessors. Adding the original NASL does not fill those later omissions.

Played seasons retain their context. The women's view has no played seasons in its covered leagues before WUSA in 2001; a zero there does not mean women's soccer did not exist. Super League's cross-calendar seasons use their starting year, with 2026 representing its fall season. NWSL 2020 uses regional Fall Series home locations. League Two's canceled 2020 season has no participating clubs. Original NASL indoor seasons and announced future clubs are excluded.

Comparison colors. The change map shows the percentage-point difference in a county's population share within reach. National gains count residents newly within range; losses count those no longer within range. Gains minus losses equal the net change. County display boundaries use the existing 2017 atlas, with Alaska's two successor census areas grouped into their former boundary without changing population coordinates.

Population: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Centers of Population. County boundaries: Census / us-atlas. Club marks belong to their respective owners. Historical archive version: September 12, 2026.