Santa Monica Surf

MWN said:
If you look at the Surf Affiliate site (http://affiliates.surfsoccer.com/) promoting the reasons to become a Surf Affiliate, they hold up Surf Hawaii as a poster child ... over a 3 year period:

925% Increase in Total Team (4 to 40)
800% Increase in Total Players
988% Increase in Revenue

The biggest selling point is the brand. "Surf" and the "Surf Cup" are national brands "Downey FC" or "Santa Monica United" or whatever else the club name ... not so much. Many don't know that Murrieta Surf is not the same as SD Surf, just look at the responses in this thread of all the people that are supposed to be knowledgeable that have no idea what the difference between an affiliate v. corporate regional operator is. Its confusing and the affiliates benefit by this fact.

This brand has value, especially for clubs looking for a competitive advantage in an already crowded market. How important is a brand in the eyes of a consumer, just ask yourself how many times you went through a drive through and when asked what your drink preference was you answered "Coke" or "Dr. Pepper" or "Sprite" instead of "RC Cola" or "Mr. Pibb" or "Sierra Mist."
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Is Pepsi ok?
 
soccerobserver said:
@pewpew I appreciate your point of view. However I think the circumstances differ here. Santa Monica United is probably the 3rd or 4th biggest club in CSL. Over the past 5 years Santa Monica United has place more kids in college soccer than all the other west LA clubs combined. They have teams that regularly play in Europe for the summer and they have done the best job at placing kids in the some of the top academic D3 soccer programs in the nation. Years ago SMU had nothing on the girls side but now they have a large and successful girls side and it is typical for their good players to get offers from multiple colleges even though they are not DA or ECNL. So yes you could argue why change when its clearly working for the families in the area... I imagine this affiliation was done to help sustain access to the best tournaments in SoCal for their best teams. For example the SMU '05's recently defeated a local '05 ECNL team. If you want to go play soccer at an academic D3 or an Ivy League college then this is a great club for placement. That will not change. Same coaches and same DOC's serving the same community, but with better access.
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I'm just here for the comments ;)
 
mccorn said:
And this benefits the kids, how?
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I don't know, maybe a bigger club can attract better coaches, or provide more continuing education and licensing opportunities to coaches, or hire a dedicated goalkeeper coach, or get access to better fields, or attract college coaches to events, or attract ODP scouts, or raise the competitive level of the teams through recruiting or more competitive training sessions, or attract sponsors, or provide more scholarships to players?
 
WestsideSoccer said:
I don't know, maybe a bigger club can attract better coaches, or provide more continuing education and licensing opportunities to coaches, or hire a dedicated goalkeeper coach, or get access to better fields, or attract college coaches to events, or attract ODP scouts, or raise the competitive level of the teams through recruiting or more competitive training sessions, or attract sponsors, or provide more scholarships to players?
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Is this a Mic drop moment?
 
timbuck said:
This happens every time a smaller club affiliates/partners/spawns/integrates/merges/acquires/melds/assimilates/unites/unifies/converges/blends with a larger club.
All of us outsiders wonder "Why in the heck would they do that? They had a decent thing going as a boutique club."

And the typical response from the club(s) is "better resources and branding. Exposure to top teams. Economies of scale."

I'd love to see some metrics from small clubs that have done this and see what has changed in the 24 months post assimilation:
Did you get more players? Quality players? Did you increase revenue? Decrease cost? Have your teams become more competitive? More exposure for older players to get seen by college/pro scouts? What does your customer (players and parents) think about the move? If your club hosts a tournament, is it better attended? Does the city/county/school district give you better access to fields? Do you get treated better by Cal-South/Coast Soccer League/SCDSL/etc? Has your time spent on administrative tasks been reduced? Has whatever the Big Club told you was going to happen, happened?
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What in the wild world of sports is going here folks????? Big Club is getting Bigger......no way bro!!! It really is a beautiful thing to watch from my vantage point. I bet Doc, coaches get no raises, bonuses or any perks. It's from kindness and knowing this is what's best for the kids. It's a beautiful brand with beautiful people at the top. So happy to see this sport growing for everyone involved. I wish everyone true happiness in this merger :)
 
Messi>CR7 said:
Two or three years ago my kid played against an SMU team in our second game of a tourney during the transitional/confusing year for headers (headers allowed in some tourney, but not in others). During the game SMU crossed the ball into the box and our center back headed out. Ref called an intentional header and awarded SMU an indirect freekick inside the box. Our team knew header was allowed in this particular tourney since our coach read the rules and our team did so in repeatedly in our first game. Our coach discussed with the ref but the ref stood by his call.

To my surprise, the SMU coach instructed his player to simply kick the ball softly back to our team after restart. He obviously knew the ref was wrong but chose to compete fairly instead of taking advantage of such error.

I wish I remember the name of the coach so I can give him credit. Classiest act I've ever seen in youth sports.
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Did the ref caution the SMU coach for dissent?
 
Some advice for the parents involved, be quiet and don't say a word. Go along with whatever the coaches tell you. It's all in the best interest of your child, trust me. I wouldn't consider this club hopping either. Good luck to all of you this coming season :)
 
A lot of people seem to be commenting on this without really understanding the Westside club scene. This isn't like other areas of SoCal where there are dozens of clubs competing for talent in a rich pool, many of whom practice in the same complexes. There are basically two big-ish clubs on the westside and a few small-ish ones. Perhaps one of the bigger clubs could acquire the teams of a smaller club or merge with them, but no one is getting significantly bigger without getting more field space. Plus, there aren't a ton of kids driving from long distances to get to these clubs. Traffic is too difficult. At best, you have some downtown/South LA kids coming in because it's a bit of a reverse commute to drive west on the 10 in the afternoon (and they go to westside magnet or private schools) and a few kids leave the westside to drive far to other clubs because of DA (and ECNL in the past), but those are outliers. It's primarily a closed market. So, this move is basically Santa Monica's response to the LA Breakers merger and subsequent move to ECNL. It seems like a way to get their kids some exposure and development pathways (through Surf Cup and possibly the Surf Select teams or guest/practice opportunities) without having to join ECNL, which has downsides in travel and competition (especially on the boys side, but definitely for younger Breakers' girls teams who weren't up to it last year). Will it have any effect? My guess is only on the fringes, but that depends on how the market develops. As with most clubs, the coach and team are still more important and that will continue to drive most player movement on the Westside.
 
mccorn said:
And this benefits the kids, how?
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Stronger teams and with a consolidation of talent into a single club, thereby increasing development opportunities and national tournament play opportunities ... would be how I would spin it.
 
MWN said:
Stronger teams and with a consolidation of talent into a single club, thereby increasing development opportunities and national tournament play opportunities ... would be how I would spin it.
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tried that, didn't work out
 
What has Surf done for its affiliates? I would like to hear from those folks. Good luck to those parents that think things will get better. You are part of a corporation and all They care about is the $$$$ not your players or opportunities. Nothing changing except your uniforms and getting into Surf Cup. I believe LA Surf parents fell for the koolaid and have been mum for months now.
 
SoccerFrenzy said:
What has Surf done for its affiliates? I would like to hear from those folks. Good luck to those parents that think things will get better. You are part of a corporation and all They care about is the $$$$ not your players or opportunities. Nothing changing except your uniforms and getting into Surf Cup. I believe LA Surf parents fell for the koolaid and have been mum for months now.
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Maybe the LA Surf parents are so happy with the way things are turning out that they don’t want to share their jubilation in fear of others trying to come in and take a slice of the LA Surf pie. ;)

I didn’t drink any Kool-aid, I’m diabetic. I was happy before and I’m happy now. Nothing changed drastically except the player pool.
 
soccerobserver said:
Santa Monica United is probably the 3rd or 4th biggest club in CSL. Over the past 5 years Santa Monica United has place more kids in college soccer than all the other west LA clubs combined.
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Uh huh...

Dargle said:
This isn't like other areas of SoCal where there are dozens of clubs competing for talent in a rich pool, many of whom practice in the same complexes. There are basically two big-ish clubs on the westside and a few small-ish ones.
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Hmm.... so basically SMU has placed a couple players in D3 schools...?
 
I’d be really curious to know how many players from one Surf club have been contacted to guest with ANY OTHER Surf team from another location for any sort of play. Be it a tournament or just a friendly scrimmage or a scrimmage on a bit of a bigger scale to give a few star players a little look. Or would the home club needing a player just pull up a potential player from a younger team instead?
See where I’m going with the “opportunities” line...
 
cheaper2keeper said:
Maybe the LA Surf parents are so happy with the way things are turning out that they don’t want to share their jubilation in fear of others trying to come in and take a slice of the LA Surf pie. ;)

I didn’t drink any Kool-aid, I’m diabetic. I was happy before and I’m happy now. Nothing changed drastically except the player pool.
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So you have a player pool to choose from now and Are you actually pulling from that pool? Thought with DA you have to be rostered to the team no? Interesting haven’t seen your team compete At Surf Cup so you are right nothing has changed.
 
SoccerFrenzy said:
So you have a player pool to choose from now and Are you actually pulling from that pool? Thought with DA you have to be rostered to the team no? Interesting haven’t seen your team compete At Surf Cup so you are right nothing has changed.
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Most DA teams are still on break during Surf Cup. Don’t use that as a barometer especially k. The case of LA Surf as they are 100% a new team at many age groups.
 
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