Sokrplayer75
SILVER ELITE
LOL, early takeoff for a raft! GOAT ISLAND on the East side of Oahu, barreling left was pic. Your Elite soccer league can get some waves and few games in on the beach, as long as they avoid that shallow reef!
How is the MLS league different from DA?
- Thread starter gkmom
- Start date
This is something that could work. Make it a beach cleat too. Can you imagine the showcases I could put on? Teaching all the girls and boys how to become a world class surfer dude like Kelly, Booth, Buttons, Mark Richards, Shawn Thompson and my boy Parsons. Socal Elite Surfing Academy, SESA brah!!! If soccer can make world class players, I can make world class surfers. My practice fields are free too, HB pier 4 days a week, 10 months out of the year. You get the point.......
High school may end up playing a bigger part in this too. The girls all got high school back and boys ECNL allows for HS so only the MLS league doesn’t allow for it and it’s a 10-month season. Those non-MLS teams may not like the no HS Component when they are just filler games. The boys DA players haven’t played HS in a long time. Now that this isn’t a US Soccer DA system and it’s just an MLS league, high school could become something players are interested in again.
I guess we will see.
Sokrplayer75
SILVER ELITE
Like it, you can recruit all the HB junior lifeguards kids while your at it, I'm sure they would rather surf and play some beach soccer. Shaved Ice within arms reach!
Oh man, I have an old Mike Parsons 6'1 Timmy Patterson...…..I'll donate it maybe
I bought his first Stewart off him for $100. He was sponsored early by Bill. When we were young surfers and surfing lowers, he would tell me I had potential if I would take the sport more serious. My pride said it was too cool to surf in competitions back then and he went all in pro. He worked his ass off and surfed the Cortez Banks and Mavricks. I was a crazy too as a young grom but Parsons took it to a level that was too gnarly even for this surfer dude. Toeing oneself into a 60 foot wave is insane. Here he is at Cortez Bank off Dana Point.
I have a question, In girls ECNL is top league and cost is high most clubs are out in the Suburbs upper middle class league. Is ECNL boys going to be less expensive that girls ? Will it be mostly upper middle class due to cost and travel. I know of a top team that left ECNL club due to cost a couple of years ago. I have no dog in this fight my last son ages out this year.
jpeter
PREMIER
Yes the number of training days, coaches, games, travel, field time, etc needed add up to more expensive vs a regular club team
Without the ussda kick in and travel scholarships the cost of club soccer can, has or might increase for most clubs moving.
vegasguy
GOLD
Club dues vary from club to club for sure. I know SoCal clubs in general not just ECNL pay more than NV clubs in general. Our club dues and coaching fees are the same for the teams in the same age groups. The true expense does come in travel for NV clubs as 50% of our games are in other states.
I don't believe there is a prohibition against girls playing for an MLS League (youth team) . At the International play level FIFA expressly prohibits women from playing on men's teams to accommodate the countries that are theocracies. I'm not aware if the MLS would allow it at the over 18 level, but girls were allowed to be on boy's teams during the days of the DA.
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GoolRonaldo7
BRONZE
So do MLS Elite clubs know what age groups they will have? I have seen MANY clubs with the coaches and ages they will be a part of on their websites.
I haven't seen every club report it, but according to @jpeter, I think, the clubs had the ability to include the age groups they wanted. In fact, that may have been one of the attractive features for clubs like TFA, Santa Barbara, VC Fusion, Chula Vista, LAUFA, LA Surf, San Diego SC, etc that did not have the full complement of age groups in DA from the beginning and had to grovel/lobby USSDA to get the next age group each year. They may not have wanted to do them all this year so they could remain competitive in the age groups they entered, but that was a complaint with the old US Soccer-run DA that none of the clubs that left had to worry about.
80%-20% rule seems like the math trick MLS made.
Be careful, it doesn't say no MLS can play 20% with MLS, but MLS will play 20% with non MLS. If MLS has 30 games in a year, each MLS team plays 30x0.2=6 games with non-MLS. Total 30 MLSs x 6 = 180 MLS vs non MLS games will be scheduled. As there are 65 non MLS, each non MLS will play 180 / 65= 2.7 games with MLS. It will be less than 10%. Besides, MLS always complain meaningless games against weaker non MLS, so probably good non MLS will play more than average of 2.7, as the result, weaker non MLS might not have chance to play with MLS.
If you look at the right-hand side of the attachment (labeled Elite Youth Player Pathway), it says that teams in that pathway (i.e., non-MLS teams) at U15 would play 20% of their games v. MLS Pro Player Pathway Teams (i.e., MLS teams). So, it DOES actually say that non-MLS teams would play 20% against MLS teams. I do think it's mathematically possible for both to be true (you assume 30 games rather than the 40 in the graphic and you assume all 65 clubs will field teams at U15, which some people on this board have reported is not the case for clubs that they know). Still, it's also possible that this won't actually happen and non-MLS teams will only get 4 games, rather than 8 (30 MLS teams x 8 games v. non-MLS teams [40 games x .2] = 240 games total/65 non-MLS teams = 3.7, which would be about the same number of games they got against MLS teams last year in DA at U14 (not including tournaments). I think most would probably be OK with that, rather than playing the extra games against some of the Boys ECNL teams leftover from last year, but it's reasonable to not oversell the MLS "exposure" you might get from this league.
I think you are reading this MLS document too literally. Do you really think the league organizer is going to get out his/her calculator to make sure each non-MLS team’s percentage of games vs MLS is at or above 20.00%? How many soccer people do you know who are remotely good at basic math? 
Think of these as guidelines, not rules to be followed to the nth decimal point.
Think of these as guidelines, not rules to be followed to the nth decimal point.
I should add that you are absolutely correct that it is possible that the 20% number is an aggregate, rather than individual team, number, and that top non-MLS clubs could play more than 20% of their games v. MLS clubs and weaker teams would then play less than 20% (and less than 10%) to arrive at 20% as a percentage of the overal number of games played by non-MLS teams. If they reached that number as an aggregate, though, I would bet that geography would matter too. Some non-MLS teams don't have many MLS teams nearby and some MLS teams have no non-MLS teams nearby (the entire Pacific NW, for example). Southern California teams are going to do better on that score simply because there are two MLS teams in the area and the MLS teams want to reduce travel costs.
OliveGroveHarrier
BRONZE
I’m surely not the only parent trying to help their son decide between non-MLS and ECNL and time is running out. Seems a key difference is at the top - are you hoping to be noticed by an MLS club and go pro? Then play non-MLS, rock those 10-20% MLS Academy games, and get “mentioned” as a kid to watch. Are you hoping to play in college? Then do ECNL/NPL and get the showcases and organized infrastructure. I understand the travel and HS differences, because those are stated, but I’m trying to understand the unspoken side of it. Am I generally on point or way off? San Diego area. U16. Thank you. And yes, I do worry about him making the committment to non-MLS just to become a tackle dummy for MLS teams located far away and a minuscule shot at being noticed. Kinda leaning toward ECNL For the slightly higher chance at college (good student). I welcome any thoughts on 3rd options for post-HS play, like USL paths?
Kooks can always share the ocean, but they can't share the soccer pitch. So your exclusivity idea doesn't work in surfing...but it does in soccer.I'm starting a new "Elite Surfing Club." Basically, I teach you how to become an elite surfer. More news to come if @Dominic is ok with me sharing this new concept that also has beach soccer tied to it? I don;t want to break the rules like some do on here
I think that's a pretty good analysis. The kids i have known over the years (been observing as a club/academy dad for over 10 years) who have played Ivy League soccer or other excellent schools with programs (Tufts, Wash U, etc.) come out of the "next tier down" all the time. More well-rounded opportunities and you take the "go pro" (or maybe no Duke or Notre Dame or big D1 programs like that) out of the equation, but everything else stays on the table, as you suggest.