The USL Pro that Seattle Sounders 2 enter will look a bit different than the one that played last year. Sounders 2 are one of 11 new teams and the league will have ballooned from 14 in 2014 to 23 in 2015. Not only that, but apparently they'll be playing in two geographically split conferences.
.@USLPRO conference alignment for 2015 pic.twitter.com/6aakVGNmFp
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) December 15, 2014
This is undeniably good news, at least as far as the Sounders are concerned. Presumably, the reason to split the league like this is to allow for more regionalized competition and limit travel. Even if the league doesn't do something as dramatic as keeping the two conferences apart prior to the postseason -- which wouldn't be the most surprising development if they went down that road -- they would likely limit out-of-conference games to just one per opponent. So, if Sounders 2 have a 28-game schedule -- as expected -- that likely mean 22 games against the other 11 Western Conference teams and six more against the Eastern Conference, only three of which would be on the road.
UPDATE: Reckless Challenge has some more details on the schedule. Each team will play 28 games, with 22 of those in conference. The other six will be three separate home-and-away series, designed to limit travel as much is reasonable.