The Charleston Battery announced Thursday the dates and opponents for the club’s 2025 USL Championship and the USL Jägermeister Cup season. The Battery’s 33rd season comes after back-to-back runs to the Eastern Conference Final.
Charleston are set to kick off 2025 with two home matches, starting with the season opener on Sat., March 8, against Louisville City FC at Patriots Point. The Battery then host Rhode Island FC on Sat., March 15, in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Final.
The Battery, who finished second in the league standings last year and ended as Eastern Conference Finalists, will play a 34-match schedule across 34 weeks from early March through late October.
The Championship regular season will consist of 30 matches, with Charleston facing every Eastern Conference team home and away, and eight select matches against Western Conference sides.
In the Jägermeister Cup, Charleston will play four group-stage matches in Group 6 with teams from the Championship and USL League One, two home and two away, before the knockout rounds.
Fans are able to lock in their spot for the matches now with a 2025 Season Membership. Single-game ticket sales and kickoff times are anticipated to be announced together in January, which is also when Members will see tickets in their SeatGeek accounts.
“We simply can't wait to be back on the pitch in 2025 for the Black and Yellow,” said Head Coach Ben Pirmann. “We are excited to return to Patriots Point and are excited to perform for our supporters. We have had back-to-back historic seasons, and we want to work as hard as ever to improve once again.”
Charleston begin and end the season with ample home-field advantage, as four of the first five matches and the final three games of the regular season are at Patriots Point.
Every Battery home match of the Championship and Jägermeister Cup is set to take place on a Saturday. The only non-Saturday matches in the schedule will be with away fixtures; two Wednesdays, one Friday and one Sunday.
In interconference play, Charleston will face all but Las Vegas Lights FC, FC Tulsa, Monterey Bay FC and newly promoted Lexington SC from the Western Conference in the regular season, and Memphis 901 FC ceased operations.
Charleston will host Phoenix Rising FC in a rematch of the 2023 USL Championship Final on Sat., June 21.
The Southern Derby will be contested on Sat., March 28, in North Carolina and on Sat., July 5, at Patriots Point, with the winner being determined after the July game.
Prior to the three-game home stand to end the regular season, the Battery will rack up airline miles with three consecutive trips out west to face El Paso Locomotive (September 20), Orange County SC (September 27) and Sacramento Republic FC (October 5).
Looking at the Jägermeister Cup, the Battery will host Greenville Triumph SC on Sat., May 31, and the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Sat., July 26, and travel to play FC Naples on Sat., April 26, and Tormenta FC on Sat., June 28, in the group stage. A draw will set the matchups for the single-elimination knockout rounds, which will begin three weeks later, and the Final will take place the weekend of October 1.
The contest between Charleston and Greenville will be just the second official meeting between the South Carolina clubs. Charleston won the first matchup in the 2019 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
“The Jägermeister Cup allows all teams to compete for another piece of silverware,” said Coach Pirmann. “Managing a long season with a new interleague competition will make things exciting, and new challenges will arise. We are looking forward to the new event and to competing against some top opponents.”
The top eight teams of each conference will advance to the USL Championship Playoffs. The playoffs will remain a single-elimination format, starting the weekend of November 1-3. They will culminate in the 2025 USL Championship Final, airing on CBS Television Network, on November 21-23.
The 2025 USL Championship season will be the second in the league’s four-year broadcast agreement with CBS Sports following a league-record USL Championship Final broadcast that earned 431,000 viewers on the CBS Television Network. More details on the 2025 national broadcast schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.
