ECNL moving to school year not calendar

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

All those who really want to reach the upper levels of competition should be good enough to skip age groups.

Yes, but very few. And those good enough to play up an age group at an mlsnext club will probably make their way to an mls academy.

Regardless of how many you think will continue with a SY system rather than skip an age group to transition to a BY system, it’s still more than now. This strengthens ecnl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

All those who really want to reach the upper levels of competition should be good enough to skip age groups.

Yes, but very few. And those good enough to play up an age group at an mlsnext club will probably make their way to an mls academy.

Regardless of how many you think will continue with a SY system rather than skip an age group to transition to a BY system, it’s still more than now. This strengthens ecnl.

You know right now, every club touts how it has best teams play up a year or more, especially at the ulittle level, where there's an annual race to be the youngest 7v7 and 9v9. Why do they do it? Because they can't get a competitive game otherwise. That culture -- where only the best play up -- is very strong in youth soccer. Why wouldn't the best Aug-Dec -- when they hit 11v11 play up and join their birth year. Of course they would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

I find it funny how ECNL was founded because it wanted to separate itself and provide a competitive alternative to the USYS system. Now it's trying to become the USYS. What happened?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

Because of RAE, it's maybe best for the US to finally gain ground on the rest of the world, to have strong youth leagues that have SY and BY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

I find it funny how ECNL was founded because it wanted to separate itself and provide a competitive alternative to the USYS system. Now it's trying to become the USYS. What happened?

I challenge your claim they want to be USYS. They're not even close in the way they operate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

I find it funny how ECNL was founded because it wanted to separate itself and provide a competitive alternative to the USYS system. Now it's trying to become the USYS. What happened?

ECNL exists because Christian identified that high level teams want to play high level teams and they dont want to play to play not high level teams. He also identified that by creating a nationwide league of top teams they could charge parents of high level team players MUCH more than they currently are.

1. Creates fomo through exclusion
2. Top teams only play other top teams
3. Parents pay much more money for the same thing

Club owners love it because better players flock to their club and they dont have to worry about recruiting them. Lather since repeat for multiple age groups and club owners make much more money.

Its not magic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

All those who really want to reach the upper levels of competition should be good enough to skip age groups.

Yes, but very few. And those good enough to play up an age group at an mlsnext club will probably make their way to an mls academy.

Regardless of how many you think will continue with a SY system rather than skip an age group to transition to a BY system, it’s still more than now. This strengthens ecnl.

You know right now, every club touts how it has best teams play up a year or more, especially at the ulittle level, where there's an annual race to be the youngest 7v7 and 9v9. Why do they do it? Because they can't get a competitive game otherwise. That culture -- where only the best play up -- is very strong in youth soccer. Why wouldn't the best Aug-Dec -- when they hit 11v11 play up and join their birth year. Of course they would.

Born later in the birth year and playing up with your team is a completely different thing than playing u8-u11 with one group and skipping u12 to play with kids who have been competing a year older for the past 4 years. Yes, some will. But many won’t and this will make ecnl a viable option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

I find it funny how ECNL was founded because it wanted to separate itself and provide a competitive alternative to the USYS system. Now it's trying to become the USYS. What happened?

I challenge your claim they want to be USYS. They're not even close in the way they operate.

Hi ECRL, very nice to meet you. How many clubs did you add this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

I find it funny how ECNL was founded because it wanted to separate itself and provide a competitive alternative to the USYS system. Now it's trying to become the USYS. What happened?

ECNL exists because Christian identified that high level teams want to play high level teams and they dont want to play to play not high level teams. He also identified that by creating a nationwide league of top teams they could charge parents of high level team players MUCH more than they currently are.

1. Creates fomo through exclusion
2. Top teams only play other top teams
3. Parents pay much more money for the same thing

Club owners love it because better players flock to their club and they dont have to worry about recruiting them. Lather since repeat for multiple age groups and club owners make much more money.

Its not magic

Except they've expanded to the point where top teams don't play only top teams. Why is it there are so many blow outs? Ironically, to find really close competition you have to turn back to the old USYS national league!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

All those who really want to reach the upper levels of competition should be good enough to skip age groups.

Yes, but very few. And those good enough to play up an age group at an mlsnext club will probably make their way to an mls academy.

Regardless of how many you think will continue with a SY system rather than skip an age group to transition to a BY system, it’s still more than now. This strengthens ecnl.

You know right now, every club touts how it has best teams play up a year or more, especially at the ulittle level, where there's an annual race to be the youngest 7v7 and 9v9. Why do they do it? Because they can't get a competitive game otherwise. That culture -- where only the best play up -- is very strong in youth soccer. Why wouldn't the best Aug-Dec -- when they hit 11v11 play up and join their birth year. Of course they would.

.


Yes, top early youth teams typically play up a year, but primarily against the older second teams from other clubs, depending on the size. We also move to 11v11 too early in this country which hampers development and touches in the tween years. We value winning and size in this country, so its not only that Aug-Dec kids wouldn’t want to play up l, but would not be chosen by coaches for the reasons above. Of those chosen, more likely to receive less playing time, another disincentive for parents and kids to switch from a SY to BY league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

I find it funny how ECNL was founded because it wanted to separate itself and provide a competitive alternative to the USYS system. Now it's trying to become the USYS. What happened?

I challenge your claim they want to be USYS. They're not even close in the way they operate.

Hi ECRL, very nice to meet you. How many clubs did you add this year?

Fine, I was talking the top league, so I guess you have a massive problem with MLSNext 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

I find it funny how ECNL was founded because it wanted to separate itself and provide a competitive alternative to the USYS system. Now it's trying to become the USYS. What happened?

I challenge your claim they want to be USYS. They're not even close in the way they operate.

Hi ECRL, very nice to meet you. How many clubs did you add this year?

Fine, I was talking the top league, so I guess you have a massive problem with MLSNext 2

And I can't believe I forgot to mention the monstrosity that is GA Aspire. It's a nation wide trend and somehow USYS can't even compete against those tiers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

I find it funny how ECNL was founded because it wanted to separate itself and provide a competitive alternative to the USYS system. Now it's trying to become the USYS. What happened?

ECNL exists because Christian identified that high level teams want to play high level teams and they dont want to play to play not high level teams. He also identified that by creating a nationwide league of top teams they could charge parents of high level team players MUCH more than they currently are.

1. Creates fomo through exclusion
2. Top teams only play other top teams
3. Parents pay much more money for the same thing

Club owners love it because better players flock to their club and they dont have to worry about recruiting them. Lather since repeat for multiple age groups and club owners make much more money.

Its not magic

Except they've expanded to the point where top teams don't play only top teams. Why is it there are so many blow outs? Ironically, to find really close competition you have to turn back to the old USYS national league!

I agree with this. These days ECNL is selling fomo more than anything else. Its fun watching GA prove that ECNL is a scam. Not trying to say that GA isnt a scam also. Just pointing out that if a rival league can do all the same things that ECNL was doing and is successful at it our "player pathways" are screwed up in America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is extremely weird to call Tier 2 “academy” when they revolve their season around HS soccer. Such an obvious marketing gimmick. Do they think parents are that stupid? Oh right, they are.

Extremely weird? It’s actually pretty normal in youth sports. “Academy” used to mean something specific. Now it just tantamount to “program.” It’s marketing at this point.

Substituting the ever-so-prominent “MLS Academy” name, that so many Dads on here drool over, and imparting it to their second tier league, is weird yes. In fact it is blatantly deceitful because it used to be the pinnacle of what parents could tell others and now it means the opposite. It also forces those same dips*!t parents to say homegrown which is in and of itself self a weird name .

It's going to be really interesting if MLSN/GA stays BY.

True. Would be a very strange business decision on their part but could be the best thing for p2p honestly as it gives true space for an SY league like ECNL . But from a national standpoint, I think it hampers developing and determining the best players as the two leagues would play each other almost never.

I think it's strange people don't understand why they would and who believe SY is the end all be all.

If MLSN is okay with reducing both the number and quality of potential players then staying BY could be for them. But if they didn’t care about those two things, that would be strange.

Not sure where you get that.

Splitting the talent pool by age group is one reason. Kids that are top players in u8-u12 via SY and want to keep that will gravitate towards SY league at u13 and above. That’s also less number of strong players who provide competition within MLSN. Not sure how you don’t get that.

It’s going to be very difficult for August-December birthdays who are in a SY system (as all ulittle teams will be) to switch to a BY system for mlsnext. Skipping an age group and remaining competitive is going to be very tough. Some will, but many others will just head to ecnl. The best thing for ecnl is for mlsnext to stay BY.

IF ECNL wants to be the next USYS.

If you could somehow temporarily set aside your raging hard on for MLSN, splitting the age cutoff among the youth soccer landscape will fundamentally change the p2p market and compromise MLSN and potentially the national team at developing and identifying top players. To think ALL the best players will ALL gravitate towards BY leagues is being daft. The best players at u13 and u14 are many times not the best at u16 and u17. Talent ID in soccer is remains very subjective and perhaps more so than any other sport.

Will kids and parents forgo and risk staying top team in the SY league to join if somehow a BY league was the only bonafide path to being pro or national team? Or is it possible that many very talented players would continue with their cohort age group up to that point because they like their team or don’t want to play professional or college, or like being on the top team. You could argue that only true top talents would take the risk, but that is daft as well: RAE is a real bias and exists internationally at the top academies. However, even if you believe all top world class players would take that risk, you would still be losing a cohort of very competitive SY league players which at the very least would help develop and strengthen BY league competition.

Because of RAE, it's maybe best for the US to finally gain ground on the rest of the world, to have strong youth leagues that have SY and BY.

Hard to say, not sure if other countries have tried this before. Most likely would appease the p2p crowd even if it leads to even more of a clubhopping frenzy during u12-17. Hard to escape though that it would water down the overall talent within respective age group leagues, thus hurting national team development, as the PP seems to be arguing.