New ECNL Clubs

Well, a topic a lurker can speak to.
It is true that Reign Academy is "alive",
but without money and troops, it is a
paper tiger. Reign FC the first team
doesn't have two nickels to rub together,
let alone support an academy system.
Only possibility however improbable
is Washington Premier who has ECNL
will switch to GDA, since they are close
by to the new home of Reign FC in
Tacoma. If that happens, PacNW ECNL
should send them flowers thanking them
for the new players. ;)

@Savage is probably a Reign parent
pissed off that the Reign was a dead end.

Reign Dad, Reign is dead. Figure out where your
DD will land for tryouts in May.
Once again, Go Dawgs!

Maybe someone should create a Seattle local subgroup here since the local site has gone kaput. Although since the so cal GDA folks may be getting more travel to Seattle there may be some interest in this here as well.

The Reign’s fortunes may turn more on whether GDA gets its act together than on their internal challenges. Their coaches do not have any current affiliation with Eastside, work for the Reign, are generally well-liked, and have said they are sticking with the program for next year. Their national team players (5?) likely won’t be going ECNL given us soccer’s strong preference for GDA. They’ve done a very solid job on college placement with their two oldest teams (arguably on par with xf), and the younger kids’ families will see that. The first team seems to be on reasonably solid financial footing and now has a nice place to play, albeit in Tacoma. All of their teams are competitive, and they’ve come from clubs from all over the area rather than just their former partners (which is likely part of why their former partners concluded it no longer made sense to invest in the program). And they can now pitch themselves as the only local GDA option instead of 1 of 5 heavily diluted ecnl teams. So if GDA were on solid ground I’d think Reign probably would be too.

But GDA is a tophat or solar or two away from a complete cluster, and the people running the program at us soccer seem to have their heads in the sand and are up against an effective and competent marketing machine in ECNL. Travel in the northwest will be brutal next year with salt lake, Portland and Seattle having one team each, and a likely need for even more so cal crossover games to fill out a schedule. Unlesss GDA fixes things pronto I think they are toast, and I’m skeptical as to whether the folks at us soccer have the candlepower to do that.
 
We live in the Boston area. The DA/ECNL landscape here is the polar opposite of So. Cal. All of the top clubs from Boston to Philly (PDA, FC Stars, Scorpions, World Class, etc.) are in ECNL. The one strong club in DA is Penn Fusion, and if you believe the rumor mill they are begging to get back into ECNL. With HS soccer being so important in our little frozen corner of the country, DA is really struggling.
 
Same from my perspective in the Midwest. [Thanks for letting us play in your sandbox] DD quit GDA this time last year in order to play hs. Flipped to ECNL this year, and a measurable number of kids are doing the same this spring (quitting GDA to play hs). GDA midwest took huge hit last year with Hawks and Eclipse going All-in. Not sure any others in midwest will follow, but mw is already crippled. I'm watching Tophat. If they flip it's lights out. GDA can claim TX and SoCal, but the rest of the country is gone.
 
Wow, this has turned into quite the national forum.

In the NW, hearing the next shoe to drop is Real Colorado. No idea as to accuracy (but seems plausible as their DOC was an early critic of the initial GDA/ECNL split) and not quite as big as Slammers was last year or Top Hat would be, but a big deal for those of us Up North.
 
We live in the Boston area. The DA/ECNL landscape here is the polar opposite of So. Cal. All of the top clubs from Boston to Philly (PDA, FC Stars, Scorpions, World Class, etc.) are in ECNL. The one strong club in DA is Penn Fusion, and if you believe the rumor mill they are begging to get back into ECNL. With HS soccer being so important in our little frozen corner of the country, DA is really struggling.

The same is going to be true in Socal too from what I've heard......
 
My dd is a 2007 and we recently left the club she has played at for the past three years (which has GDA) and switched her to an ECNL program for next year.

Here in MA the middle school aged girls play on their town teams in addition to their club teams. That will continue into the high school ages. My dd’s 5/6 grade town team has 15 players. All 15 girls play club, with four different clubs represented on the team. 6 of the girls are headed to ECNL or DA in the next year or two. Our two biggest town rivals have similar roster make ups.

Very few of the girls are willing to forego playing town/high school for a DA product that, in our area, is a lot weaker than the NE ECNL conference. Just doesn’t make sense.
 
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