I agree that it is silly the amount of travel required by GDA, but ECNL is equally to blame. After all, GDA would have never gotten the foothold it did if ECNL wasn't acting like a corrupt monopoly.
This is a ridiculous false equivalency. This season, Slammers (ECNL) will fly once for league games, to Arizona for two games. Compare that to Legends (GDA), which will fly to Texas, Nevada, Arizona, and San Jose. Both teams will also fly to two showcases, but Slammers will be two quick and far less expensive and shorter trips to Phoenix unless they
choose to fly to one of the more distant options. Legends, on the other hand, is forced to fly to Florida and (if history is a guide) CO or NC during which players will miss almost a week of school for each of those trips. Also keep in mind that SoCal GDA clubs are lucky. Last season, the NorCal Quakes 04 team that won the GDA flew to UT, FL, AZ, OR, CO, WA, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County for GDA games. That's nine plane flights for a bunch of 8th and 9th graders to play mostly garbage opponents, and although their best possible competition - MVLA's 04 team - is about 10 miles down the road. That Quakes team is very good, but it's a joke that there wasn't a single GDA team that could compete with them. Yes, ECNL teams must travel, but it is no comparison in terms of how often, how far, or for how long - and therefore the costs and number of school days missed either. No one in ECNL even remotely approaches GDA's level of stupidity. Claiming the travel is the same is the type of garbage the GDA mafia makes up to dupe people into playing in its ridiculously expensive league.
ECNL is a corrupt monopoly? That's really funny, particularly since USSF is an
actual monopoly. Like most monopolies, USSF dictates to consumers what they must do without any regard for the clubs' or players' interests or their costs. How awesome that everyone must fly to FL regardless of cost because that's convenient for USSF's YNT scouts, whereas ECNL lets clubs pick locations that are far closer and more cost effective for them. How awesome that USSF just kicks you out of the league if you don't do exactly what it wants, such as playing HS soccer or skipping out on Florida because it is a compete waste of time and money. That s**t doesn't happen in ECNL because, well, ECNL isn't a monopoly and can't get away with it. Unlike GDA, ECNL must provide the best product for its consumers, whereas USSF just leverages its NT monopoly status to bully clubs and kids into staying in GDA by threatening clubs that they'll never have any future YNT players if they leave. Instead, many far less competent clubs and many of their far less deserving players get that good PR, which allows the GDA mafia to dupe people into thinking their league is so great.