Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1
We are on a 2nd team like this now at U12. As others have said, its extremely difficult to move up. We don't even get to see the 1st team practice. They get more practices, better coaching and more fitness. Their practices are more intense. We have been w our club for 3 years and they have only moved 1 kid up in 3 years, all the while they have taken 6 outside of club players onto the 1st team.

We tried out at 3 other clubs and received 3x 1st team offers. All these clubs are only interested in maintaining a 2nd team roster and never letting players off it.

-I thought people were crazy for saying it, but we have seen it 1st hand this year.

+1

If you're on the ARL academy 2 team, your player will never sniff the 1st team.

Anonymous wrote:NWSL can't afford to take over the girls side. You would need a large benefactor to unite the girls side under a NWSL Next umbrella. I don't see that happening

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what would happen on the boys side with ECNL and RL if MLS Next takes over? How would they decide which level each club or team should play at? Wouldn’t that just dilute MLS Next even more?

Nature aka survival of the fittest. If your kid ain’t got it and he’s not selected to MLS next club he’ll have to settle with EDP or NCSL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t a girls only league be called… Girls Academy?

The names won’t matter just the orgs that run them. They might eventually call themselves Girls Academy but whats really being said is US Club which currently runs ECNL will control the girls side and MLS will run the boys side. Current GA and ECNL will combine but what they call it hasn’t been decided. Still a year or two at least away from it happening. If your worried about your kid, get them to an ecnl or ga team for girls and a mls next team (HG or AD) if you have a boy and they should be good. If they are already in high school, the eventual change won’t affect them as much.

Anonymous wrote:+1
We are on a 2nd team like this now at U12. As others have said, its extremely difficult to move up. We don't even get to see the 1st team practice. They get more practices, better coaching and more fitness. Their practices are more intense. We have been w our club for 3 years and they have only moved 1 kid up in 3 years, all the while they have taken 6 outside of club players onto the 1st team.

We tried out at 3 other clubs and received 3x 1st team offers. All these clubs are only interested in maintaining a 2nd team roster and never letting players off it.

-I thought people were crazy for saying it, but we have seen it 1st hand this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is indeed what is being pushed particularly by private equity. Youth soccer in the US is now a $41 billion a year business and the more clubs involved the more money. Once its settled (if there is eventually some type of agreement) there would be some type of tier system with less clubs excluded especially in certain parts of the country where the ECNL club doesn't allow other clubs within a certain area entry to join. On the boys side MLS/MLS Next would take full control and use the tier system they are implementing now and expand on it. Negotiations are on going and will ramp up as the World Cup passes.

I'm a little surprised info about this got posted here so early and few people are in the know right now outside of EDs of the bigger clubs across the country and the private equity firms pushing their way in.

It’s not the first time I share insider information. But that’s as far as I can share at this time. Boys will be exclusively MLS next and ECNL’s only hope of avoiding extinction is by catering only to females.

NWSL monitoring closely but if they were a company in the stock market I would’ve dumped all my saving in buying stocks for NWSL running the girls youth American pay2play ecosystem.

The question really is: are ECNL operators paying attention or will their ego turn them into a faded memory?

Anonymous wrote:So what would happen on the boys side with ECNL and RL if MLS Next takes over? How would they decide which level each club or team should play at? Wouldn’t that just dilute MLS Next even more?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If ECNL has no one to bash, how will they create FOMO for their clubs?

ecnl home grown vs ecnl academy?

Anonymous wrote:So what would happen on the boys side with ECNL and RL if MLS Next takes over? How would they decide which level each club or team should play at? Wouldn’t that just dilute MLS Next even more?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t a girls only league be called… Girls Academy?

The names won’t matter just the orgs that run them. They might eventually call themselves Girls Academy but whats really being said is US Club which currently runs ECNL will control the girls side and MLS will run the boys side. Current GA and ECNL will combine but what they call it hasn’t been decided. Still a year or two at least away from it happening. If your worried about your kid, get them to an ecnl or ga team for girls and a mls next team (HG or AD) if you have a boy and they should be good. If they are already in high school, the eventual change won’t affect them as much.

Because if you’re not on one of those teams when a change could possibly occur, you cannot make one of those teams? If this consolidation of leagues happens then consolidation of talent will happen too and smooth out over the years. If you’re strong, you’re strong. If you’re not, you’re not.

Theoretically yes but if the situation comes up where two players play the same position and are close to the same level and one has been with the team for awhile and the other is coming from the outside most clubs especially coaches will lean to the player already with the team unless they or their parents are disliked for some reason. Usually the player from the outside will have to clearly outplay the player already at the club which is not always easy to do based on a 30min scrimmage at tryouts or a practice session. Changes are more likely at the younger ages but become less and less as the kids go from U12 to U13 (so in my opinion get your player to the level they want to be at by U11 so they can hopefully establish themselves making it harder to get pushed out. That being said if your player gets a GA2 or Academy2 designation don't be fooled into thinking they will ever make it to the top team especially at the bigger clubs. The reality is they are not even being considered). This year is different because of the age group changes where it seems like clubs are more willing to make changes then usual.

+1

I heard VSA/VDA is doing the same thing by adding a 2nd "1st team" just like when Arl changed what they call their teams to pre academy 1 and 2. Its surprising people fall for it and think if they get a 2nd team offer they will ever be considered for the 1st team. Reality is your player is there to fill in the 2nd team roll and is not even being considered for the first team but parents are delusional and fall for this type of marketing all the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn’t a girls only league be called… Girls Academy?

The names won’t matter just the orgs that run them. They might eventually call themselves Girls Academy but whats really being said is US Club which currently runs ECNL will control the girls side and MLS will run the boys side. Current GA and ECNL will combine but what they call it hasn’t been decided. Still a year or two at least away from it happening. If your worried about your kid, get them to an ecnl or ga team for girls and a mls next team (HG or AD) if you have a boy and they should be good. If they are already in high school, the eventual change won’t affect them as much.

Because if you’re not on one of those teams when a change could possibly occur, you cannot make one of those teams? If this consolidation of leagues happens then consolidation of talent will happen too and smooth out over the years. If you’re strong, you’re strong. If you’re not, you’re not.

Theoretically yes but if the situation comes up where two players play the same position and are close to the same level and one has been with the team for awhile and the other is coming from the outside most clubs especially coaches will lean to the player already with the team unless they or their parents are disliked for some reason. Usually the player from the outside will have to clearly outplay the player already at the club which is not always easy to do based on a 30min scrimmage at tryouts or a practice session. Changes are more likely at the younger ages but become less and less as the kids go from U12 to U13 (so in my opinion get your player to the level they want to be at by U11 so they can hopefully establish themselves making it harder to get pushed out. That being said if your player gets a GA2 or Academy2 designation don't be fooled into thinking they will ever make it to the top team especially at the bigger clubs. The reality is they are not even being considered). This year is different because of the age group changes where it seems like clubs are more willing to make changes then usual.