Is DA done?

thedudeabides said:
This should have happened years ago. Many of the DA's outside California wouldn't be top 50 teams in SoCal and half of the SoCal DA's were mediocre. Some actually got worse after going from club to DA. How can you claim to have the best players playing on the best teams when it was pay for play at many of these DA's and much of the top talent was not geographically or financially able to play at a DA,. That's a big reason our MNT struggles. The politics of pay to play have ruined the sport. They should make all the MLS Academies residential and invite the top teams within a 3-4 hour driving radius to compete in a promotion/relegation league. Players in really rural areas would still have opportunities to get scouted by other means and would have the ability to join an MLS Academy if it was residential and fully funded. This is the only way to consolidate the best talent in the U.S. Remove the politics and give the truly talented kids a real opportunity to become world class players like they do in Europe. The DA experiment was a miserable failure. I'm glad the powers that be are waking up to that reality.
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Pay for play was definitely the name of the game on some DA teams. Some of those parents wasted their monies, sometimes writing $10K to $15K checks to their clubs for their kids play time ! Now they may not be able to even play flight 2 :)
 
thedudeabides said:
This should have happened years ago. Many of the DA's outside California wouldn't be top 50 teams in SoCal and half of the SoCal DA's were mediocre. Some actually got worse after going from club to DA. How can you claim to have the best players playing on the best teams when it was pay for play at many of these DA's and much of the top talent was not geographically or financially able to play at a DA,. That's a big reason our MNT struggles. The politics of pay to play have ruined the sport. They should make all the MLS Academies residential and invite the top teams within a 3-4 hour driving radius to compete in a promotion/relegation league. Players in really rural areas would still have opportunities to get scouted by other means and would have the ability to join an MLS Academy if it was residential and fully funded. This is the only way to consolidate the best talent in the U.S. Remove the politics and give the truly talented kids a real opportunity to become world class players like they do in Europe. The DA experiment was a miserable failure. I'm glad the powers that be are waking up to that reality.
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Will the MLS residential academies provide high school education? Will all the academies coach the same playing style (I don't know if that is a good thing or not)?

And - it is better than what was done, but I don't know if it is the "only" way.
 
thedudeabides said:
This should have happened years ago. Many of the DA's outside California wouldn't be top 50 teams in SoCal and half of the SoCal DA's were mediocre. Some actually got worse after going from club to DA. How can you claim to have the best players playing on the best teams when it was pay for play at many of these DA's and much of the top talent was not geographically or financially able to play at a DA,. That's a big reason our MNT struggles. The politics of pay to play have ruined the sport. They should make all the MLS Academies residential and invite the top teams within a 3-4 hour driving radius to compete in a promotion/relegation league. Players in really rural areas would still have opportunities to get scouted by other means and would have the ability to join an MLS Academy if it was residential and fully funded. This is the only way to consolidate the best talent in the U.S. Remove the politics and give the truly talented kids a real opportunity to become world class players like they do in Europe. The DA experiment was a miserable failure. I'm glad the powers that be are waking up to that reality.
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This is a fantastic post and such a great suggestion. I would only add the wrinkle that MLS was never really on the same page as US Soccer in terms of the mission (US Soccer is a non-profit with no authority over the wealthy owners of MLS teams) of developing kids for USMNT...which is probably why MLS is going its own way now. If there was a unified structure where your pro/rel league included USL teams in smaller markets and places where there is no pro team (Phoenix, San Diego, Sacramento), it may really winnow the best to the top while giving so many other excellent players specific goals and professional training.
 
watfly said:
That would work too. He told me today he wants to play water polo of all things, not a knock on water polo, just a curious choice.
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My son signed up for high school football next year. He has spent the entire off time in the garage gym trying to bulk up instead of playing with a soccer ball. I expect when he hears about this he will tell me he wants to stop playing soccer and switch to football. I would take water polo in an instant.
 
Surf has been emailed that they are in Ecnl for boys and girls. Ive heard a unsubstantiated rumor of another SD boys team got in but I'm not convinced so I'm not going to divulge. I heard that Albion did not get in but I'm sure NG will claim they didn't try because they have a better plan.
 
My son has suffered a series of tough injuries over the past 4 years and has been in an out of the DA. I have seen the inside of DA and none-DA clubs. I, for one, am not thrilled with the DA terminating. The DA, while being far from perfect and really only affecting a small number of players, has/had some redeeming qualities that helped set a tone for DA and non-DA teams - coaching standards, written training programs and practices plans, oversight, 3-4 practices per week, emphasis on development over winning (debatable I know), no high school soccer, and putting pressure on clubs to find ways to be partially or fulling funded. Now we are back to egomaniac coaches intent on nothing but winning in order to attract paying players, pay to play, two practices per week, zero coaching standards, and high school soccer. My son was in grade 9 this year and played varsity soccer, playing division 1 and 2 teams. The games were unwatchable and the quality was brutal. Four years in high school equals 12ish months out of 48 months or 1/4 of a player's year in what for most solid players will be a poor soccer environment.
 
Per rumor all non MLS DA teams will play ECNL next season-

Questions
1) what will their financials look like- most kids played for free so will they still cover costs- I’m guessing not
2) how will their B teams handle the move down- lots of selling NPL, ENPL etc

sad for the 03/04 ages as they have been through so much already- move to SCDSL, age changes, move to DA, move again to ECNL- criminal IMO
 
rsb18 said:
My son has suffered a series of tough injuries over the past 4 years and has been in an out of the DA. I have seen the inside of DA and none-DA clubs. I, for one, am not thrilled with the DA terminating. The DA, while being far from perfect and really only affecting a small number of players, has/had some redeeming qualities that helped set a tone for DA and non-DA teams - coaching standards, written training programs and practices plans, oversight, 3-4 practices per week, emphasis on development over winning (debatable I know), no high school soccer, and putting pressure on clubs to find ways to be partially or fulling funded. Now we are back to egomaniac coaches intent on nothing but winning in order to attract paying players, pay to play, two practices per week, zero coaching standards, and high school soccer. My son was in grade 9 this year and played varsity soccer, playing division 1 and 2 teams. The games were unwatchable and the quality was brutal. Four years in high school equals 12ish months out of 48 months or 1/4 of a player's year in what for most solid players will be a poor soccer environment.
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I would agree that there were some good things about the DA and instead of taking this opportunity to take the good and improving even more with a league that grows the game of soccer, develops better players AND benefits the youth, the clubs are fracturing the landscape even more to jockey for position and in the end the kids and families still lose out. More travel, more unethical recruiting practices, more win at all costs, more egomaniac coaches.

Can you imagine a youth sports world where the non-profit clubs actually worked together for the betterment of the game and our youth? Wouldn't that be a concept.
 
mlx said:
What's going to happen with teams that have DA and ECNL? Will DA become the ECNL team and the ECNL become the gold/flight 1 team?
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Teams probably mix up a bit. Some of the top kids may have been on the ECNL roster for other reasons.
 
galaxydad said:
Per rumor all non MLS DA teams will play ECNL next season-

Questions
1) what will their financials look like- most kids played for free so will they still cover costs- I’m guessing not
2) how will their B teams handle the move down- lots of selling NPL, ENPL etc

sad for the 03/04 ages as they have been through so much already- move to SCDSL, age changes, move to DA, move again to ECNL- criminal IMO
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Surf's email said the top teams will play in ECNL and the 2nd team will play in ECNL Regional League. FYI I'm not affiliated with Surf in anyway but I have seen the email.
 
jpeter said:
For beng 0-3 you should be buying. Maybe you can get a hit tomorrow. Brush up in the batter's cage. Someone called the shots last week

Is DA done?

New rumors coming out today that DA is considering disbanding, both boys and girls. All club-based academies to shift to ECNL. MLS academies going their own way. I have very few details, but heard this from several solid sources today. Anyone out there that can shed some light?
www.socalsoccer.com
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www.boysecnl.com

ECNL Boys Announces 6 New Member Clubs in Southern California for 2020-2021

RICHMOND, VA (April 15, 2020) – The ECNL Boys is excited to announce that Arsenal, FC Golden State, Pateadores, Real So Cal, San Diego Surf, and Strikers FC will join the league in the 2020-2021 season as members of the Southwest Conference. “The addition of these clubs, along with our current...
www.boysecnl.com www.boysecnl.com
 
If I was the SW ECNL id hold their own showcase. Almost all of the top talent is now consolidated in one league.

winners- college scouts, those that wanted talent in one spot, pay to play clubs

losers- low income,Coast soccer, second tier teams and leagues,
 
FCGS jumped the gun on press release. The rest are waiting to post theirs. This also is happening in PNW, TX, CO, FL... Some great new changes to ECNL as well to make this happen. I'll elaborate in a minute.
 
Posted on ECNL website:
ECNL Boys Announces 6 New Member Clubs in Southern California for 2020-2021
RICHMOND, VA (April 15, 2020) – The ECNL Boys is excited to announce that Arsenal, FC Golden State, Pateadores, Real So Cal, San Diego Surf, and Strikers FC will join the league in the 2020-2021 season as members of the Southwest Conference.
 
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