Reply to New Additions to Leagues Check Up (ECNL & GA)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am quite surprised that multiple people seem to truly believe that the GA is gaining a foothold, and that people are going to leave ECNL girls.

The GA has made a series of very general announcements:

1. US Soccer Membership: This in reality is simply the ability to card themselves (have to now provide their own liability insurance which is the risky trade off to being able to keep all the $ gained through player registrations vs paying a USSSA, USYSA, US Club, etc).  It does not align them with the NWSL anymore than US Club or USSSA are aligned with the NWSL.  The NWSL cares about the NWSL and professional players, they do not have the infrastructure, finances or desire right now to step into the youth space.

2. MLS Partnership: This was the exact same empty wording release that actually occurred back in 2020 when the GA started, citing increased opportunity, coaching education, standards, etc.  What are the opportunities and standards?  Clubs who have GA & MLS-N being invited to the Generation Adidas Cup, while exciting on paper, is the goal exposure to collegiate teams? pro?  MLS operates zero women's professional franchises, the majority of NWSL youth teams that exist (not a ton) but are in ECNL.. that would be NC Courage, Portland Thorns, Utah Royals, Racing Louisville, Orlando Pride, there is also a pretty close affiliation between KC Athletics & KC Current.

The GA has 1 NWSL youth program, the Reign, who are one of the lower end GA programs.

If the goal is collegiate exposure why would a college coach come to a male event (GA Cup) to watch a hand picked group (not necessarily merit based, but because they have an MLSN boys side) play?  Able to see less games vs a traditional showcase.

If the goal is professional exposure, if you have been to an ECNL event you will have seen the NWSL scouts are out in force at every event, plus that is where those who have youth programs play.

For all those who think the NWSL doesn't like ECNL.. watch the space, I think you will see something this Spring/Summer that tanks the perceived reality of an alignment with the GA.

3. ASPIRE: Today's announcement, I think, is a good thing for the GA, being able to offer a Tier 2 for full member clubs.  They have been smart, as the league does not have the administrative power like other organizations to be able to build, operate & manage two leagues so per the announcement, they are outsourcing it to DPL.  Ironically, the GA outsources quite a bit (events, tier 2 league, etc), not saying its right or wrong, but an interesting observation vs other leagues. The trouble for the GA is a balance of levels.  There are about 3-5 ELITE programs left in the entire GA (good teams in every age group, consistently), with a below-average middle and a very poor lower end.  Yes, all leagues have this, but the disparity in the GA is huge vs ECNL for example.  How can the GA serve those 3-5 clubs to provide them what they need to keep setting the standard if they don't get offered an ECNL position (we all know if offered, everyone is taking it).  How do they push the middle tier to be better to make the league standard better?  How do they push the bottom third into their Tier 2 while replacing them with better?  Is there better out there that would want to move to the GA? You are talking about 30-40 clubs realistically.. where do they come from?[/quote]

This is the perfect example of being shortsighted.  For starters, the more opportunity on the girl side, the better.  There are so many capable kids left out and cut off forever at the formation of U13 ECNL teams because it is virtually impossible to manufacture the training environment with the RL or 2nd teams at those respective clubs.  Not nearly as big of a problem on the boys side because there's so many more competitive teams.

ECNL has the stronghold that they have at the moment because they PAID for it.  Those college coaches aren't there just for the heck of it.  They could simply sit home and watch the Veo footage if they wanted to.  When it comes specifically to this area (DMV) almost every top club was in the DA less than 10yrs ago.  If this area decided to all go the way of GA, it'd change nothing in terms of college recruiting because it's the PLAYERS that make the league, not the other way around.  Too many of you parents get caught up in the hype and perpetually feed the machine all while complaining about it.  Everybody trains with everyone around here at the higher levels and we all go pay 4k so that they can go "officially" play against the same exact kids in a league game.

This will be fine and will be dictated by the strength of the individual conferences and ultimately the teams at any given age group.  We've seen that play out this year with the likes of SYC and their record against the local ECNL clubs they've faced at their youngest full field age group.  I think it's a recipe for future disappointment relying on a club/league affiliation to get your kid to the next level.  If you have a HS age kid, yeah things are probably set for now.  Younger than that, you don't know what the dynamics will look like 3-4yrs from now when it matters.[/quote]

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