By Michael Lewis
FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

The National Premier Soccer League plans to have a minimum of 11 teams for its pro division, which is scheduled to start in 2019.

The NPSL Founders Cup, which will kick off its pro league in a competition that will run from August to November in 2019, according to national soccer sources.

A full league season, which would run from the spring through November, would be launched in 2020, sources said.

An announcement of the league’s future plans could be made as early as next week.

All information in this story came from national soccer sources.

As of now, the 11 founding members include many teams with NPSL backgrounds or affiliations:

New York Cosmos, Detroit City FC, Milwaukee, Chattanooga FC, Miami United FC, Miami FC, San Diego Albion, Cal United, Cal FC, FC Arizona and Oakland Roots.

The league or cup competition will kick off next August after the NPSL is completed, allowing teams to sign players and prepare for the professional circuit. The NPSL championship game will be held in early August.

The number of games each team will play has not yet been determined.

A 12th team could join the league, which would allow two dvisions — East and West — of six teams apiece.

The league is speaking with four teams that could wind up being the 12th club.

A professional NPSL season would not commence until the spring of 2020. That would be a full season and run through October and November.

The 2020 season could see several more teams added to the league, which is entertaining ownership possibilities from Jacksonville, Virginia Beach, Asheville and a team in Seattle, primarily all NPSL teams.

Later, it was discovered that three other NPSL teams are possibilities for 2020 — the Fort Worth Vaqueros, FC Buffalo and Cleveland SC.

One source said that “2020 will be a great expansion year.”

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.