ECNL Playoffs

Exactly. You can forget your summer vacation planning and say hello to cutting two fat checks for unecessary travel. It does indeed point to the exclusivity of the league. There has to be a better way, but as long as families agree to pay, it will continue.
True….but how is this different than the GA Nationals, the advanced rounds of National Cup and/or the USYSL Championships?

This isn’t restricted to ECNL.
 
True….but how is this different than the GA Nationals, the advanced rounds of National Cup and/or the USYSL Championships?

This isn’t restricted to ECNL.
Kinda my point. If all teams were grouped in the same structure, we'd have less "National" events that require so much travel.
Its like pro boxing- So many federations and "World Champs" across multiple federations.
 
Kinda my point. If all teams were grouped in the same structure, we'd have less "National" events that require so much travel.
Its like pro boxing- So many federations and "World Champs" across multiple federations.
You mean there would be less teams “needing” to travel because there would only be one “National Championship” versus 1 for GA, 1 for ECNL, etc….
 
Kinda my point. If all teams were grouped in the same structure, we'd have less "National" events that require so much travel.
Its like pro boxing- So many federations and "World Champs" across multiple federations.

If you're going to have a national championship, there is going to be travel. If you break it down into conference championships, feeding into regional championships feeding into national championships, you might limit travel for weaker teams, and increase travel for nationally competitive ones. There will always be someone that won't like it.
The other approach is to just stop at regional championships. High school stops at states because they run out of time, and nobody would pay for much more than that. That's not a "national" league.
It just depends on what you want, there are formats out there to give you whatever level of travel you desire. ECNL tailors its product for its own purpose, as do all leagues.
 
If you're going to have a national championship, there is going to be travel. If you break it down into conference championships, feeding into regional championships feeding into national championships, you might limit travel for weaker teams, and increase travel for nationally competitive ones. There will always be someone that won't like it.
The other approach is to just stop at regional championships. High school stops at states because they run out of time, and nobody would pay for much more than that. That's not a "national" league.
It just depends on what you want, there are formats out there to give you whatever level of travel you desire. ECNL tailors its product for its own purpose, as do all leagues.
We are part ECNL but I'm not sure you can call it a "national" league if you exclude most teams and most players can't afford it. "Exclusive Wealthy League" might be more appropriate.

A National League is one which allows most people to be part of and fees should be used to pay for winners to travel to regionals and national championships.

I'd like to see colleges stop scouting at these expensive events and more on regional showcases or tourneys where most kids can afford it. If the NCAA unites to make this a priority, sports will be cheaper and we will have REAL National Championships.
 
We are part ECNL but I'm not sure you can call it a "national" league if you exclude most teams and most players can't afford it. "Exclusive Wealthy League" might be more appropriate.

A National League is one which allows most people to be part of and fees should be used to pay for winners to travel to regionals and national championships.

I'd like to see colleges stop scouting at these expensive events and more on regional showcases or tourneys where most kids can afford it. If the NCAA unites to make this a priority, sports will be cheaper and we will have REAL National Championships.
Now that colleges have to pay top talent it will be much more likely that they'll also start paying for tournaments to get exclusive access to new recruits.

Brave new world!
 
We are part ECNL but I'm not sure you can call it a "national" league if you exclude most teams and most players can't afford it. "Exclusive Wealthy League" might be more appropriate.

A National League is one which allows most people to be part of and fees should be used to pay for winners to travel to regionals and national championships.

I'd like to see colleges stop scouting at these expensive events and more on regional showcases or tourneys where most kids can afford it. If the NCAA unites to make this a priority, sports will be cheaper and we will have REAL National Championships.

I think the costs associated with travelling to a national championship for any league are about the same. So it's not really an ECNL thing so much as it is a national league thing. Every national league excludes people who can't afford to travel for it. ECNL is especially bad though because they separate the national playoffs from the championship, requiring 2X trips to win the prize. I think that's really the rub here, that seems totally unnecessary.

I like the idea of a more regionalized showcase model. When the national events are on one coast or the other, they lose value to the majority of kids who are looking at mid-majors and below, who are recruiting regionally for the most part. That makes it tough on the west coast player who wants to go to school on the east coast of course and vise versa. I suspect that if you had statistics on where ECNL kids are recruited from, it stands to reason that the majority would already be scouted primarily at regional events just because there are more of them and they occur earlier in the year. ECNL still calls them national events to further confuse matters.
 
[QUOTE="supercell, post: 399714, member: 7364"
I think the costs associated with travelling to a national championship for any league are about the same. So it's not really an ECNL thing so much as it is a national league thing. Every national league excludes people who can't afford to travel for it. ECNL is especially bad though because they separate the national playoffs from the championship, requiring 2X trips to win the prize. I think that's really the rub here, that seems totally unnecessary.

I like the idea of a more regionalized showcase model. When the national events are on one coast or the other, they lose value to the majority of kids who are looking at mid-majors and below, who are recruiting regionally for the most part. That makes it tough on the west coast player who wants to go to school on the east coast of course and vise versa. I suspect that if you had statistics on where ECNL kids are recruited from, it stands to reason that the majority would already be scouted primarily at regional events just because there are more of them and they occur earlier in the year. ECNL still calls them national events to further confuse matters.
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Most of the "so called" national championships (there are so many that none really exist now) are modeled this way and I think it's modeled incorrectly. It needs to be changed and it's not too difficult. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe CalSouth actually used fees to pay for or substantially subsidize ODP players to travel.

Create local championships, then move them to 16 regional championships, then have the 16 regional winners play in the championship tournament. A portion of all player fees should go into this. With the quantity of players registered, we should afford to pay for the 8 regional winners to travel. Or increase fees by $10. Increase local entrance fees by $50 a team and use that money for regionals and championship tournaments.

It doesn't matter what league you play in (ECNL, DISCOVERY, CSL), the true National Champs should play thru this method and everyone team from every league should have access to enter this competition without any seeding. All drawings are done via lottery and it's luck of the draw who you have to compete with in group play.

We don't need a mayor's cup or a governor's cup or president's cup. Just a national one. Tournaments can distinguish flights and let the lower flights earn medals that way.
 
ECNL Showcase information posted for the 2021-2022 season....

Biggest shame is for the former ECNL composite teams that are now playing ECRL is that there are no events until April 1-3....Most of these kids are Juniors and Seniors and need exposure now....
 

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ECNL Showcase information posted for the 2021-2022 season....

Biggest shame is for the former ECNL composite teams that are now playing ECRL is that there are no events until April 1-3....Most of these kids are Juniors and Seniors and need exposure now....

If they had a fall event, would college coaches come? They will be busy with their own college season won't they?
 
If they had a fall event, would college coaches come? They will be busy with their own college season won't they?
I hear this argument a lot about college soccer coaches not being able to scout during their season.
How do Power 5 Basketball and Football coaches manage it?
 
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