Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Arlington had to agree to keep their top boys teams in ECNL to secure ECNL for their girls teams.

If MLSNext has a good year and establishes it's self as the top boys league, I think Arlington will put their academy teams in MLSNext and move their red teams into their ECNL slots.

Arlington is quality enough of a program to field both MLSNext sand ECNL. But whatever they decide will help dictate which league has more prominence in mid-Atlantic

I don’t think Arlington makes any difference in that respect. That won’t be a decisive factor for anybody between here and NJ.

Not PP - and agree with you that Arlington by themselves are not decisive. But right now the best teams in VA and NC are in ECNL and not MLSNext. The opposite is true in MD and PA (excepting Pipeline). Key clubs moving in either direction (whether that's Arlington to MLSNext or Bethesda to ECNL for example) could start a broader movement.

Taken across the whole region the two leagues are quite finely balanc right now. ECNL's edge is the girls program, and MLSnext obviously has the MLS clubs which make the boys league more attractive to kids and parents, although non MLS clubs may not view the MLS clubs as trustworthy partners.

This makes no sense. MLS Next for DMV goes from VA to NJ. Why should my son care about girls programs or whether his conference has North Carolina’s top teams? You sound like a coach or a team or league official, not a parent, and if you are an ECNL boys parent, I honestly don’t understand why playing in a league that does great for girls, high school soccer and NC teams tilts anything for your kid or is relevant in any respect. Players at younger ages are moving to MLS Next teams and clubs and the talent and results are already going in that direction at younger ages.

I don't think Arlington has the talent to put both an MLS next AND ECNL team together. Youre talking 36 very high quality players in 1 age group... 1 club doesn't have the numbers AND the talent for that in the area.

Most travel kids in Arlington play high school soccer (if they make the team), not something MLSnext allows.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Arlington had to agree to keep their top boys teams in ECNL to secure ECNL for their girls teams.

If MLSNext has a good year and establishes it's self as the top boys league, I think Arlington will put their academy teams in MLSNext and move their red teams into their ECNL slots.

Arlington is quality enough of a program to field both MLSNext sand ECNL. But whatever they decide will help dictate which league has more prominence in mid-Atlantic

I don’t think Arlington makes any difference in that respect. That won’t be a decisive factor for anybody between here and NJ.

Not PP - and agree with you that Arlington by themselves are not decisive. But right now the best teams in VA and NC are in ECNL and not MLSNext. The opposite is true in MD and PA (excepting Pipeline). Key clubs moving in either direction (whether that's Arlington to MLSNext or Bethesda to ECNL for example) could start a broader movement.

Taken across the whole region the two leagues are quite finely balanced right now. ECNL's edge is the girls program, and MLSnext obviously has the MLS clubs which make the boys league more attractive to kids and parents, although non MLS clubs may not view the MLS clubs as trustworthy partners.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Arlington had to agree to keep their top boys teams in ECNL to secure ECNL for their girls teams.

If MLSNext has a good year and establishes it's self as the top boys league, I think Arlington will put their academy teams in MLSNext and move their red teams into their ECNL slots.

Arlington is quality enough of a program to field both MLSNext sand ECNL. But whatever they decide will help dictate which league has more prominence in mid-Atlantic

I don’t think Arlington makes any difference in that respect. That won’t be a decisive factor for anybody between here and NJ.

<----- His right you know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Arlington had to agree to keep their top boys teams in ECNL to secure ECNL for their girls teams.

If MLSNext has a good year and establishes it's self as the top boys league, I think Arlington will put their academy teams in MLSNext and move their red teams into their ECNL slots.

Arlington is quality enough of a program to field both MLSNext sand ECNL. But whatever they decide will help dictate which league has more prominence in mid-Atlantic

If ECNL Boys can accept being the second tier and GA can accept being second tier life can move on with some order.

Anonymous wrote:I think Arlington had to agree to keep their top boys teams in ECNL to secure ECNL for their girls teams.

If MLSNext has a good year and establishes it's self as the top boys league, I think Arlington will put their academy teams in MLSNext and move their red teams into their ECNL slots.

Arlington is quality enough of a program to field both MLSNext sand ECNL. But whatever they decide will help dictate which league has more prominence in mid-Atlantic

I think Arlington had to agree to keep their top boys teams in ECNL to secure ECNL for their girls teams.

If MLSNext has a good year and establishes it's self as the top boys league, I think Arlington will put their academy teams in MLSNext and move their red teams into their ECNL slots.

Anonymous wrote:Is MLSNext better than the boys ECNL? Or is it a market and location thing?

Market/location

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop using the word “steal”. Clubs should be happy if a player is moving from their club to a MLS club. It’s okay for players to leave. NCFC has plenty of players that go from their top ECNL team to MLS Next team in Charlotte FC, they are okay with it. It will be interesting if NCFC tries to go MLS Next as they were DA and they had DA as top team and ECNL as second team and Wake FC just got MLS Next. As a league, on the boys side MLS Next is stronger the issue is MLS academies only go up to u17

Agreed on steal. It's the same here with Arlington. I think 10 kids are leaving for MLS academies (most, although not all, for DCU) next year. That's a good thing for the club.

On your second point I'm pretty sure all the ex-DA clubs were offered MLS Next again this year, but in this region (VA and NC) none of them took it. I think they are gambling that they can preserve their advantage as long as they stick together and keep the local ECNL league on a par with MLS Next.

I am not sure Arlington was in the running for MLSNext. By the time MLSNext got going with announcements and pulling in teams, Arlington has already announced they were going to ECNL. I remember thinking Arlington may had jumped the gun making the ECNL announcement so soon (If I remember correctly, it was like a week or so after the DA announcement came out).

My understanding is that Arlington, VDA and Richmond were all offered MLSNext both last year and again this year, but declined again. I agree that all three clubs, by joining ECNL have made a decision to switch to MLSNext more difficult for themselves because of the bridges they will burn with ECNL to do so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop using the word “steal”. Clubs should be happy if a player is moving from their club to a MLS club. It’s okay for players to leave. NCFC has plenty of players that go from their top ECNL team to MLS Next team in Charlotte FC, they are okay with it. It will be interesting if NCFC tries to go MLS Next as they were DA and they had DA as top team and ECNL as second team and Wake FC just got MLS Next. As a league, on the boys side MLS Next is stronger the issue is MLS academies only go up to u17

Agreed on steal. It's the same here with Arlington. I think 10 kids are leaving for MLS academies (most, although not all, for DCU) next year. That's a good thing for the club.

On your second point I'm pretty sure all the ex-DA clubs were offered MLS Next again this year, but in this region (VA and NC) none of them took it. I think they are gambling that they can preserve their advantage as long as they stick together and keep the local ECNL league on a par with MLS Next.

I am not sure Arlington was in the running for MLSNext. By the time MLSNext got going with announcements and pulling in teams, Arlington has already announced they were going to ECNL. I remember thinking Arlington may had jumped the gun making the ECNL announcement so soon (If I remember correctly, it was like a week or so after the DA announcement came out).

Anonymous wrote:Is MLSNext better than the boys ECNL? Or is it a market and location thing?

No idea what you mean. Every comparison between leagues is pretty silly, and inevitably market specific. The most important question is whether your kid is on a really good team. Playing in a great league on a subpar team is not too useful since most development occurs in practice. And if you are only really training and playing in the league for half the year, and playing high school the rest of the year, it may not matter how good your ecnl team is. I don’t think there is any substantial difference for most players. It’s hard to see ecnl teams really continuing to compete for top talent at younger ages. We are already seeing material movement of top players to MLS Next from ECNL clubs. But who knows.

Is MLSNext better than the boys ECNL? Or is it a market and location thing?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop using the word “steal”. Clubs should be happy if a player is moving from their club to a MLS club. It’s okay for players to leave. NCFC has plenty of players that go from their top ECNL team to MLS Next team in Charlotte FC, they are okay with it. It will be interesting if NCFC tries to go MLS Next as they were DA and they had DA as top team and ECNL as second team and Wake FC just got MLS Next. As a league, on the boys side MLS Next is stronger the issue is MLS academies only go up to u17

Agreed on steal. It's the same here with Arlington. I think 10 kids are leaving for MLS academies (most, although not all, for DCU) next year. That's a good thing for the club.

On your second point I'm pretty sure all the ex-DA clubs were offered MLS Next again this year, but in this region (VA and NC) none of them took it. I think they are gambling that they can preserve their advantage as long as they stick together and keep the local ECNL league on a par with MLS Next.

^ Oh - and most MLS academies don't stop at U17. That's just DCU which runs the minimal program it can get away with and still comply with league rules.

With new MLS league u19 players will fall into that which takes away u19 age groups. Might be a year away but u17 will be the oldest age group.