Reply to Wash Lil Caps No Longer Moving to St James?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
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Have you never seen a press release before? You think they are going to tell their paying customers their real thoughts?[/quote]

1. It wasn't from a press release but a SM post. 2. Yeah, I understand how this works, and anyone with a sense for how business works knows deliberately lying to your paying customers isn't a bright strategy either.

I get that there are lots of people here from competing T2 programs that don't want say anything nice about STJ or from the other T1 program that competes with WLC for players or even parents whose kids have been cut by one or both of those teams who have an axe to grind. But if people were honest with themselves and were thinking about what is best for WLC and for hockey in the area this is the easiest call of all time. STJ is an outstanding facility and is centrally located in the NOVA population. It puts everyone from Leesburg to Waldorf to Dale City within a comparable drive. No other location comes close to offering that. It is right at the highway juncture with access to express lanes in multiple directions. Making the top program more geographically accessible **to everyone** will make hockey stronger at every level because the kids that deserve to be there most but couldn't access it will now make the top teams and the kids that end up getting cut will be the top players on the T2 teams and so on. Now I get if maybe your kid is a bubble player this might be intimidating but people can't complain about the quality of AAA hockey here in the DC area AND not want to see it improve. This is a huge decision for WLC, STJ and PVAHA and it will shape the future of the program and youth hockey in this area for years. Any move of a program will be tough in the beginning but if decision makers are thinking about growth and success over the long term, not just for WLC but for hockey in the whole area, this is a slam dunk. [/quote]

There are downsides - we saw in the recent WLC peewee tryouts the influence SJ had over team selections.  Not sure the central location will override the future bias towards SJ players.[/quote]

Any time more than one program is under the same roof some people will think there is an inside track. The kids at Loudoun Knights didn't have an inside track to WLC but their kids were the easiest for WLC to scout because the coaches were in the same building and sometimes sharing ice. That will happen anywhere. Still all programs have a financial interest in producing the most competitive teams at each level, otherwise why would anyone pay more for the higher level of competition. The best way to do this is to make the programs more accessible to more people. More kids to pick from = Stronger teams. This isn't Minnesota or Massachusetts, hockey has grown here but it doesn't have that kind of depth of talent, which is all the more reason why the T1 program should not be located far from a large chunk of the population. 
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I agree in theory you'd think they would want their teams to be as strong as possible, but as an observer for many years now, I would say that clearly there are often other things besides talent that influence decisions.  [/quote]

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