SCDSL adding Discovery Division

uburoi said:
....... Who wants to drive to Silverlake for anything ever, much less every weekend during the hottest months of the year?
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I could not agree more. Silverlakes is a scorching hell hole in September and early October. My daughter was coaching her team in State Cup at Silverlakes and asked me to go with her. On a Saturday it took us 5 1/2 hours round trip from San Diego. I cannot imagine making that 5+ hour trip 11 weekends in a row in the fall. That will get old really fast. I wonder if they will give a discount on parking otherwise that is another $110 in parking fees. I do like the idea of the best non-DA teams playing each other.
 
If they are going to give some teams cash awards at the end of the season, they better have their appeals and tie-breaker rules cleaned out before they start.
 
boomer said:
Why so sour on this? This is a refinement and obvious improvement of an existing league designed to accommodate the better teams in SCDSL. Maybe CSL should consider something similar or risk losing their better teams. While the thought of Norco in Sept and Oct makes me cringe a little, this is better than schlepping all over hell and back to play crap teams, and not knowing when or where it will all happen until you are less than a week out from first kickoff.
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Because the SCDSL are just administrators. They have no interest in improvements, just more opportunities to make money. Instead of making soccer more accessible and more local, they are increasing inconvenience, costs, frustration and the well being of players. The more parents drive and pay, the more frustrated they become and the more pressure it puts on players. And $1400 is the cost of one tournament, maybe $50 a player. That’s one round trip to Silverlake including gas and parking fee. Really?
 
uburoi said:
You are doing a great job as the spokesperson for the SCDSL. The SCDSL only cares about money and not the development of players. That’s why kids leave for other leagues. Restating what you already said doesn’t change this proposition.
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Ok, assuming you are correct that its purely a money play to keep teams in the league and collect dollars. How is this different from any other league? Moreover, its looks like SCDSL has one-upped the competition for those dollars. In light of the fact that all this soccer costs us parents money and playing in Regional leagues is even more expensive because we have to spend big bucks traveling to Arizona and Nevada and New Mexico, etc.. Seems like this new division may be money well spent because it solves a major problem for the parents of non-DA and ECNL kids ... exposure and will ultimately save those parents their hard earned cash, but we will lose Hilton and Marriott points.
 
MWN said:
Ok, assuming you are correct that its purely a money play to keep teams in the league and collect dollars. How is this different from any other league? Moreover, its looks like SCDSL has one-upped the competition for those dollars. In light of the fact that all this soccer costs us parents money and playing in Regional leagues is even more expensive because we have to spend big bucks traveling to Arizona and Nevada and New Mexico, etc.. Seems like this new division may be money well spent because it solves a major problem for the parents of non-DA and ECNL kids ... exposure and will ultimately save those parents their hard earned cash, but we will lose Hilton and Marriott points.
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Exposure? I will bet that the teams that get into this league will be from the usual list of suspects.
 
MWN said:
Ok, assuming you are correct that its purely a money play to keep teams in the league and collect dollars. How is this different from any other league? Moreover, its looks like SCDSL has one-upped the competition for those dollars. In light of the fact that all this soccer costs us parents money and playing in Regional leagues is even more expensive because we have to spend big bucks traveling to Arizona and Nevada and New Mexico, etc.. Seems like this new division may be money well spent because it solves a major problem for the parents of non-DA and ECNL kids ... exposure and will ultimately save those parents their hard earned cash, but we will lose Hilton and Marriott points.
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Exposure? I’m assuming you mean Surf Cup. Or do you mean weekly exposure At Silverlakes? Both will account for little to none.
 
IMO, this can work as long as they can recruit a couple of other large clubs from CSL to SCDSL. Yes it's a money making opportunity but nothing is free in this world. It's all about making money so don't use money as a complaint against this idea.

The question comes down to how flexible will they be if the temperate gets so hot in Norco. Could they have a backup location near the coast when the weather gets over 100 degrees.
 
soccerobserver said:
MWN, good summary...perhaps I am missing something but is this essentially the Champions Division moved to Silverlakes and paired with financial perks ?? Or will the two co-exist??
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Taking a step back, for those elite players that don't have the financial means to play in a regional league like the ECNL or NPL (costs of travel to New Mexico, Arizona, Northern California, Nevada, etc.) AND don't play in the DA, getting college coach exposure is difficult and only occurs at showcases. College coaches want to see (1) prospects on good teams play against other good teams; and (2) everything occur at one venue. The Champions division doesn't do this because the teams are still required to secure their home fields. This Discovery division fulfills this need/desire.

Based on the article, the two will co-exist, but the cream of the crop from the Champions division would leave and the league would attempt to pull in some ECNL, CSL and SDDA teams. What we have now is teams that think they can play at a high level, but don't want to leave SoCal have CalSouth's CRL, which is basically an "extra league" on top of CSL and SCDSL Clubs without DA status or ECNL teams (big money/costs to parents) that don't get into CRL are left with no options, but to beat up on the lesser competition. The DPL (girls) would find this league attractive.

The ultimate impact to the Champions division is really dependent upon whether the new division is successful in pulling from the DPL, ECNL/EGSL and NPL.
 
MWN said:
Ok, assuming you are correct that its purely a money play to keep teams in the league and collect dollars. How is this different from any other league? Moreover, its looks like SCDSL has one-upped the competition for those dollars. In light of the fact that all this soccer costs us parents money and playing in Regional leagues is even more expensive because we have to spend big bucks traveling to Arizona and Nevada and New Mexico, etc.. Seems like this new division may be money well spent because it solves a major problem for the parents of non-DA and ECNL kids ... exposure and will ultimately save those parents their hard earned cash, but we will lose Hilton and Marriott points.
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The scdsl should be asking questions like, how can I protect children and families? Can we schedule games in hotter months in the mornings and evenings and not during peak heat hours. What fields have lights? Do we need more $ for those fields? Ok let’s sell that instead of ignoring the obvious. Kids died last year during excessively hot days and coaches died in a traffic accident. The scdsl is not an elite competitive league. It’s McDonalds and not Shake Shack.
 
who died playing at Norco last year?

I hear they play soccer in Arizona. Does their league only run in December?
 
soccerobserver said:
MWN, good summary...perhaps I am missing something but is this essentially the Champions Division moved to Silverlakes and paired with financial perks ?? Or will the two co-exist??
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I was wondering the same thing. My assumption is that this replaces Champions division brackets? Which is good because the Champions/Europa Flight 1 thing was clumsy and nobody seemed to understand how the playoff seeding worked.

Other thoughts:
Is this a play to get DPL clubs to move to SCDSL and scuttle the DPL league entirely? If I had a kid on a DPL team and had to go to Arizona this fall during the school year for games, I'd be hoping for this sort of set up instead. Seems like the competition leveling would be more consistent based on the criteria listed. Some of those DPL games looked very lopsided.

...Or is this just desperate "me-too marketing" with no larger strategic vision?

I'm not a fan of Silverlakes in Sept & October (which is when most of the games are played for olders). That is undoubtedly the hottest stretch of weeks in the hottest soccer complex in SoCal.

Every game is a home game for Legends. How nice for them.

The rest of the structure seems pretty reasonable.
 
Every time we get a new league we're all so excited because, "This time it will be different, this time we know what to do better..."
But, it's just another league, just like all the rest. Another venue to suck up that cash flow.
We have such a great track record so far, let's keep it up.

Who are you watching in the World Cup?
 
MWN said:
Taking a step back, for those elite players that don't have the financial means to play in a regional league like the ECNL or NPL (costs of travel to New Mexico, Arizona, Northern California, Nevada, etc.) AND don't play in the DA, getting college coach exposure is difficult and only occurs at showcases. College coaches want to see (1) prospects on good teams play against other good teams; and (2) everything occur at one venue. The Champions division doesn't do this because the teams are still required to secure their home fields. This Discovery division fulfills this need/desire.

Based on the article, the two will co-exist, but the cream of the crop from the Champions division would leave and the league would attempt to pull in some ECNL, CSL and SDDA teams. What we have now is teams that think they can play at a high level, but don't want to leave SoCal have CalSouth's CRL, which is basically an "extra league" on top of CSL and SCDSL Clubs without DA status or ECNL teams (big money/costs to parents) that don't get into CRL are left with no options, but to beat up on the lesser competition. The DPL (girls) would find this league attractive.

The ultimate impact to the Champions division is really dependent upon whether the new division is successful in pulling from the DPL, ECNL/EGSL and NPL.
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Thanks MWN...I have another quick question after re-read the following in the link about the new Division:

"Rolling out for the 2018 season and including birth years 2005 and older, teams from SCDSL member clubs, will apply during open enrollment for this division. A review committee that is assembled of directors, selected by their peers, that are knowledgeable on the boys or girls teams will review the applications and will select the 12 best teams in each of these older birth year"

This seems to say that the teams for the new Division will come from SCDSL...or excluding teams not already in SCDSL...so no CSL or SDDA teams...am I reading this correctly? If so, then I am guessing the new Division will be comprised of Champions group teams- except the ones that do not apply- plus the next best Europa level teams from SCDSL...am I getting that about right?
 
MWN said:
the cream of the crop from the Champions division would leave and the league would attempt to pull in some ECNL, CSL and SDDA teams. The DPL (girls) would find this league attractive.

The ultimate impact to the Champions division is really dependent upon whether the new division is successful in pulling from the DPL, ECNL/EGSL and NPL.
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Agree.

The only potential true benefit of this league is if they could pull all of the best teams from DPL and CSL (assuming ECNL stays put). Otherwise it's the Champions division with added bells and whistles. Everything that they are doing could be done with the existing Champions division. It's a marketing scheme, and yes we know this is a business, but if you don't pull in any new clubs from CSL or DPL ( teams), then it is the same teams that were going to be in Champions anyway, playing against each other at Silverlakes instead of their home fields. In terms of "development" there is no change whatsoever. In terms of recruiting, many of these things could have been done without creating a new league. I'm skeptical that college coaches will go to Silverlakes to catch regular season games.
 
I am quite surprised with the reaction of most of you guys....

Nowhere did I read that its mutually exclusive. In other words, its just another division within SCDSL. Those SCDSL clubs with teams in DA, and ECNL probably will remain as is and their top flight 1 team will go into the new division. So think about it as "Champions Division" relabeled and with more perks for the winners. Furthermore, NPL and CRL teams are one of the Flight 1 teams anyway so they'll just keep on doing both.

As for CSL, its the same, the Premier teams will continue to do both CRL/NPL and league. There is no new league, just a new division within.

Personally, I think giving kids more exposure, wherever its from, towards college coaches is a good thing. There are lots of college out there that do not recruit DA players because they cannot offer the kind of scholarship most DA players are expecting. These may not be Ivys or big major conference schools but there are plenty of excellent schools out there.

Let your knee jerk settle down and step back a bit. It won't make much difference in how the game is played by the kids in the fall.
 
Here are my thoughts. This looks like SCDSL's answer to DPL. If they can attract the big clubs back out of DPL then they might have something. In DPL only about 1/2 of the teams had to travel to Arizona for a game and I would much rather do that and have 1/2 of my league games at home than have to travel to Silverlakes every weekend (which would take more time in total and traffic sucks getting to and from there). Having all of the games at Silverlakes does nothing other than allow Legends to scout players. No coaches are coming to watch league play. They have their own season games to worry about at that time. Its hotter than hell in Norco this also sounds bad compared to many league games that end up being played closer to the ocean. Paying for parking every game would suck. Really the only potential advantage is the $1400 showcase fees paid but that is only for the top two teams. Who ever wins was probably already getting it Surf if they didn't want to do the Silverlakes showcase. This might just end up being the same endless collection of Slammers teams all just playing at one venue.
 
The biggest problem right now for SoCal soccer is talent is split between 3 leagues and all the leagues are diluted. DA plainly intends to go its own way. For SCDSL and CSL to compete with DA, this new league is a good first step EXCEPT it needs to do 3 more things:

1. CSL and SCDSL should merge their top divisions into this league, then all the top non-DA teams can compete vs each other.

2. Relegation for bottom teams, promotion for top teams in the next division below.

3. Screw Norco. Have the games in Great Park, that’s more central. Let the SD teams play each other in SD. Have one weekend of games in SD. One SD trip for LA and OC teams is not so bad.
 
3. Screw Norco. Have the games in Great Park, that’s more central. Let the SD teams play each other in SD. Have one weekend of games in SD. One SD trip for LA and OC teams is not so bad.

Unless you live in LA County or Ventura County or Santa Barbara County then those options suck just as much as Norco.
 
Simisoccerfan said:
Unless you live in LA County or Ventura County or Santa Barbara County then those options suck just as much as Norco.
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Isn’t Great Park easier for Orange County and San Diego County residents? Norco is better only for Riverside and San Bernardino.
 
You guys are so focused on the girls side only that you cannot see beyond it.

Boys side has had DA for 10 years and SCDSL exist not just for the girls. It is not their version of DPL, as that's girls only league. The boys side has had 3 leagues, ever since SCDSL was formed 5~6 years ago. Not a big deal.

Try not to over think it...
 
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