Leaving a club quietly?

[Anonymous]

We are leaving our club this Summer and joining a rival. We have a laundry list of reasons for the move, some of which are rather negative about the club and their practices, but I didn’t want to vent and hoped to just leave quietly without too much fuss.

Do clubs generally ask why you are leaving? While we have not been happy with the current setup we may in the future look at this club should some things (ie people) change.

[Anonymous]

We took my daughter from her first club to a nearby travel club about 3 years ago. We have been happy with our decision especially as we see the issues that forced the change remain and are now more rampant and ugly than before. To answer your question, no one will question your move. Share what you care to share or just say she wanted a change. I say go for it. I just caution you that a single move is one thing but dont get caught up in this jumping from team to team looking for the next best thing. Find a good solid reputable club that your child enjoys. The years slip by quickly so put him/her somewhere they like and is run well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are leaving our club this Summer and joining a rival. We have a laundry list of reasons for the move, some of which are rather negative about the club and their practices, but I didn’t want to vent and hoped to just leave quietly without too much fuss.

Do clubs generally ask why you are leaving? While we have not been happy with the current setup we may in the future look at this club should some things (ie people) change.

It depends. If it's overall club changes then you could have the conversation offered in a constructive manner but if it's something of personal opinion or not happy with coaching decisions then you should move on quietly. You also don't want to burn any bridges. Clubs don't usually ask who is leaving as there could be way too many leaving for various reasons and difficulty to track them all.

[Anonymous]

No one will ask.

[Anonymous]

Wish I knew how to post gifs here, because I'd do a "no one currr" gif. If no one from the club/team talked to you individually before tryouts, you can pretty much guarantee that they don't care if and why you leave.

[Anonymous]

No one cares, and no one will reach out to ask why your child didn't show up for tryouts. They will just assume you are moving clubs for whatever reason. Its business, not personal, and clubs usually know that.

[Anonymous]

We were seriously considering moving from our club to a rival club, but are not going to do it this year. My daughter hates the lack of competition in her league but enjoys her friends.

We are staying because we scrimmage with another good team at our club, so very competitive practices environment and the rival team does not have a very competitive team to practice against. Also, the rival team's rosters are much larger which would impact playing time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are leaving our club this Summer and joining a rival. We have a laundry list of reasons for the move, some of which are rather negative about the club and their practices, but I didn’t want to vent and hoped to just leave quietly without too much fuss.

Do clubs generally ask why you are leaving? While we have not been happy with the current setup we may in the future look at this club should some things (ie people) change.

We’re doing the same thing and it’s true, no one cares, happens all the time. It’s all about the $$

[Anonymous]

We've done the same and left quietly. Some of the main club parents that we know cared, not really for us but for the health of the club.

The TD and his main guys couldn't have cared less. Poor business practices to not know why families are leaving. I think those poor business practices go hand in hand with the lack of support some of the teams have gotten which is the main reason for us leaving. Just poorly run businesses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've done the same and left quietly. Some of the main club parents that we know cared, not really for us but for the health of the club.

The TD and his main guys couldn't have cared less. Poor business practices to not know why families are leaving. I think those poor business practices go hand in hand with the lack of support some of the teams have gotten which is the main reason for us leaving. Just poorly run businesses.

Soccer people are not usually good business people. Unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

I’m thinking most clubs have good retention rates and fantastic salesforce. Have any clubs gone under because of churn? if they didn’t have churn we’d accuse them of a 3rd-6th team money grab.

Maybe the ROI on trying to keep one customer isnt really that high to be practicable and team dispersion without replacement isnt that significant an issue. Sucks for long term relationships and development, but not so much the bottom line.

[Anonymous]

The only time they care is if the team is competitive at a high level and the player leaving will affect that.

[Anonymous]

It's soccer, not the mafia. Do what's best for your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only time they care is if the team is competitive at a high level and the player leaving will affect that.

One of the parents on DS' team threatened to leave, and the club's response was basically: "We have a long line of people waiting to take his place."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m thinking most clubs have good retention rates and fantastic salesforce. Have any clubs gone under because of churn? if they didn’t have churn we’d accuse them of a 3rd-6th team money grab.

Maybe the ROI on trying to keep one customer isnt really that high to be practicable and team dispersion without replacement isnt that significant an issue. Sucks for long term relationships and development, but not so much the bottom line.

I think the retention rates have more to do with proximity. As more clubs arise and fill the demand, the stronger operators will rise to the top. Why should status quo be good enough? This isn’t about keeping one family or most families happy but more so the majority of families and attracting new ones. Customer satisfaction is the most base fundamental of any business. Not wanting to understand why multiple families leave doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I would want to know why every team left whether it was reasonable or not.