Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

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03/22/2017 10:15

Subject: Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I agree CCL will outlast NPL with most of it's clubs staying put. I think NPL and ECNL will eventually have to combine to stay relevant.

Your statement screams ignorance. VPL is a league made by teams in southern VA that wanted better competition, NOVA clubs later joined in. ECNL is specifically to have higher level competition for girls in their latter stages of their youth in order to showcased, scouted, and play in college. The identification for NPL is through the PDP and Id2 programs for individuals, not team focused. For boys, a newly created ENPL will allow teams in NPL's across the nation compete for national level status. It is to compete with USYS National competition and US soccer DA programs. The structure is already in place for ECNL for scouts to come, why would a few girls moving from ECNL to DA disrupt that. Everyone seems to think if you're not in ECNL it's probably because you can't cut it. I a would argue the more elite level of platforms available, the more players will be interested in competing at that level.

VPL was created for better competition ? Isn't that the league that most of the clubs with ECNL and DA put their second tier teams ?

The U.S. soccer federation directly runs the boys and girls DA program. http://www.ussoccerda.com/home.php. Clearly, they also have a national footprint.

US Club soccer is the parent organization for ECNL, ENPL, and NPL leagues. http://usclubsoccer.org (check the "about" tab). They also run the id2 program. US Club soccer and ECNL have a national footprint, and looks like ENPL will be the same.

US Youth Soccer (http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/) runs ODP and a national league (the Eastern Regional League for this area) -- so a national footprint, although waning in stature, according to folks on this blog. They're the primary national organization for the various youth state leagues (like VYSA http://www.vysa.com) which is why ODP feeds into the US Youth Soccer national league competition/championship. And the state-sponsered State Cup competitions also fall under the US Youth Soccer umbrella.

NCSL and ODSL are local leagues for local clubs, as was WAGS before it was absorbed by NCSL. CCL is a self-described elite league, but it too is local, only serving this region. CCL as a league does not have the nation-wide affiliations, sponsorship, and contacts of the three organizations above. That's why CCL is more likely to wane, and more quickly, than NPL, which has a natural feeder affiliation via US CLub Soccer with the ECNL (girls) and new ENPL (boys) teams.

For what it's worth, VYSA (especially ODP coaching staff) and CCL are very closely tied together, so that may be where CCL goes to try to get some additional juice to compete with other leagues.

Thank you for this. It's so helpful to have a clear picture of the various league structures in one place. Since you seem knowledgeable about the overall picture, I had a couple of questions I was hoping you (or anyone else who may know) could answer:

What is motivating ECNL leadership to try to interfere and compete with the girls' DA? I completely understand why the ECNL people would take pride in creating and maintaining the top league for the girls' these last few years, and I know that USSF was ham handed (at a minimum) in the rollout of the girls' DA--it's not at all clear to me why they wouldn't have collaborated with ECNL given that there was a structure already in place. But it seems that USSF, as our top soccer body, ought to be the one running the feeder league for the women's national team (and, more realistically for most, the top college programs), and also that they ought to be investing in the girls' side as they have been in the boys' side for equity reasons if nothing else. The boys' DA for the older ages is relatively affordable for almost all players at most clubs (and hopefully this will be true of the girls' DA eventually too), while ECNL is very expensive for almost all players.

Is it wounded pride on ECNL's part? I was struck by how the people who formed WAGS were deeply opposed to the merger with NCSL, though clearly that merger made sense to any objective person, and wondered if this was similar. Or is there a money motive for either the leadership or member clubs? I'm not at all sure it's a good thing to have a 2d tier "elite" national league below the DA, even if the flexibility to play high school is nice. It seems like it will compound the pay-to-play problems that currently exist in travel soccer.

Also, do you have a sense generally of what funding, if any, goes to US Club, USYSA, or USSF from players or member clubs? Someone a while back was claiming that the girls' DA came about because USSF soccer wanted more money from more players. This struck me as silly since I'm pretty sure USSF gets its funding from TV viewing rights and FIFA competitions, but I don't know whether they may also get a very small amount of money from registered players. Does anyone know? And where does the funding for USYSA and US Club soccer come from?