Virginia Revolution expanding
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soccer_dc
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| VRSC has been teasing something about expanding on social media since last week but no followup. I'm pretty sure I saw a post on FB or IG a couple days ago which must have been deleted because I can't find it anymore. The post hinted something about a pathway and taking a shot. Anyone have any ideas? I suppose it could be a head fake related to expanding with the new restaurant opening at Evergreen/Sportsplex. There is still this post on IG https://www.instagram.com/p/CZW5J4aF_rY/ |
Va_soccer_mom
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| Are they adding more fields at the Sportsplex? Their social media posts hint at that? |
soccer_dc
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| Mystery solved. Shenandoah FC Elite in Winchester is becoming part of VRSC. I don't know much about this club but looks pretty small with only a handful of teams? Winchester seems pretty far away to compete for players from Loudoun/Fairfax but I guess it could help VRSC become more competitive. |
SoccerSkeptic
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| This seems like someone thought a merger would be great and didn't really care if it makes sense. Why would kids from Shenandoah go to VRSC? Longer commute to practice, but I don't think VRSC teams are any more competitive than Shenandoah. |
soccer_dc
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VRSC needs to increase their player pool. It's very difficult to find players to switch from other clubs in Loudoun and Western Fairfax There could be some in Western Loudoun that play in Shenandoah and maybe a couple of their best players could now be rostered in with VRSC for tournaments. VRSC has no choice but to merge/acquire other clubs in order to reach the size they want. I wouldn't be surprised to see more mergers as they seem to be rich with funding. But Loudoun is already saturated with clubs. |
Blutarski
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Good service, a pathway to an elite league(s), and good facility are the prerequisites to growth in today's market. For now, it appears they're just trying to achieve critical mass to support the facility overhead and keep their heads above water. It's not clear how a merger/acquisition of a club in Winchester does that though. I suppose it's much harder to bring in residents east of Evergreen than west.
Longer term, they will have no choice but to go the old fashioned route of simply providing a better service than the competition provides. All they have to do is provide a better service than FCV and Loudoun. They will also eventually need the golden ticket admitting them to one of the elite level leagues to attract talent. Get your popcorn! |
SoccerSkeptic
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Agree. Barca had a name plus nice fields and couldn't become a top club. Leagues matter. You can't consistently attract top talent if you are playing in a subpar league. |
soccer_dc
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Top talent and leagues is not necessarily required for a club to be successful. There are different types of successful clubs. How they define success may be different. Clubs like Herndon and Sterling are part of the community and have been around for decades, don't play in top leagues, but I would call them successful. Barca is a successful for profit business with 30+ teams full of paying customers. They don't need to play in top leagues because of the Barca brand and affiliation. Loudoun Soccer is trying to do it all - community, rec, top leagues - but with 10,000 players it's not easy to replicate or dislodge them. FCV is successful in a narrow niche of top league girls teams. I'm trying to figure out what VRSC is trying to be successful at. Top leagues for them is a long way off. They seem to be about community and fun for all levels, but that's tough when they also need to bring in enough money to pay for their high end fields. Not to mention LS has been serving as the community club in that area for a very long time. Providing a better service at what? Better community soccer than LS, Sterling, and Herndon? Better marketing and high end branding than Barca? Better talent than ECNL/GA teams? I hope they have a strategy or very deep pockets. |
Heloise
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| I hope this does not mean having to trek all the way out to Winchester for NCSL Division 3 games. Other than that, no real reaction, but as someone who lives inside the Beltway I don't think I am the intended audience for this announcement. |
Blutarski
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I hear ya, but strictly speaking, we are talking about growth (expansion), not success. As you state, success means different things to different clubs. In any event, it seems clear to me that VRSC is "upwardly mobile" evidenced their purchase of the megadollar facility, their social media presence, and the rumors of mergers floating around. It does not appear to me that they will be satisfied with the stations of Herndon and Sterling, or even FCV. BTW, I would argue that FCV is very unlikely to be viewed as successful in the eyes of TSJ. It is not even clear what role they play. They certainly aren't making a ton of money. A better service to their customers is what I mean. They need to do a better job than the competition at keeping their customers happy. |
SoccerParentVA
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On the plus side, VRSC apparently has a couple of parents with lots of money, they've hired some good coaches from other clubs and Evergreen is a very nice facility. They may find success growing the club particularly at younger ages where soccer is still primarily about having fun but in the near term, it's going to be tough for them to attract (and retain) top talent at U-13+ when the highest level of play they can offer is EDP. According to the parents I've spoken with, they currently have one girls team and one boys team that are "good" (by EDP standards) but beyond that, the rest of their teams are just "ok" or "average".
Admittance into top leagues like ECNL, GA and MLS Next is probably going to be several years away for them. |