Implications of DC United plan on Loudoun Soccer?

[Anonymous]

DC United asks for more money and public parkland for second stadium before first one ($183 million in public money) has even opened. The MLS stadium is only going to be in use 17 days a year, so they couldn’t let the B team use it on the A team’s days off? That’s what Orlando City SC does.

Bolen , 405-acres features baseball, softball, football, lacrosse, and soccer complexes, as well as trails, natural woodlands, picnic areas and a visitors’ center. Loudoun is set to consider whether to spend $15 million to tear down public soccer fields and replace them with private soccer fields. (Or maybe tear down lacrosse fields or natural woodlands).

The whole thing is strange. I am not sure what it is doing for the County. Not really a big public benefit and not a $-maker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC United asks for more money and public parkland for second stadium before first one ($183 million in public money) has even opened. The MLS stadium is only going to be in use 17 days a year, so they couldn’t let the B team use it on the A team’s days off? That’s what Orlando City SC does.

Bolen , 405-acres features baseball, softball, football, lacrosse, and soccer complexes, as well as trails, natural woodlands, picnic areas and a visitors’ center. Loudoun is set to consider whether to spend $15 million to tear down public soccer fields and replace them with private soccer fields. (Or maybe tear down lacrosse fields or natural woodlands).

The whole thing is strange. I am not sure what it is doing for the County. Not really a big public benefit and not a $-maker.

DC United can rent out a smaller sized stadium with adjacent fields very easily as well as host tournaments. Think Maryland Soccerplex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC United asks for more money and public parkland for second stadium before first one ($183 million in public money) has even opened. The MLS stadium is only going to be in use 17 days a year, so they couldn’t let the B team use it on the A team’s days off? That’s what Orlando City SC does.

Bolen , 405-acres features baseball, softball, football, lacrosse, and soccer complexes, as well as trails, natural woodlands, picnic areas and a visitors’ center. Loudoun is set to consider whether to spend $15 million to tear down public soccer fields and replace them with private soccer fields. (Or maybe tear down lacrosse fields or natural woodlands).

The whole thing is strange. I am not sure what it is doing for the County. Not really a big public benefit and not a $-maker.

DC United can rent out a smaller sized stadium with adjacent fields very easily as well as host tournaments. Think Maryland Soccerplex.

Yes and get rid of all of the public fields and more of the space for other sports. The revenue for this goes to DC United, not Loudoun County, correct?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC United asks for more money and public parkland for second stadium before first one ($183 million in public money) has even opened. The MLS stadium is only going to be in use 17 days a year, so they couldn’t let the B team use it on the A team’s days off? That’s what Orlando City SC does.

Bolen , 405-acres features baseball, softball, football, lacrosse, and soccer complexes, as well as trails, natural woodlands, picnic areas and a visitors’ center. Loudoun is set to consider whether to spend $15 million to tear down public soccer fields and replace them with private soccer fields. (Or maybe tear down lacrosse fields or natural woodlands).

The whole thing is strange. I am not sure what it is doing for the County. Not really a big public benefit and not a $-maker.

DC United can rent out a smaller sized stadium with adjacent fields very easily as well as host tournaments. Think Maryland Soccerplex.

Yes and get rid of all of the public fields and more of the space for other sports. The revenue for this goes to DC United, not Loudoun County, correct?

I have no way of knowing what the details are. Who knows what stipulations will be placed on DC United. Perhaps the sale plus tax revenue is a better deal than maintaining the facility is? I dunno. We can speculate though.

[Anonymous]

Two of the most expensive soccer stadiums for the last place team in the MLS--20 losses, 5 wins. I am not sure the $ is worth it for another stadium.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP Here. Completely agree that if they take the merger route Loudoun would lose its DA vs DCU. Besides merger/partnership and coexistence with literally a fence divIding the two organizations, what are the other options?

Frankly for Loudoun there are no options short of suing to prevent the move in the first place. There is literally nothing Loudoun has that DC United needs.

Loudoun has money and a huge player pool. I wouldn’t be surprised if Loudoun soccer makes more money than DC United. If the two clubs merged and streamlined operations they could easily have the money to fully fund the academy teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP Here. Completely agree that if they take the merger route Loudoun would lose its DA vs DCU. Besides merger/partnership and coexistence with literally a fence divIding the two organizations, what are the other options?

Frankly for Loudoun there are no options short of suing to prevent the move in the first place. There is literally nothing Loudoun has that DC United needs.

Loudoun has money and a huge player pool. I wouldn’t be surprised if Loudoun soccer makes more money than DC United. If the two clubs merged and streamlined operations they could easily have the money to fully fund the academy teams.

Lol! Why would DC United merge and what would be the point for Loudoun?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP Here. Completely agree that if they take the merger route Loudoun would lose its DA vs DCU. Besides merger/partnership and coexistence with literally a fence divIding the two organizations, what are the other options?

Frankly for Loudoun there are no options short of suing to prevent the move in the first place. There is literally nothing Loudoun has that DC United needs.

Loudoun has money and a huge player pool. I wouldn’t be surprised if Loudoun soccer makes more money than DC United. If the two clubs merged and streamlined operations they could easily have the money to fully fund the academy teams.

Lol! Why would DC United merge and what would be the point for Loudoun?

I'd agree, I don't see any need to merge with the exception of the lower DA programs where Loudoun truly becomes a feeder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP Here. Completely agree that if they take the merger route Loudoun would lose its DA vs DCU. Besides merger/partnership and coexistence with literally a fence divIding the two organizations, what are the other options?

Frankly for Loudoun there are no options short of suing to prevent the move in the first place. There is literally nothing Loudoun has that DC United needs.

Loudoun has money and a huge player pool. I wouldn’t be surprised if Loudoun soccer makes more money than DC United. If the two clubs merged and streamlined operations they could easily have the money to fully fund the academy teams.

Lol! Why would DC United merge and what would be the point for Loudoun?

I'd agree, I don't see any need to merge with the exception of the lower DA programs where Loudoun truly becomes a feeder.

DC United run ID sessions all the time and everywhere. They generally don't need a single feeder and in all likelihood most Loudoun kids would simply tryout for DCU anyway without spending a dime. I think it is more likely that in time DCU simply buys Loudoun Soccer than they would merge. And that would be YEARS away if it ever happened.

Another possible outcome is in order to maintain a DA presence Loudoun makes a bid to buy FCV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With DCU’s plan to build more fields and a stadium for training and a USL team at Bolen Park, what do you think the effect will be on Loudoun Soccer? All good, or will there be negative impact on the club itself?

How far out are these plans? It obviously won't impact this year. Does anyone know when the fields will open?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP Here. Completely agree that if they take the merger route Loudoun would lose its DA vs DCU. Besides merger/partnership and coexistence with literally a fence divIding the two organizations, what are the other options?

Frankly for Loudoun there are no options short of suing to prevent the move in the first place. There is literally nothing Loudoun has that DC United needs.

Loudoun has money and a huge player pool. I wouldn’t be surprised if Loudoun soccer makes more money than DC United. If the two clubs merged and streamlined operations they could easily have the money to fully fund the academy teams.

Lol! Why would DC United merge and what would be the point for Loudoun?

I'd agree, I don't see any need to merge with the exception of the lower DA programs where Loudoun truly becomes a feeder.

Frankly, most Loudoun DA kids are not good enough for DCU academy team. Loudoun DA will probably lose 2-3 top players in each age group to DCU, but other than that I don't think DCU would have much effect on Loudoun player pool. However, if DCU adopts FC Dallas and Chicago Fire model with multiple tiers of their club "jr. academy" teams with thousands of kids in pay-to-play model below their free to play academy, it could be a big money maker for DCU and a real threat to Loudoun. I don't think it is likely, but if DCU does it then all bets are off.

[Anonymous]

Actually, loudoun boys DA is through U15, not U14.

Loudoun DA teams haven’t played DC United this season, but in years past they haven’t had any issues being competitive with DCU.

Here’s how it works. DCU likes a player from another DA, they go after them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not really seeing kids from Arlington and surrounding areas, DC or MD currently at DCU going out to Loudoun 4 times per week just to practice plus games. This will hurt the diversity of players from many different areas available for DCU's player pool.

So they aren’t going to have any teams with regular DC practices? There goes the DC, Arlington, Alexandria, Annandale, Gunston, parts of Maryland diverse player pool that DC United used to attract.

Loudoun is American football, baseball heavy in older years. Other than the vast amounts of unused land I can’t come up with a single reason for that area to be a home base. It is cheap land period. DC has no land to build.

So now you have Loudoun, DC United, FCV and FCBescola all sitting on top of one another.

How many current DC United Academy kids are going to leave with this geographic move? I guess they will need to start all over.

I wonder if Barron will commute from DC.

It is still two years out so not an immediate concern.

Oh. People were talking like it's taking place immediately. 2 years for some older kids is irrelevant. They can stay in DC during that time. Arlington and Loudoun don't have DA after U14 so it will only affect older kids anyways.

Arlington has boys U15 DA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not really seeing kids from Arlington and surrounding areas, DC or MD currently at DCU going out to Loudoun 4 times per week just to practice plus games. This will hurt the diversity of players from many different areas available for DCU's player pool.

So they aren’t going to have any teams with regular DC practices? There goes the DC, Arlington, Alexandria, Annandale, Gunston, parts of Maryland diverse player pool that DC United used to attract.

Loudoun is American football, baseball heavy in older years. Other than the vast amounts of unused land I can’t come up with a single reason for that area to be a home base. It is cheap land period. DC has no land to build.

So now you have Loudoun, DC United, FCV and FCBescola all sitting on top of one another.

How many current DC United Academy kids are going to leave with this geographic move? I guess they will need to start all over.

I wonder if Barron will commute from DC.

It is still two years out so not an immediate concern.

Barron plays for Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually, loudoun boys DA is through U15, not U14.

Loudoun DA teams haven’t played DC United this season, but in years past they haven’t had any issues being competitive with DCU.

Here’s how it works. DCU likes a player from another DA, they go after them.

Has Loudoun DA made DA playoffs in any of the age groups? DCU is regularly in DA playoffs in multiple age groups. I am not saying Loudoun's DA players are terrible, but it is unlikely that DCU would be interested in more than a couple of Loudoun players per age group. This year DCU added a number of players from different DAs and clubs (with Arlington being the biggest contributor), but did not add a single player from Loudoun DA (although I think one of the kids that came to DCU from Bethesda DA used to play for Loudoun in the past). While Loudoun DA may lose a handful of its very top players to DCU once DCU DA moves to Loudoun, I think most of Loudoun's DA players will stay put.