GA & MLS NEXT Form Strategic Alliance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where does USL's new womens pro league https://www.uslsuperleague.com fit in all this? 8 teams started playing this year. 8 new teams next year. Well funded and direct new competitor to NWSL.

A lot of the takes here assume all the established players remain the same. I think there is more disruption possible and need to take a wider view what could happen. It seems like if this new league were looking to establish a direct academy to pro model, GA might be a strong partner to create an alternative to the established ECNL-NCAA-NWSL system. The womens pro, college, youth landscape might look very different in a few years.

Puts more pressure on NWSL to implement a homegrown rule to lock down top youth players before they have a chance to play for USL or wherever.

The MLSN + GA link seems better aligned to this than ECNL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does USL's new womens pro league https://www.uslsuperleague.com fit in all this? 8 teams started playing this year. 8 new teams next year. Well funded and direct new competitor to NWSL.

A lot of the takes here assume all the established players remain the same. I think there is more disruption possible and need to take a wider view what could happen. It seems like if this new league were looking to establish a direct academy to pro model, GA might be a strong partner to create an alternative to the established ECNL-NCAA-NWSL system. The womens pro, college, youth landscape might look very different in a few years.

Puts more pressure on NWSL to implement a homegrown rule to lock down top youth players before they have a chance to play for USL or wherever.

The MLSN + GA link seems better aligned to this than ECNL.

MLS doesn’t have a homegrown rule anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does USL's new womens pro league https://www.uslsuperleague.com fit in all this? 8 teams started playing this year. 8 new teams next year. Well funded and direct new competitor to NWSL.

A lot of the takes here assume all the established players remain the same. I think there is more disruption possible and need to take a wider view what could happen. It seems like if this new league were looking to establish a direct academy to pro model, GA might be a strong partner to create an alternative to the established ECNL-NCAA-NWSL system. The womens pro, college, youth landscape might look very different in a few years.

Puts more pressure on NWSL to implement a homegrown rule to lock down top youth players before they have a chance to play for USL or wherever.

The MLSN + GA link seems better aligned to this than ECNL.

MLS doesn’t have a homegrown rule anymore.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homegrown_Player_Rule_(MLS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does USL's new womens pro league https://www.uslsuperleague.com fit in all this? 8 teams started playing this year. 8 new teams next year. Well funded and direct new competitor to NWSL.

A lot of the takes here assume all the established players remain the same. I think there is more disruption possible and need to take a wider view what could happen. It seems like if this new league were looking to establish a direct academy to pro model, GA might be a strong partner to create an alternative to the established ECNL-NCAA-NWSL system. The womens pro, college, youth landscape might look very different in a few years.

Puts more pressure on NWSL to implement a homegrown rule to lock down top youth players before they have a chance to play for USL or wherever.

The MLSN + GA link seems better aligned to this than ECNL.

MLS doesn’t have a homegrown rule anymore.

Can you explain your comment in more detail? I'm curious to understand your perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where does USL's new womens pro league https://www.uslsuperleague.com fit in all this? 8 teams started playing this year. 8 new teams next year. Well funded and direct new competitor to NWSL.

A lot of the takes here assume all the established players remain the same. I think there is more disruption possible and need to take a wider view what could happen. It seems like if this new league were looking to establish a direct academy to pro model, GA might be a strong partner to create an alternative to the established ECNL-NCAA-NWSL system. The womens pro, college, youth landscape might look very different in a few years.

I don’t think it’s going to last long. It’s like having 2 WNBA leagues. 1 league can barely survive how can two?

The NWSL only has a few teams to turn profit. That USL league is forcing their growth instead of having it grow organically. 8 brand new teams for 2025? So a 16 team league in two years…the NWSL has 14 (15 with Boston) and they were founded in 2012.

The truth is most people don’t support women sports (soccer) enough to support two pro leagues. And also the NWSL has all the faces of the US national team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does USL's new womens pro league https://www.uslsuperleague.com fit in all this? 8 teams started playing this year. 8 new teams next year. Well funded and direct new competitor to NWSL.

A lot of the takes here assume all the established players remain the same. I think there is more disruption possible and need to take a wider view what could happen. It seems like if this new league were looking to establish a direct academy to pro model, GA might be a strong partner to create an alternative to the established ECNL-NCAA-NWSL system. The womens pro, college, youth landscape might look very different in a few years.

I don’t think it’s going to last long. It’s like having 2 WNBA leagues. 1 league can barely survive how can two?

The NWSL only has a few teams to turn profit. That USL league is forcing their growth instead of having it grow organically. 8 brand new teams for 2025? So a 16 team league in two years…the NWSL has 14 (15 with Boston) and they were founded in 2012.

The truth is most people don’t support women sports (soccer) enough to support two pro leagues. And also the NWSL has all the faces of the US national team.

Most likely they will merge at some point. Both NBA and NFL had two leagues at one point and then merged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where does USL's new womens pro league https://www.uslsuperleague.com fit in all this? 8 teams started playing this year. 8 new teams next year. Well funded and direct new competitor to NWSL.

A lot of the takes here assume all the established players remain the same. I think there is more disruption possible and need to take a wider view what could happen. It seems like if this new league were looking to establish a direct academy to pro model, GA might be a strong partner to create an alternative to the established ECNL-NCAA-NWSL system. The womens pro, college, youth landscape might look very different in a few years.

I don’t think it’s going to last long. It’s like having 2 WNBA leagues. 1 league can barely survive how can two?

The NWSL only has a few teams to turn profit. That USL league is forcing their growth instead of having it grow organically. 8 brand new teams for 2025? So a 16 team league in two years…the NWSL has 14 (15 with Boston) and they were founded in 2012.

The truth is most people don’t support women sports (soccer) enough to support two pro leagues. And also the NWSL has all the faces of the US national team.

Most likely they will merge at some point. Both NBA and NFL had two leagues at one point and then merged.

Will never happen.

Existing NWSL owners make $$$ when new expansion club owners buy their way into the league.

It wouldn't make sense to buy USL out or merge their clubs in for free.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Same freak responded 3x lol.

Look up how many teams have mls next and ECNL. Look up how many teams have GA and ECNL. I’ll let your mind do the rest of the work.

Now I'm confused. Say what?

Only club around here that already has MLSN and GA together is everyones favorite SYC. Does this make them more stable and prepared for the long haul? Or does it not matter because nobody actually wants this combo because the MLSN and ECNL combo u=is preferred? Does it mattter, I don't think it does but if you are trying to integrate training and methodologies and want to give players cross training opportunities at all levels. I"m no genius but one combo does make more sense if they are already partnered.

In the past one could say that girls ECNL was better than GA and that MLSN was better than boys ECNL…

This alliance now makes GA/MLSN = ECNL…possibly better if it becomes the only path to the pros.. you see there…

You can no longer just compare ECNL to GA. You will have to compare ECNL to the Alliance

The main path to NWSL for youth players has been ECNL. Hard to see that changing anytime soon. MLSNext is a boys league

No, the main path to NWSL has been college. ECNL is the main path to college. There is no special link between ECNL and NWSL. I think that's the open space here to provide an alternative path to NWSL that isn't just college.

Correctomundo. And those that don’t go to NWSL still go to college

I think the bigger point here isn’t ECNL to College, but rather Youth to Pro on the girls side. If you don’t see that wave coming, you’re blind.

ECNL just doubled down on Youth to College.
The NCAA is doubling down on chaos. And GA just placed its bet on Youth to Pro. If you can’t see that, you’re blind.

GA’s bet looks like a risky one, but it isn’t, because of the pot odds, it’s actually very savvy and has a tremendous EV for very little wagered.

ECNL however basically just put their future in the hands of a newly unstable bipolar scratch ticket addict (the NCAA). Their bet looks like “business as usual” but the payoff of business as usual is linear and low payoff, so they made a huge bet on a small payoff. Sounds smart, but it’s closer to a coin flip than a sure thing, so it’s actually a pretty bad bet, with a negative EV because of the bet size.

ECNL is suffering from the innovators dilemma. Whereas GA has little to lose at trying new things.

Fine to be called blind but I really do not think there is a market for Youth to Pro on the girls side. No market at all. Sure you could fill the seats but at least half if not more of the top girls would stay on the Youth to College path. NCAA is not all that unstable when you go outside of revenue sports. Actually doing fine.

But there is a bigger problem with your analysis. GA did not place a bet on Youth to Pro. What they did was enter into an agreement that paves the way for future work and agreements. The GA Youth to Pro is at best 3-5 years in the future and will take 3-5 years to get off the ground is MLS acadamies are a guide. 6-10 years is a long time. I agreee you have to start somewhere and this may be the start.

If the top GA teams leave this year -- GA dies.

You are having a hard time understanding how this would work. No one is saying that this pathway to pro would make everyone on a specific team a pro player.

What will happen (see any MLS Academy) is that they will attract the top talent in an area. The very top players could “possibly” go pro, while the 99.9% have a guaranteed roster spot on the top colleges.

Unfortunately there are no big money European teams willing to pay millions for a few NWSL academy graduates to fund the academies, there are very few pro women roster slots with only 14 teams and the average player makes $65k. Limited supply and limited demand now and at least for the next decade.

Soccer is choosing to pretend GA is something it isn't with a press release and no real actual action rather than supporting girls club soccer with funds through any of these leagues. Not a great sign for the future of the women's NT.

The fact is the top of the pyramid for women’s soccer in the US right now is college. That’s where most of the money comes from (total college scholarships/NIL money is more than what NWSL provides). The leagues are set up to support college as the destination. This will remain until there is more money coming from the pro system. On the men’s side pro system has more money than colleges so it works differently. Follow the money, people. The pro money needs to be there first before the system that everyone here wants can happen. The system doesn’t change first.

No…the top of the pyramid for women’s soccer is not college…😂 that’s the top of most soccer players careers…that doesn’t make it the top of the pyramid.

The top of the money pyramid is college. More money in college soccer than pro for women. For men the pro game has way more money even if most of it is outside the US. The money source drives the system.

😆 where are you getting this stuff man? No…there is absolutely not more money in women’s college soccer than in women’s professional soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With how the NCAA is heading, I'm not sure that there's as going to be as much funding for non revenue sports as there once was, and soccer doesn't drive revenue in the college world.

Title 9

Doesn't mean much. Soon all NCAA sports will have less participation. Colleges will choose which women's sports they will participate in to offset the men's teams. Women's soccer is one of many options.

This!

Title 9 is going to be struck down in the next few years.

Non-football / basketball sports are going to be a shadow of what they were 3 years ago. This can of worms is going to get worse before congress steps in again.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think we will know more in January 2025 when the rumors of clubs leaving start floating around… my thoughts are MLSN tries to squeeze some clubs into not leaving GA and forcing some clubs to come to GA to keep mls next.

The SY/by thing may have pissed them off enough to end ecnl boys once and for all

I can see this happening.

It would be nice to see ECNL get a taste of the pressure they've been applying to girls clubs.

You think that girls clubs were pressured to leave the GA and come to the ECNL? You think they didn’t jump at the chance?

lol wait till ECNL boys want a taste of mls next…

Very easy to tell where all of you are from. Only care about the boys program. Girls program is secondary. Girls sports don’t matter. We all know the club…

Orrrrrr….you can still be a huge support of girls sports and not pretend the landscape realities are not largely fixated on the boys….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where does USL's new womens pro league https://www.uslsuperleague.com fit in all this? 8 teams started playing this year. 8 new teams next year. Well funded and direct new competitor to NWSL.

A lot of the takes here assume all the established players remain the same. I think there is more disruption possible and need to take a wider view what could happen. It seems like if this new league were looking to establish a direct academy to pro model, GA might be a strong partner to create an alternative to the established ECNL-NCAA-NWSL system. The womens pro, college, youth landscape might look very different in a few years.

Ugh…you mean the league that has is the drain trap of talent? And takes a few over the hill “player-coaches” on roster to get PR?

It’s not going to be a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With how the NCAA is heading, I'm not sure that there's as going to be as much funding for non revenue sports as there once was, and soccer doesn't drive revenue in the college world.

Title 9

Doesn't mean much. Soon all NCAA sports will have less participation. Colleges will choose which women's sports they will participate in to offset the men's teams. Women's soccer is one of many options.

This!

Title 9 is going to be struck down in the next few years.

Non-football / basketball sports are going to be a shadow of what they were 3 years ago. This can of worms is going to get worse before congress steps in again.

Struck down? How? Not the same as the race based stuff.

[Anonymous]

Seems like other forums are spewing similar ideas about what’s to come.

MLSN may go for ecnls throat next. That’s something to lookout for in the near future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like other forums are spewing similar ideas about what’s to come.

MLSN may go for ecnls throat next. That’s something to lookout for in the near future.

MLSN could have taken out ECNL boys any time they wanted to. However for the most part MLSN has chosen to ignore ECNL.

ECNL on the other hand tries to leverage Girls ECNL into clubs participating in Boys ECNL.

Now that GA and MLSN are partnering it remains to be seem if they'll start leveraging their marketshare to push ECNL our of clubs. (Like how ECNL does with their girls program) If this happens ECNL boys clubs will jump at the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With how the NCAA is heading, I'm not sure that there's as going to be as much funding for non revenue sports as there once was, and soccer doesn't drive revenue in the college world.

Title 9

Doesn't mean much. Soon all NCAA sports will have less participation. Colleges will choose which women's sports they will participate in to offset the men's teams. Women's soccer is one of many options.

This!

Title 9 is going to be struck down in the next few years.

Non-football / basketball sports are going to be a shadow of what they were 3 years ago. This can of worms is going to get worse before congress steps in again.

Struck down? How? Not the same as the race based stuff.

Just wait and see. 🤣 they’re coming for it. They’ve even said they’re coming for it.