Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm amazed at how no matter what MU does and no matter how it does it, people are itching to find something to complain about.

Take it as a compliment. People will always complain when another club makes a good move or does something right.

Who is MU’s competition for kids? Loudon, Arlington, McLean and now you add BSC...This looks good on paper but will be hard to do in reality. It will be an uphill fight for MU. You never know,

It looks more like a geographic shift towards the DC/MD side of the river. Tyson's will likely be their general future location.

Maybe, though there are DC and MD kids at Metro today in the current locations. Parents are happy to drive a little further for a healthy training and sideline environment.

This makes no sense for a Potomac player to drive over the American Legion Bridge and back during the week for practice. It is always backed-up on the return trip even at non-rush periods and weekends. Plus Montgomery County HS soccer is very strong…Whitman made it to State Finals last year…WJ/Churchill/BCC/Wooton are all strong teams. Would they be allowed to play HS still? Why would you drive past McLean and BSC practices to sit in traffic and not play HS? Am I missing something?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm amazed at how no matter what MU does and no matter how it does it, people are itching to find something to complain about.

Take it as a compliment. People will always complain when another club makes a good move or does something right.

Who is MU’s competition for kids? Loudon, Arlington, McLean and now you add BSC...This looks good on paper but will be hard to do in reality. It will be an uphill fight for MU. You never know,

It looks more like a geographic shift towards the DC/MD side of the river. Tyson's will likely be their general future location.

Anonymous wrote:3 average clubs geographically separated in a market saturated by better clubs...looks like all of MU’s problems are sorted.

US Soccer must be thrilled.

Actually, these sorts of relationships are exactly what US Soccer wants. They want as wide a net cast as possible at the younger ages while letting the local clubs handle the development without to much DA oversight. This is why they are eliminating the U12 age groups on the boys side. They want access to the players without the heavy handed approach that the DA as a league places at such young ages.

Clubs like Metro, VDA, Baltimore Armour essentially have first dibs on the players those clubs produce. The clubs will lose the talent either way but if they can demonstrate a built in pathway they stand a chance to attract more talent, not all of whom will make DA or ECNL but are still more likely to stay. The positives for the partnership clubs is the potential for larger rec and youth programs overall.

The advantage for the DA club is early access to the players as well as access to the fields.

FCV sat on top of Ashburn as well as had a similar relationship with South County. Neither of which where/are big clubs. FCV also had a short lived partnership with Loudoun. All of these partnerships fed quality players into FCV's ECNL and later DA teams.

VDA has produced a pretty successful program on the shoulders of VSA and PWSI. The younger age groups at VDA are proving that the model is successful at drawing talent in and retaining players within the system while each partner club has been able to maintain competitive NPL teams individually.

Baltimore Armour is certainly rounding the corner and clubs like Pipeline do not appear to be suffering the loss of players to DA as their EDP teams are quite good on their own.

All of this while casting the net wider to players who may often go overlooked.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm amazed at how no matter what MU does and no matter how it does it, people are itching to find something to complain about.

Take it as a compliment. People will always complain when another club makes a good move or does something right.

Who is MU’s competition for kids? Loudon, Arlington, McLean and now you add BSC...This looks good on paper but will be hard to do in reality. It will be an uphill fight for MU. You never know,

Anonymous wrote:I'm amazed at how no matter what MU does and no matter how it does it, people are itching to find something to complain about.

Take it as a compliment. People will always complain when another club makes a good move or does something right.

3 average clubs geographically separated in a market saturated by better clubs...looks like all of MU’s problems are sorted.

US Soccer must be thrilled.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain to us in laymans soccer terms what this means

In my experience with similar affiliate relationships for boys’ DA, it means practically nothing. DAs will take the best kids they can without regard to their home club. This announcement provides the partner clubs with the opportunity to brag about the relationship in the hopes of convincing club members or potential club members that there is a pathway to the DA if you are at the club. It gives Metro United the potential for more ticket sales to families at the affiliate clubs. There will be some free or reduced cost tickets for affiliate families and potentially a training with Spirit players. It’s basically just community building.

This makes sense. I've had two girls play for Stoddert (we live in the District) and by U13 any girl with the talent to play at a higher level has left. Generally the girls leave for Mclean, Arlington and Bethesda. I'm not sure why anyone would drive further to play DA in Reston (is this new partnership going to practice in Reston?) Stoddert is still losing the players by U13 either way so I don't know what the advantage is to them.

That’s a good point. Where will they practice? If you are serious about it, you would want your practices roughly equal distance/driving time from each club....Tysons Corner?? Driving to Reston from DC or Potomac for 6 pm practice 4 days a week? Stoddert and Potomac are clubs of convenience. We will see about Metro.

Metro has access to field space in Tysons.

Well depending where you are coming from, it will be easier to go to Arlington, McLean or BSC for Stoddert or Potomac. You will drive by McLean practices coming from Potomac and Stoddert.

I'm amazed at how no matter what MU does and no matter how it does it, people are itching to find something to complain about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain to us in laymans soccer terms what this means

In my experience with similar affiliate relationships for boys’ DA, it means practically nothing. DAs will take the best kids they can without regard to their home club. This announcement provides the partner clubs with the opportunity to brag about the relationship in the hopes of convincing club members or potential club members that there is a pathway to the DA if you are at the club. It gives Metro United the potential for more ticket sales to families at the affiliate clubs. There will be some free or reduced cost tickets for affiliate families and potentially a training with Spirit players. It’s basically just community building.

This makes sense. I've had two girls play for Stoddert (we live in the District) and by U13 any girl with the talent to play at a higher level has left. Generally the girls leave for Mclean, Arlington and Bethesda. I'm not sure why anyone would drive further to play DA in Reston (is this new partnership going to practice in Reston?) Stoddert is still losing the players by U13 either way so I don't know what the advantage is to them.

That’s a good point. Where will they practice? If you are serious about it, you would want your practices roughly equal distance/driving time from each club....Tysons Corner?? Driving to Reston from DC or Potomac for 6 pm practice 4 days a week? Stoddert and Potomac are clubs of convenience. We will see about Metro.

Metro has access to field space in Tysons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain to us in laymans soccer terms what this means

In my experience with similar affiliate relationships for boys’ DA, it means practically nothing. DAs will take the best kids they can without regard to their home club. This announcement provides the partner clubs with the opportunity to brag about the relationship in the hopes of convincing club members or potential club members that there is a pathway to the DA if you are at the club. It gives Metro United the potential for more ticket sales to families at the affiliate clubs. There will be some free or reduced cost tickets for affiliate families and potentially a training with Spirit players. It’s basically just community building.

This makes sense. I've had two girls play for Stoddert (we live in the District) and by U13 any girl with the talent to play at a higher level has left. Generally the girls leave for Mclean, Arlington and Bethesda. I'm not sure why anyone would drive further to play DA in Reston (is this new partnership going to practice in Reston?) Stoddert is still losing the players by U13 either way so I don't know what the advantage is to them.

That’s a good point. Where will they practice? If you are serious about it, you would want your practices roughly equal distance/driving time from each club....Tysons Corner?? Driving to Reston from DC or Potomac for 6 pm practice 4 days a week? Stoddert and Potomac are clubs of convenience. We will see about Metro.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain to us in laymans soccer terms what this means

In my experience with similar affiliate relationships for boys’ DA, it means practically nothing. DAs will take the best kids they can without regard to their home club. This announcement provides the partner clubs with the opportunity to brag about the relationship in the hopes of convincing club members or potential club members that there is a pathway to the DA if you are at the club. It gives Metro United the potential for more ticket sales to families at the affiliate clubs. There will be some free or reduced cost tickets for affiliate families and potentially a training with Spirit players. It’s basically just community building.

This comment makes no sense. Metro United is not affiliated with any team or their ticket sales.

Yep, no free tickets, no reduced tickets, no tickets at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain to us in laymans soccer terms what this means

In my experience with similar affiliate relationships for boys’ DA, it means practically nothing. DAs will take the best kids they can without regard to their home club. This announcement provides the partner clubs with the opportunity to brag about the relationship in the hopes of convincing club members or potential club members that there is a pathway to the DA if you are at the club. It gives Metro United the potential for more ticket sales to families at the affiliate clubs. There will be some free or reduced cost tickets for affiliate families and potentially a training with Spirit players. It’s basically just community building.

This comment makes no sense. Metro United is not affiliated with any team or their ticket sales.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Explain to us in laymans soccer terms what this means

In my experience with similar affiliate relationships for boys’ DA, it means practically nothing. DAs will take the best kids they can without regard to their home club. This announcement provides the partner clubs with the opportunity to brag about the relationship in the hopes of convincing club members or potential club members that there is a pathway to the DA if you are at the club. It gives Metro United the potential for more ticket sales to families at the affiliate clubs. There will be some free or reduced cost tickets for affiliate families and potentially a training with Spirit players. It’s basically just community building.

This makes sense. I've had two girls play for Stoddert (we live in the District) and by U13 any girl with the talent to play at a higher level has left. Generally the girls leave for Mclean, Arlington and Bethesda. I'm not sure why anyone would drive further to play DA in Reston (is this new partnership going to practice in Reston?) Stoddert is still losing the players by U13 either way so I don't know what the advantage is to them.

Sorry but DC Stid and Potomac are not producing DA quality players. I can't think if a Stioddert or Potomac team that is competing at a high level. Herndon in VA would have been a better pick. Baltimore Armour GDA has a partenrship with SAC and Pipeline,