From the US Soccer FAQ (
http://www.ussoccerda.com/girls-academy-faqs):
What criteria is be used to select clubs that will be part of the Girls' Development Academy?
The Academy uses the following criteria when evaluating the application of each club for membership:
- Leadership of the club and quality of the coaching staff
- Desire to embrace and promote the core values of the program
- U.S. Soccer license levels of coaching staff
- Infrastructure of the club and the resources currently being invested in development (facilities, scholarships, staff to player ratio, etc.)
- History of player production for youth National Teams, the Women's National Team, and professional leagues
- Market with player depth, geographic location, proximity to other elite clubs and travel implications
As you can see, the focus is much broader than just "hey, this club has a great girls program." Rather, it appears US Soccer was looking at a number of broad categories, some objective and others subjective. Some SoCal clubs probably got bit by the Market factor from just a pure saturation point of view and I'm sure a number were written off due to infrastructure concerns (
I could see Arsenal losing out to the Legends because they both operate in essentially the same market (NorCo area), but the Legends have a very, very, very close relationship with Silverlakes, whereas, Arsenal has Norco College and is a 2nd class citizen at the facility ... where there other factors, I don't know). I do know where a club practices is very important to the DA, which requires all DA teams practice at the same facility. The DA also wants to see classroom facilities, locker rooms, in addition to just fields. This factor is hard for many clubs and many clubs got a pass on this factor because they had an acceptable plan to fix it. The license levels of coaching staff probably also threw a few clubs out of the window. US Soccer wants the DOC to have an A License and the minimum license level for coaches is D, but it prefers B's and C's.
When it comes to the complaint "why not use the same criteria as US Soccer did for the boys," after thinking about it (thanks
@Fact for your comments/observations), I don't think that would be wise because we all perceive mistakes have been made with the boys program. The girls get to evaluate what worked and didn't work over the last 10 years, make changes to the criteria having learned from the boys mistakes and go to market with a different (and hopefully better) plan. Whether this bears out, only time will tell.