Then they should coach 'em up so they don't get relegated. |
Is this a thing currently or is this a concept? If its only a concept then this would be interesting. Relegation could work but you would have to establish a system for the regional teams to move up to play in their respective ECNL conference. |
What would you prefer me to say? 1. Nah. Better to just have relegation without promotion. That way, in a decade or so everyone would be in ECNL-R and no-one would be left in ECNL, or 2. Yes - relegation implies promotion too - well done, you absolute genius! j/k. |
|
Lol.
I got that there would obviously need to be promotion in addition to relegation. I just wonder how you would do it. Aren’t there many more teams at the regional levels vs the conference? How would they go about filtering the best regional teams to move to conference play? |
If you finish top (or top two depending on size of the league in question), you are promoted. If you finish bottom (or bottom two), you are relegated. That's the usual method. |
That was my thinking as well and I definitely see how this could keep the league competitive. I just worry and correct me if I’m wrong but it appears as if there’s more teams in regional ECNL play than in conference play. So what happens when you have multiple top teams coming out of regional play? Would you hold a tournament to fight for the spots? Maybe round robin or double elimination style? |
If you like - details don't really matter. |
I hope it becomes a thing then. Would be a great idea. |
|
That will not happen. If you are an ECNL club why would you allow any upstart ECNL-r club/s possibly take your ECNL status? It’s a closed system and they like it like that. You think McLean, BRYC, Loudoun, Arlington, etc want to give TSJ, Vienna, SYC, etc an opportunity?
ECNL is a huge money generator for the club and keeps a constant flow of kids/parents coming to your club. The second and third teams parents will continue to pay for the privilege of being close to ECNL and the dream of playing in college. If your kid is not a full time starter(top 1-6) on an ENCL, she is not playing in college. |
And this is a HUGE hurdle. The only way relegation/promotion works is if clubs were never allowed to just establish without merit. But because there’s so much saturation at the grassroots level this will be difficult to accomplish. Definitely a good idea in theory though. Just don’t see how it would come to fruition. |
All of which explains how ludicrous the ecnl-r is, and how it serves the interests solely of the league and (country) clubs. What total garbage. |
My kid is on one of the clubs that is jumping from CCL to ECNL-R. I'm actually looking forward to it. Not because it has the ECNL name, but I think the competition will be better overall. The CCL just isn't as competitive from top to bottom as it was 4-5 years ago. There are some really bad teams in it and I don't think they will get any better due to the NOVA soccer landscape now. I would be perfectly happy staying in CCL if it wasn't for that. |
That does not make much sense. Four of the new clubs are ccl clubs, which are the same as what you had before (and for Arlington and Loudoun, second teams). You will play first teams from Annandale, VYS, Great Falls Reston, Stafford and Tidewater. And you will play second teams from VSA, PWSI, Richmond Kickers and Richmond Strikers. You will no longer play SYC, Beach, or Alexandria, which are generally much better than the new ECNL-R team. Rush, Herndon, SYA and Frederick are generally comparable to or better than the non-CCL teams in ECNL-R. |
Some do, some don't. It depends on their wisdom and time-horizon. Closed leagues fail. Always. Because they become uncompetitive over time. So far-sighted clubs, and clubs who are confident that they are doing a good job, will prefer promo/relegation over a closed league. |
Beach moved to ECNL-R and Alexandria is leaving CCL. We couldn't play the first teams of those other clubs you mentioned anyways, because they are full ECNL. Who's left? Not much. Herndon and Rush probably the best clubs still there. |