ECNL is not selecting teams based on whats good for the kids. They are not picking teams based on how much travel you as parents have to do. Nor are they concerned about High School rivalries. Lets be honest, its a business and they sit atop the pecking order now. They will make decisions in their own best interest as anyone or any business would do.

Stop it already with suggesting all this nonsense in the interest of the kids or competition or...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MLS easily superior to ECNL for boys. No slam dunk for ECNL over GAL in this area. If I’m Arlington I go with MLS/GAL, overall the stronger decision by a good bit.

No worries. Arlington will not get into girls ecnl.

Who cares?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope they get in on ECNL girl’s side. One less out of town travel for my kid’s team. Same with FCV and MU. Bring ‘em all in and reduce travel times. Then it’d look like this:
BRYC, McLean, Loudoun, VDA, MU, Arlington, FCV, Richmond, NCFC, NC Fusion, NC Courage. Furthest game is 5 hrs with most games within 30-45 minutes. Only two league road trips per year. Everyone would play HS in the spring putting a much better HS product in the field and drumming up natural rivalries. Lot of fun for the kids.

Its pretty hard to argue against that from a parents travel perspective. I suspect though that the ecnl is thinking longer term and values competitiveness over travel distance. As conferences go, ma is already pretty tightly grouped so I dont expect them to focus on it.

Again, are we doing this for the benefit of the ECNL or clubs? Or for the kids and the families? Ecnl could overexpand for the short term and then relegate poorly runs clubs in two years to ERNL

Anonymous wrote:I hope they get in on ECNL girl’s side. One less out of town travel for my kid’s team. Same with FCV and MU. Bring ‘em all in and reduce travel times. Then it’d look like this:
BRYC, McLean, Loudoun, VDA, MU, Arlington, FCV, Richmond, NCFC, NC Fusion, NC Courage. Furthest game is 5 hrs with most games within 30-45 minutes. Only two league road trips per year. Everyone would play HS in the spring putting a much better HS product in the field and drumming up natural rivalries. Lot of fun for the kids.

Its pretty hard to argue against that from a parents travel perspective. I suspect though that the ecnl is thinking longer term and values competitiveness over travel distance. As conferences go, ma is already pretty tightly grouped so I dont expect them to focus on it.

I hope they get in on ECNL girl’s side. One less out of town travel for my kid’s team. Same with FCV and MU. Bring ‘em all in and reduce travel times. Then it’d look like this:
BRYC, McLean, Loudoun, VDA, MU, Arlington, FCV, Richmond, NCFC, NC Fusion, NC Courage. Furthest game is 5 hrs with most games within 30-45 minutes. Only two league road trips per year. Everyone would play HS in the spring putting a much better HS product in the field and drumming up natural rivalries. Lot of fun for the kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Girls parents threatened to leave.

What do they think the boy parents will do if they go ECNL?

Honestly, where else are the Arlington boys going to go if Arlington boys go ECNL? DCU or Baltimore? Other VA boys teams will be ECNL too - Loudoun, McLean, BRYC, VDA.

I imagine the best players will give serious thought to DCU. There are quite a few offers on the table. And the ones from Maryland will presumably at least look at Bethesda and/or Baltimore.

But I guess the big question would be whether the rest stay with Arlington or just look for a more local club. If you're driving in from Loudoun, or Springfield, or Fairfax to play in Arlington, do you still do that to play for Arlington in an ECNL league? Or do you just go back to Loudoun, or BRYC, or VDA?

Anonymous wrote:MLS easily superior to ECNL for boys. No slam dunk for ECNL over GAL in this area. If I’m Arlington I go with MLS/GAL, overall the stronger decision by a good bit.

No worries. Arlington will not get into girls ecnl.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Girls parents threatened to leave.

What do they think the boy parents will do if they go ECNL?

Honestly, where else are the Arlington boys going to go if Arlington boys go ECNL? DCU or Baltimore? Other VA boys teams will be ECNL too - Loudoun, McLean, BRYC, VDA.

Anonymous wrote:Girls parents threatened to leave.

What do they think the boy parents will do if they go ECNL?

Local clubs possibly in MLS 2nd Tier

Arlington
Baltimore Armour
Bethesda

Who else?

Girls parents threatened to leave.

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has submitted applications to ECNL for both boys and girls. Likely no answer yet on either. Likely still also continuing to talk to MLS league and to GAL as alternatives.

Are you certain they have submitted to ECNL for boys? I haven't spoke to anyone at the club for a week, but this didn't sound likem what they wanted to do back then. Do you know what changed?

MLS easily superior to ECNL for boys. No slam dunk for ECNL over GAL in this area. If I’m Arlington I go with MLS/GAL, overall the stronger decision by a good bit.

I think they will get it if they submit boys and girls. I think they didn’t want to put boys in and without
could not get the girls in. Now more likely the girls will get in. My daughter has many friends in Arlington and the kids want to stay together. Hope it works for them.
Too much drama in the world now, think working this out would be a good thing.

Arlington has submitted applications to ECNL for both boys and girls. Likely no answer yet on either. Likely still also continuing to talk to MLS league and to GAL as alternatives.