Reply to GA adding u11-12 for Fall 26, thoughts?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think we are trending in the wrong direction here.  There is too much of a push in general to move these age groups up in format (from 9v9 to 11v11) and in travel.  They should all be playing games more locally.  I’d like to see it go backward to push at least U13 and maybe even U14 down to locally as well and start the National league madness at U15.  There is so little upside before then.  [/quote]

Absolutely trending wrong.  More travel time earlier.  Higher cost earlier.  Early-developers locking down badge league spots earlier.

It's hard to see any actual development advantage for the kids from moving this race earlier, but we all know that's not the real goal.  The development benefits from extreme talent aggregation aren't worth the costs until the kids are exiting puberty.  And there's no showcase value this early.

My kid is older, so it doesn't affect her, but having watched the existing U13 transition, imo it's not a positive step for kids and parents to do it at U11.
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Completely agree. As a parent of a rising U11 player, though, what do we do? Every club around us with strong teams and coaching is moving toward the younger travel leagues.  My kid loves soccer. I love sport (D1 athlete) but this is just insane. We could probably afford it cost-wise (although not my preference for where money goes) but not really timewise with two working parents and young siblings. Does my kid...just not play competitive soccer?[/quote]

That's entirely up to you. Your kid will probably be fine, but a lot won't be if they are at the "lower" levels and trying to catch up later. It's like this for almost every sport today though. This is not soccer specific. [/quote]

It certainly is frustrating.  There's nothing realistic for individual parents to do to fix it.  Youth soccer leagues are like a natural monopoly, but US Soccer has let it fracture so different leagues can make more money from parents.  Parents have no way to coordinate to force maximization of network effects or lower costs.  
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Thanks for this perspective. It helped me let go a bit. Kid is on a good solid team now, maybe with some baggage that I can just tolerate. We will see how things go moving forward.[/quote]

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