Alex Morgan says youth soccer has gotten worse

[Anonymous]

We (thankfully) live in an area and country that earns a lot of income. Of course people with money to spend will spend it on their kids. Stop with the comparisons to the 1980s. Yes the US was a rich country then, but even more so now. Things change. It’s the new reality. In the 80s we also didn’t spend thousands on iPhones and vacations and SAT prep courses. In the 1880s there were no cars and people walked and were in better health. Civilization changes and evolves.

[Anonymous]

You self-centered moron. There are millions of people among us not earning "lots of income." That is the point, your elite-minded a@@ might be able to afford to place your one DC in travel and focus all your time and resources on DC's travel schedule but some folks don't have that luxury. They might make a good living but they might have more than two kids, which makes DA/ECNL next to impossible. If you are on a successful DA/ECNL team you are traveling long distance on 3-4 separate occasions and medium range on 1-2 different occasions, all outside of the league play, which might require five different trips. That is about $10,000 all in and we are not even considering the opportunity costs of your other kids who have their own pursuits. The whole idea of kids doing serious travel at u14 is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I judge parents who put their 7 and 8 yo kids into travel sports. Hard.

Should be illegal.

Illegal? Why should it be illegal to have a u9 recreation sports? Because of competitive players/parents/coaches/clubs/leagues that don't fit in your lifestyle choices? Let's make parents judging other parents illegal for their spending choices, yeah that sounds just as great.

[Anonymous]

Our league gives scholarships. Many of the kids who get them pay absolutely nothing. However, there are still attendance problems, because you can't easily get to the field by a city bus. I offered to drive one of the boys, but his mom was a total flake and would not respond to my calls and texts, so I stopped trying.

[Anonymous]

Sports are expensive, let's not pretend that this is isolated to soccer. Dance, swim, basketball, lacrosse, baseball, etc. You can do those on your own and none require a ton of money to do recreationally. But if you want to do it at a high level, you will always pay to play in any free market country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You self-centered moron. There are millions of people among us not earning "lots of income." That is the point, your elite-minded a@@ might be able to afford to place your one DC in travel and focus all your time and resources on DC's travel schedule but some folks don't have that luxury. They might make a good living but they might have more than two kids, which makes DA/ECNL next to impossible. If you are on a successful DA/ECNL team you are traveling long distance on 3-4 separate occasions and medium range on 1-2 different occasions, all outside of the league play, which might require five different trips. That is about $10,000 all in and we are not even considering the opportunity costs of your other kids who have their own pursuits. The whole idea of kids doing serious travel at u14 is insane.

You do not have to do "DA/ECNL". It's not the only path to play soccer and get better at soccer.

[Anonymous]

Rec soccer is there for the masses. This is the cheap route. More expensive is the standard travel route. Most expensive is DA/ECNL. There are options for all. Yes, if you want your kid to play college or pro, then there can be a cost if you want to increase the probability. Like I said, in other countries pro teams and shoe companies help pay for the kids that need it. In the U.S. not as much due to lower revenues of pro soccer here. Being able to play DA/ECNL is not a "right". You either have to pay or get financial aid. Why? Because the coaches want to be paid for their time. Are you all suggesting that the professional coaches not get paid or simply volunteer their time? Do YOU do that with your work? No, I didn't think so. Stop being hypocritical and expect everyone else to take care of your kid. BTW, is Alex Morgan coaching any kids team for free? No, she's actually suing for more money for herself which will take away potential money from USSF that could be used to pay for kids. The epitome of a hypocrite. Until she starts volunteering significant amounts of her time coaching youths, she can keep quiet.

In other words, you can do interviews and post on forums about how unjust things are, or you can do something about it. Help a poor kid. Start your own team/club and volunteer your time, etc. Expecting others to fix problems you don't like is unproductive.

[Anonymous]

Adults are absolutely the worst thing about kids sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I judge parents who put their 7 and 8 yo kids into travel sports. Hard.

Should be illegal.

Go search on YouTube. It seems parents are pushing their kids into travel for every sport and not just soccer. The types of training including strength and condition these young kids are undergoing for football or basketball is insane. But the old saying of “If you can’t beat them, join them” applies here for parents that fear of missing out.

[Anonymous]

Hey Alex, what has gotten expensive is going to watch you play. You want a stadium filled with people who will pay $100 per person to attend, all wearing $100 jerseys with your name on their back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My cousin played soccer in the 1980s and played at a top DI program. He lived and breathed soccer and their family traveling to tournaments but I don't think it was as expensive and the travel was not as insane. Something happened in the early 2000s that made it more expensive and with ECNL and then DA, things caused costs and travel to increase substantially.

Now it is an industry. There is nothing wrong with that but it is not producing the best players. If you look at the rosters of top DI programs,more and more players are coming from abroad.

It was not as expensive. Back then, our coaches were not paid. Most were International former players that came to the States for College and stayed. We also had a sponsor "Patrick" they paid for our cleats, uniforms, bags. We did travel extensively to out of state tournaments and Canada for Regionals, etc. We played teams in MD and VA in season---Bowie, Columbia, and all the NoVa teams.

My sibling did go pro and got a full scholarship and if I recall a lot of the State team was financially covered.

It is much different today. My parents would not have been able to afford to have all 3 of us play travel soccer like we did in the 80s. We also stayed with host families on out of state tournaments, not in hotels.

[Anonymous]

"select", which was travel back then was only for the elite. The vast majority played rec and could not make the 1 travel team per age group. State Cup was also where everyone played and all of the top talent was in one league. For girls, WAGS. Kids all over have a much higher technical level in the masses, but the top few back then were equivalent. The Mia Hamms and such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"select", which was travel back then was only for the elite. The vast majority played rec and could not make the 1 travel team per age group. State Cup was also where everyone played and all of the top talent was in one league. For girls, WAGS. Kids all over have a much higher technical level in the masses, but the top few back then were equivalent. The Mia Hamms and such.

*kids today have higher...was what I intended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rec soccer is there for the masses. This is the cheap route. More expensive is the standard travel route. Most expensive is DA/ECNL. There are options for all. Yes, if you want your kid to play college or pro, then there can be a cost if you want to increase the probability. Like I said, in other countries pro teams and shoe companies help pay for the kids that need it. In the U.S. not as much due to lower revenues of pro soccer here. Being able to play DA/ECNL is not a "right". You either have to pay or get financial aid. Why? Because the coaches want to be paid for their time. Are you all suggesting that the professional coaches not get paid or simply volunteer their time? Do YOU do that with your work? No, I didn't think so. Stop being hypocritical and expect everyone else to take care of your kid. BTW, is Alex Morgan coaching any kids team for free? No, she's actually suing for more money for herself which will take away potential money from USSF that could be used to pay for kids. The epitome of a hypocrite. Until she starts volunteering significant amounts of her time coaching youths, she can keep quiet.

In other words, you can do interviews and post on forums about how unjust things are, or you can do something about it. Help a poor kid. Start your own team/club and volunteer your time, etc. Expecting others to fix problems you don't like is unproductive.

You jack@$$. What Alex, Hope and others are saying is that the money that has gone into the sport has made it out of reach for most families. No one is talking about not paying people but the reality is that travel soccer has become an industry and in its current form is excluding many families and hurting the overall soccer scene. DC is the best example. We have way to many travel tms so tht all of the parents can place their DD on a DA/ECNL team and drive or flying around the country playing games and brag to their friends that DD is playing for Bethesda. That is why Bethesda sucks and why the Girls Director left. Parents are destroying the game and DC is a prime example. Hell, before you know it, foreign players will become the main source for college programs. That is already starting to happen and is proof that our system is flawed and not even able to produce enough players to fill spots in our own college soccer programs.

Please get a clue.

[Anonymous]

nobody told you to have 10 babies if you can’t afford them.