Every Gainbridge Super League club is in the inaugural Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup, which carries a $1.1 million winner’s prize and a pathway to the Concacaf W Champions Cup. No start date is set.
U.S. Soccer announced the creation of the Arthur M. Blank Crest Cup on Wednesday, a single-elimination tournament that will put every USL Super League club in the same bracket as the NWSL.
Dallas Trinity, as members of the USL Super League, are in it by default.
The Cup winner takes $1.1 million and a pathway to the Concacaf W Champions Cup. That second part is new ground for the Super League. In both W Champions Cup editions to date, all three U.S. places went to NWSL clubs on league finish, starting with the 2024-25 qualification criteria.
The first edition includes every club from both Division I leagues. That is 24 teams, 16 from the NWSL and the Super League’s eight. U.S. Soccer said the field could later expand to other leagues and teams.
The $1.1 million is the federation’s figure for the winner. The reported total prize pool sits above $1.5 million.
There is no date yet. U.S. Soccer said it will set one after consulting stakeholders, and ESPN’s sources expect a 2028 launch. U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone said the matches will likely fall midweek, between league weekends.
The calendar is still being worked out with both leagues. The Super League moves to a spring-to-fall schedule in 2027, after this fall’s bridge season.
Paul McDonough, the USL’s president and CEO, called the tournament “a great addition to women’s soccer in this country” in a statement posted by U.S. Soccer.
Trinity president Charlie Neil told 3rd Degree the cup had been a couple of years in the making. He credited the federation and the league office, and said Super League clubs had been “pounding on the tables” for it.
“The men have had it, right?” Neil said. “As we continue to strive for equity in the sport, having a cup of this nature only made all the sense in the world to do.”
For Dallas, the draw opens the prospect of a first competitive match against an NWSL side. The nearest is the Houston Dash. Trinity played the Dash in a friendly this past season, and Neil said it was one of the club’s best-attended matches.
“People really leaned into the Dallas-Houston rivalry,” he said. “I think there’s opportunities for things like that to continue to grow.”
Neil tied the prize money to how young the women’s professional game still is. “Investment is needed across the board in the women’s game for it to continue to grow,” he said. “Those dollars are instrumental and will be felt in a positive manner for the clubs competing.”
He said the players and coaching staff were excited about the competition, and that the club hopes to “start filling up our trophy case” with it.
Trinity sit on 11 points through eight league matches after Seven Castain‘s 86th-minute equalizer earned a 1-1 draw at Brooklyn FC on Saturday. Next is the State Fair Clásico against Chivas Femenil at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, October 17, at 4 p.m. League play resumes October 25 at DC Power.