MLS Next “New Tier” - does anyone think this is a good idea?

[Anonymous]

I thought nova teams were mid Atlantic, not Virginia? How is it gonna work with just 8 teams in a conference, will teams play each other twice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Supply and Demand. It is the parents who have requested this with their actions. How many people are chasing those badges for their varsity jacket at the water cooler on Monday?

98% of DMV youth soccer players don’t even play outside of organized club activities you have to stop complaining about the club structure when clubs are just responding to the parents whose ego are based on their clubs, their win/loss record and the league status.

Well yeah, I don’t think anyone here would deny this. But that doesn’t somehow make it better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought nova teams were mid Atlantic, not Virginia? How is it gonna work with just 8 teams in a conference, will teams play each other twice?

Yes, likely a 7 game fall and 7 game spring season with tournaments mixed in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Won’t some MLS NEXT 2 teams play both fall and spring?? I am pretty sure the team we signed up for will. Why so much disinformation??
The team we signed up for is going to be mainly the second team players from the previous year, which makes sense since this is the second year. A few of them got pulled up to the top MLS next and a few of those got bumped down, which is correct.

Because MLSN2 has put out practically 0 information on the new league beyond a few vagaries. Even the club directors have next to nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought nova teams were mid Atlantic, not Virginia? How is it gonna work with just 8 teams in a conference, will teams play each other twice?

Yes, likely a 7 game fall and 7 game spring season with tournaments mixed in.

If you look at the list, two clubs from VA are in the Carolinas list along with a Georgia club!

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-next-new-competition-tier-teams-and-divisions-2025-26

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do find it humerus that ECNL people are being negative about MLSN2 when ECRL has existed for years.

ECNL people here. I am negative on RL. There is absolutely no point for B team (MLSN2 or RL) to travel 1 hours or more to play another B team.

MLS and ECNL gobble up the local clubs to destroy the local league, so every soccer parent now has to travel.

IF they gobble up ALL the local clubs, travel will stay local. They are basically eating the USYS lunch and in the end may end up stuck with all the problems USYS has being so big.

[Anonymous]

Where is Achilles on this list? I looked and didn’t see them. Wasn’t there some big post congratulating them on their big MLS next get?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLS 2 is a compilation of some bad ECNL rl and some good ECNL rl in nova. It splits ECNL rl apart so parents of both leagues ECNL rl and MLS 2 have to travel more. What the parents of mlsn2 say is that their kids will have a better chance of being promoted to o a mlsn1 team where that exists eg NVA, SYC and Alexandria (in nova) which we all know is not true coaches will recruit outside flashy players with better networking over their own. for the other clubs without MLSn1, playing mlsn2 means more travel and worse competition.

The only way to fix this is if all nova ECNL rl clubs become MLSN so instead of ECNL we all play MLSN.in the end it just a label change.

Correct. Mlsn2 just further muddies already muddy waters. I get why they are doing it but there is nothing exciting or innovative about it.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought nova teams were mid Atlantic, not Virginia? How is it gonna work with just 8 teams in a conference, will teams play each other twice?

Yes, likely a 7 game fall and 7 game spring season with tournaments mixed in.

If you look at the list, two clubs from VA are in the Carolinas list along with a Georgia club!

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-next-new-competition-tier-teams-and-divisions-2025-26

So is Virginia a 6 or 8 team division? Because of high school there really isn't a Spring season after U15.

It seems slightly better or equivalent to ECNL-R. It 's probably a fine option , but honestly it's all the same kids, maybe a little shuffled. It's really only a major shift for the League who's getting more money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought nova teams were mid Atlantic, not Virginia? How is it gonna work with just 8 teams in a conference, will teams play each other twice?

Yes, likely a 7 game fall and 7 game spring season with tournaments mixed in.

If you look at the list, two clubs from VA are in the Carolinas list along with a Georgia club!

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-next-new-competition-tier-teams-and-divisions-2025-26

Those clubs likely agreed to it. Carolina is an easier drive from Richmond and VA Beach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought nova teams were mid Atlantic, not Virginia? How is it gonna work with just 8 teams in a conference, will teams play each other twice?

Yes, likely a 7 game fall and 7 game spring season with tournaments mixed in.

If you look at the list, two clubs from VA are in the Carolinas list along with a Georgia club!

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-next-new-competition-tier-teams-and-divisions-2025-26

So is Virginia a 6 or 8 team division? Because of high school there really isn't a Spring season after U15.

It seems slightly better or equivalent to ECNL-R. It 's probably a fine option , but honestly it's all the same kids, maybe a little shuffled. It's really only a major shift for the League who's getting more money.

FC Richmond and VA Rush are also listed in the Virginia division. Seem to recall they listed Carolinas division first (when the 1st iteration of the leagues came out) without those 2, then had them added to Carolinas, then when the VA division was listed those 2 were included. So maybe they just forgot to remove them from Carolinas.

With those 2 in VA division, would be 8 teams and Carolinas without them is 10, so my best guess is they're Virginia division.