ECNL moving to school year part 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

How would they prevent that if they don’t switch to SY?

They will go SY. No incentive for them not to switch.

Staying exclusive and still matching the international calendar. ECNL is taking a risk in this pivot when it comes to elite, especially for the boys, where it becomes less of a rival and more of a feeder.

For sure it was a risk, it will pay off with their growth in the lower tiers, and won’t likely change their losses to MLSN because they aren’t actually addressing MLSN’s competitive advantage over them.

But I think the bigger risk is to ECNL’s dominant girls side. IMO ECNL bet it all on the boys, and are sacrificing the girls side in a future where the girls side is growing beyond collegiate soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

How would they prevent that if they don’t switch to SY?

They will go SY. No incentive for them not to switch.

Staying exclusive and still matching the international calendar. ECNL is taking a risk in this pivot when it comes to elite, especially for the boys, where it becomes less of a rival and more of a feeder.

Except for the academies, not a single MlSN club gives a shit about an international calendar. They care about college commits and drawing in more players.

That's not fair. MLSN academies don't care about the international calendar either. Heck, DCU hacked 20 percent of their teams and started charging tuition. International calendar not one of their issues for sure.

Then, why have they kept saying (or others for them) that they wanted to stay BY?

When does MLSN communicate about anything? It is not exactly their strong suit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-ECNL program lower than U9 is another money grab. We already have it here in our area for U11-U12 and it is a hot mess. The lower level clubs who are getting throttled in it hate it so much. It makes no sense.

Seems like it's more about partnering with smaller clubs and replacing USYS as the league for those clubs' top teams. Maybe that improves their development pipeline.

This is right. It is about finding feeder clubs. And ECNL’s growth is currently, (in a NL / RL model) top end limited - clubs typically can only have one team per age bracket and those teams have roster limits.

Think about this in a business model perspective. If big clubs have their own rec program, have classic, have tiers of competitive regional and national soccer (DPL, NPL, USYS NL, MLSN / ECNL / GA), the money for the club comes from the classic league and rec programs - that’s how they pay for staff and full time coaches at the top end.

ECNL’s share of wallet from that club is pretty small. AND ECNL’s ability to grow by adding clubs is relatively limited (time, talent and infrastructure).

So…how does ECNL grow its revenue? By seeking a larger share of wallet from the existing clubs, AND creating a product that can be scaled to clubs that they can’t bring into RL / NL for a variety of reasons (market size / saturation, financial resources, existing talent at the smaller club, etc).

ECNL is commercializing as a league. Which in youth sports, has never ended well for that league.

So, basically in a macro-sense USYS lost at the elite level with its NL and Elite64/Club Premier (even though it's still around and provides decent competition) and now US Club which is dominant in girls and No. 2 in boys at the elite level (ECNL) wants to grow by taking more of the USYS pie at the lower levels, the stronger state leagues, basically. And while many of these clubs already serve as pipelines to ECNL, they want to formalize them as they compete with MLSN/GA. Who knows they might eventually merge in some fashion if successful but then they may lose their edge in all the largess (similar to how USYS can struggle now).

One of the fundamental problems USYS faces, US Club does not. USYS is still straddled with 50+ state orgs and an ancient operating structure. Plus, for whatever reason, USYS feels they need to serve everyone regardless of costs. It is like the USPS model vs UPS/fedex.

ECNL doesn’t need to serve everyone, just everyone in their key markets. And once you have a customer, it is easier to keep them down the line.

The danger is in diluting their brand to where these leagues hurt their overall image. But with MLSN2, they probably feel the danger is worth it. Tier 2 was a direct shot on them…

So…AYSO? 🫣

I like ECNL. I have one kid in ECNL. ECNL is run by tweedle dum and tweedle dee. They are like a kid who misses a wide open goal because their eyes got too big. It seems to me their whole strategy is a miss based on their fear and ego.

I had an older on (now aged out and playing in college) in ECNL and a younger in MLSN1 for the last two years. If you think the leadership, communications and operations of ECNL are bad, then come check out MLSN! I'm positive MLSN has no clue why they are where they are how they got their.

I like it strictly because (at least in my area) it offers the highest/best level of play, undeniably. Beyond that, the USYS state leagues are better run and communicate better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

How would they prevent that if they don’t switch to SY?

They will go SY. No incentive for them not to switch.

Staying exclusive and still matching the international calendar. ECNL is taking a risk in this pivot when it comes to elite, especially for the boys, where it becomes less of a rival and more of a feeder.

For sure it was a risk, it will pay off with their growth in the lower tiers, and won’t likely change their losses to MLSN because they aren’t actually addressing MLSN’s competitive advantage over them.

But I think the bigger risk is to ECNL’s dominant girls side. IMO ECNL bet it all on the boys, and are sacrificing the girls side in a future where the girls side is growing beyond collegiate soccer.

The girl's side seems to have been slipping for them for the last few years, even without any changes to age groupings. They just now have decently organized competition who seems determined. Not sure what they can do other than hope GA stays BY, which will greatly benefit them as, after the initial shock and losing some players, their most dangerous competition will have siloed themselves into another market segment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

How would they prevent that if they don’t switch to SY?

They will go SY. No incentive for them not to switch.

Staying exclusive and still matching the international calendar. ECNL is taking a risk in this pivot when it comes to elite, especially for the boys, where it becomes less of a rival and more of a feeder.

What’s driving parents and kids most is being on the top team for their leagues, next is college recruiting, next is professional possibilities. Even if on average MLSN may have slightly better talent than ECNL, although depends on the region for sure, parents will switch leagues for RAE alone, SY, aligns more with college recruiting so ECNL would get that edge. It’s no risk to ECNL as they would have Aug-Jan talent lined up. the biggest thing is clubs having to create their teams each year using different age cutoffs. It doesn’t help them maintain the money making base of 3-5th teams when their pathway upward is confounded by their birth month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

How would they prevent that if they don’t switch to SY?

They will go SY. No incentive for them not to switch.

Staying exclusive and still matching the international calendar. ECNL is taking a risk in this pivot when it comes to elite, especially for the boys, where it becomes less of a rival and more of a feeder.

What’s driving parents and kids most is being on the top team for their leagues, next is college recruiting, next is professional possibilities. Even if on average MLSN may have slightly better talent than ECNL, although depends on the region for sure, parents will switch leagues for RAE alone, SY, aligns more with college recruiting so ECNL would get that edge. It’s no risk to ECNL as they would have Aug-Jan talent lined up. the biggest thing is clubs having to create their teams each year using different age cutoffs. It doesn’t help them maintain the money making base of 3-5th teams when their pathway upward is confounded by their birth month.

Youth -> College -> Professional

This is not the pathway anymore.

It’s:
Youth -> College
Youth -> Pro

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

How would they prevent that if they don’t switch to SY?

They will go SY. No incentive for them not to switch.

Staying exclusive and still matching the international calendar. ECNL is taking a risk in this pivot when it comes to elite, especially for the boys, where it becomes less of a rival and more of a feeder.

What’s driving parents and kids most is being on the top team for their leagues, next is college recruiting, next is professional possibilities. Even if on average MLSN may have slightly better talent than ECNL, although depends on the region for sure, parents will switch leagues for RAE alone, SY, aligns more with college recruiting so ECNL would get that edge. It’s no risk to ECNL as they would have Aug-Jan talent lined up. the biggest thing is clubs having to create their teams each year using different age cutoffs. It doesn’t help them maintain the money making base of 3-5th teams when their pathway upward is confounded by their birth month.

Youth -> College -> Professional

This is not the pathway anymore.

It’s:
Youth -> College
Youth -> Pro

It's youth then you get a job. Just have fun being a kid, son.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

MLSN teams will stop participating in ECNL SY tournamants. Which will force ECNL teams to play up in BY MLSN tournamants against MLSN teams if they want to go up in ranking.

See how that works. The sword cuts both ways.

None of the MLSN teams I know play any tournaments (with some rare exceptions). And the MlSN club tournaments absolutely cater to the SY USYS crowd. Their MLSN teams don’t even play in their own tournaments!

The idea that they would change their tournaments (which are huge money makers) in a way that discourages local USYS and other (soon to be SY) clubs is laughable.

Nobody is going to change the tournaments.

BY clubs will just engage in BY tournaments and SY clubs will only engage in SY tournaments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

MLSN teams will stop participating in ECNL SY tournamants. Which will force ECNL teams to play up in BY MLSN tournamants against MLSN teams if they want to go up in ranking.

See how that works. The sword cuts both ways.

None of the MLSN teams I know play any tournaments (with some rare exceptions). And the MlSN club tournaments absolutely cater to the SY USYS crowd. Their MLSN teams don’t even play in their own tournaments!

The idea that they would change their tournaments (which are huge money makers) in a way that discourages local USYS and other (soon to be SY) clubs is laughable.

Nobody is going to change the tournaments.

BY clubs will just engage in BY tournaments and SY clubs will only engage in SY tournaments.

It will all move aug1 . Too much money to be made with access to the whole pie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

MLSN teams will stop participating in ECNL SY tournamants. Which will force ECNL teams to play up in BY MLSN tournamants against MLSN teams if they want to go up in ranking.

See how that works. The sword cuts both ways.

Thank you for the "just because" logic. But that's not what's going to happen.
None of the MLSN teams I know play any tournaments (with some rare exceptions). And the MlSN club tournaments absolutely cater to the SY USYS crowd. Their MLSN teams don’t even play in their own tournaments!

The idea that they would change their tournaments (which are huge money makers) in a way that discourages local USYS and other (soon to be SY) clubs is laughable.

Nobody is going to change the tournaments.

BY clubs will just engage in BY tournaments and SY clubs will only engage in SY tournaments.

It will all move aug1 . Too much money to be made with access to the whole pie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN won’t give up their progress in being the top boys league and lose top august-Dec players(customers) to ECNL.

MLSN teams will stop participating in ECNL SY tournamants. Which will force ECNL teams to play up in BY MLSN tournamants against MLSN teams if they want to go up in ranking.

See how that works. The sword cuts both ways.

None of the MLSN teams I know play any tournaments (with some rare exceptions). And the MlSN club tournaments absolutely cater to the SY USYS crowd. Their MLSN teams don’t even play in their own tournaments!

The idea that they would change their tournaments (which are huge money makers) in a way that discourages local USYS and other (soon to be SY) clubs is laughable.

Nobody is going to change the tournaments.

BY clubs will just engage in BY tournaments and SY clubs will only engage in SY tournaments.

Problem is they’re all school year clubs with mlsn clubs having a small minority of their teams still by.

[Anonymous]

There will be no BY and SY tournaments. Everyone is going SY. Good night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will be no BY and SY tournaments. Everyone is going SY. Good night.

MLSN1 will go to SY except MLS Academy. Argue all you want until you hear the official news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will be no BY and SY tournaments. Everyone is going SY. Good night.

MLSN1 will go to SY except MLS Academy. Argue all you want until you hear the official news.

Will they still allow biobanding?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will be no BY and SY tournaments. Everyone is going SY. Good night.

MLSN1 will go to SY except MLS Academy. Argue all you want until you hear the official news.

Huh? As of right now, with no “official news”, MLSN is business as usual…BY. Argue all YOU want. 🤣