A third of youth soccer clubs will fold.
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Anonymous
Who? |
Anonymous
Matt Lacey |
Anonymous
+1. While I'm not a huge fan of the club racket, this is true. Same with the coaches. I love rec coaches, volunteering their time, and they're amazing with the kids. But at a certain point, some kids need better coaching. And I say this as the wife of a rec coach. |
Anonymous
You are assuming DC United can afford to keep funding youth soccer after this. It is entirely possible they have to shut down the youth program for a couple years just to stay in business as a club |
Anonymous
Will VDA boys join ECNL? Assuming with girls there they have an easier route in? |
Anonymous
Good grief they can do far better than that by staying out and playing EDP/NPL variants. There are more than a sufficient number of elite boys teams in DMV to play without traveling the east coast. That goes for all the DMV boys teams in ECNL. It is absolutely senseless. |
Anonymous
Certainly true, this area had some non-DA/ECNL boys teams - SDOR, Herndon and SYC - that were in upper brackets at Disney over the winter and at least a couple came home with trophies. |
Anonymous
No. The ex-da clubs will create a new EDP devision and try to keep things the same as they are now as far as teams, sub rules, no high school soccer, etc. |
Anonymous
Actually DC United is one of the few MLS clubs that charges players for the youth academy. |
Anonymous
| I think more than a third of current youth soccer players will quit the sport. |
Anonymous
I agree. I think kids mid-HS/HS might just bag it. With college on the mind and college soccer looking like it will not happen, many will find other things to do. In the younger/mid age years, parents might realize what a sh*t show this sport is and kids might pick up a lacrosse stick, a baseball or a basketball. It is really gross what has become of the sport in the US. It was a great grass-roots thing that egos took over and changed it forever. It hasn't been 'kid/player-minded' in decades. There has been absolutely zero decision made because it would actually help the player. I love soccer. My family has played for generations. I have been absolutely disgusted with the people in the sport and the way they treat kids and families. |
Anonymous
You have it backwards. They did away with Rec by having 7 teams per age group. There was no longer anyone that could chew gum and walk at the same time left in Rec. So--in order to have some reasonable competition and benefit for the kids that like the sport but maybe it's not their first sport or maybe they aren't very good---they now had to pay a few thousand dollars and travel just to get teammates that would actually show up for games and practices. It was the travel monopoly that killed Rec. It used to be hard to make any select/travel team. Now, anyone with a checkbook plays. Maybe with people losing jobs and money, the Rec league can thrive again and kids can actually play with neighbors and classmates. |
Anonymous
and they use those kids--the ones that would benefit more by a true Rec league to pay for 15-20 kids in the age group. It is disgusting. |
Anonymous
The amount they charge does not come close to covering the full cost of running an academy, it is a fraction of it. |
Anonymous
Might well hurt actually. A lot of VDA players travel from a wide area to play DA soccer. If that is no longer on offer, why would they travel? |