ECNL moving to school year part 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN could stay BY if they can stay atop of the pyramid. Even the best SY players would still covet joining a MLSN team if it brought greater opportunity and exposure -- just like the YNTs.

This is a very surface level statement. What does that actually look like on a day to day basis? How do MLSN clubs with 4-5 teams in the youth age groups structure their feeder program? How to clubs attract large numbers of aug-dec birthdays if they have to skip an age group. What does mlsn1 vs 2 do as far as staying BY or 8/1 and how does that decision impact each other? How does the league attract outside clubs to expand when all those clubs are 8/1?

MLSnext is connected to MLS and will probably always be the top of the pyramid. That doesn’t matter, the league still needs to be profitable. What’s more likely is the league doesn’t have a good plan to address the questions above, over time isn’t profitable, and is eventually forced to switch to 8/1.

No, I think you're overthinking the supposed problems this causes. All these issues are exactly what the YNT will now face in building their player pools -- but all those players will fight hand over fist to be apart of it. If MLSN can maintain that same level of scarcity and demand, they'll be fine. Also, lf MLSN stays BY, it might be another/stronger pathway to the YNTs (as well as college because of level of talent it attracts). In this scenario, clubs will adapt to them, not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN could stay BY if they can stay atop of the pyramid. Even the best SY players would still covet joining a MLSN team if it brought greater opportunity and exposure -- just like the YNTs.

Not based on what I’m hearing from our late birthday MLsN parents across several age groups. It is hello ECNL and the coaches know it too.

Good job trying to foment FOMO!

Okay, keep your head in the sand then

OK, go ECNL. It may not work as well as you think, especially if you are already playing 11v11, and YNTs stay BY.

[Anonymous]

To best combat RAE, it'd be a pain the butt administratively, but probably better for the system as a whole if MLSN stayed BY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN could stay BY if they can stay atop of the pyramid. Even the best SY players would still covet joining a MLSN team if it brought greater opportunity and exposure -- just like the YNTs.

This is a very surface level statement. What does that actually look like on a day to day basis? How do MLSN clubs with 4-5 teams in the youth age groups structure their feeder program? How to clubs attract large numbers of aug-dec birthdays if they have to skip an age group. What does mlsn1 vs 2 do as far as staying BY or 8/1 and how does that decision impact each other? How does the league attract outside clubs to expand when all those clubs are 8/1?

MLSnext is connected to MLS and will probably always be the top of the pyramid. That doesn’t matter, the league still needs to be profitable. What’s more likely is the league doesn’t have a good plan to address the questions above, over time isn’t profitable, and is eventually forced to switch to 8/1.

No, I think you're overthinking the supposed problems this causes. All these issues are exactly what the YNT will now face in building their player pools -- but all those players will fight hand over fist to be apart of it. If MLSN can maintain that same level of scarcity and demand, they'll be fine. Also, lf MLSN stays BY, it might be another/stronger pathway to the YNTs (as well as college because of level of talent it attracts). In this scenario, clubs will adapt to them, not the other way around.

And I don’t think you’re thinking about the systems levels issues enough. The YNT aren’t part of the club youth soccer system, they are isolated by themselves. YNT are funded by the US soccer federation. Club soccer and YNT soccer are completely different systems.

That’s not the case for MLSnext. This a league that is funded based on payments from clubs which are funded based on payments from parents. The money flows up. MLSnext 2 is nothing more than a money maker for the league to help support the levels on top. Maybe mlsnext is incredibly altruistic and is not out to make money… they still need to break even and won’t continue very long if they are in the red.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN could stay BY if they can stay atop of the pyramid. Even the best SY players would still covet joining a MLSN team if it brought greater opportunity and exposure -- just like the YNTs.

This is a very surface level statement. What does that actually look like on a day to day basis? How do MLSN clubs with 4-5 teams in the youth age groups structure their feeder program? How to clubs attract large numbers of aug-dec birthdays if they have to skip an age group. What does mlsn1 vs 2 do as far as staying BY or 8/1 and how does that decision impact each other? How does the league attract outside clubs to expand when all those clubs are 8/1?

MLSnext is connected to MLS and will probably always be the top of the pyramid. That doesn’t matter, the league still needs to be profitable. What’s more likely is the league doesn’t have a good plan to address the questions above, over time isn’t profitable, and is eventually forced to switch to 8/1.

No, I think you're overthinking the supposed problems this causes. All these issues are exactly what the YNT will now face in building their player pools -- but all those players will fight hand over fist to be apart of it. If MLSN can maintain that same level of scarcity and demand, they'll be fine. Also, lf MLSN stays BY, it might be another/stronger pathway to the YNTs (as well as college because of level of talent it attracts). In this scenario, clubs will adapt to them, not the other way around.

And I don’t think you’re thinking about the systems levels issues enough. The YNT aren’t part of the club youth soccer system, they are isolated by themselves. YNT are funded by the US soccer federation. Club soccer and YNT soccer are completely different systems.

That’s not the case for MLSnext. This a league that is funded based on payments from clubs which are funded based on payments from parents. The money flows up. MLSnext 2 is nothing more than a money maker for the league to help support the levels on top. Maybe mlsnext is incredibly altruistic and is not out to make money… they still need to break even and won’t continue very long if they are in the red.

The pinch point is going to exist somewhere. It's better for all of US soccer if it can be within the youth P2P system as long as the international standard stays BY. Whomever figures out how to make it profitable AND produce the best BY team will win OR if we don't, we'll continue to lose as a country, anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN could stay BY if they can stay atop of the pyramid. Even the best SY players would still covet joining a MLSN team if it brought greater opportunity and exposure -- just like the YNTs.

This is a very surface level statement. What does that actually look like on a day to day basis? How do MLSN clubs with 4-5 teams in the youth age groups structure their feeder program? How to clubs attract large numbers of aug-dec birthdays if they have to skip an age group. What does mlsn1 vs 2 do as far as staying BY or 8/1 and how does that decision impact each other? How does the league attract outside clubs to expand when all those clubs are 8/1?

MLSnext is connected to MLS and will probably always be the top of the pyramid. That doesn’t matter, the league still needs to be profitable. What’s more likely is the league doesn’t have a good plan to address the questions above, over time isn’t profitable, and is eventually forced to switch to 8/1.

No, I think you're overthinking the supposed problems this causes. All these issues are exactly what the YNT will now face in building their player pools -- but all those players will fight hand over fist to be apart of it. If MLSN can maintain that same level of scarcity and demand, they'll be fine. Also, lf MLSN stays BY, it might be another/stronger pathway to the YNTs (as well as college because of level of talent it attracts). In this scenario, clubs will adapt to them, not the other way around.

And I don’t think you’re thinking about the systems levels issues enough. The YNT aren’t part of the club youth soccer system, they are isolated by themselves. YNT are funded by the US soccer federation. Club soccer and YNT soccer are completely different systems.

That’s not the case for MLSnext. This a league that is funded based on payments from clubs which are funded based on payments from parents. The money flows up. MLSnext 2 is nothing more than a money maker for the league to help support the levels on top. Maybe mlsnext is incredibly altruistic and is not out to make money… they still need to break even and won’t continue very long if they are in the red.

The pinch point is going to exist somewhere. It's better for all of US soccer if it can be within the youth P2P system as long as the international standard stays BY. Whomever figures out how to make it profitable AND produce the best BY team will win OR if we don't, we'll continue to lose as a country, anyway.

Youth soccer age cutoff and success of national teams don’t correlate at all. Nothing supports this assumption and even US tried a different age cutoff with no appreciable change in our NT performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLSN could stay BY if they can stay atop of the pyramid. Even the best SY players would still covet joining a MLSN team if it brought greater opportunity and exposure -- just like the YNTs.

Not based on what I’m hearing from our late birthday MLsN parents across several age men groups. It is hello ECNL and the coaches know it too.

Good job trying to foment FOMO!

Okay, keep your head in the sand then

OK, go ECNL. It may not work as well as you think, especially if you are already playing 11v11, and YNTs stay BY.

YNT and age cutoff of youth soccer has no correlation. If you have the extremely rare kid with YNT quality they will get noticed regardless what league they play.