MakeAPlay
DA
That kind of depends on the geographical locations of the closed league clubs and, of course, the politics involved with choosing which clubs got into the closed league. As it stands, there are either ECNL or DA options for players in more geographic areas. Should they be consolidated? Probably. But who is to do the choosing? The politics of ECNL, and their reluctance to include worthy clubs in order to maintain their ability to poach players from them, created this problem.
That is why it may be a bit ironic to imply that US Soccer GDA poached players from ECNL.
The clubs that were neglected by ECNL initially either didn't apply or had no national track record at the time and that is a fact. The Legends, Beaches and Carlsbad Elite's of the world benefited from the ECNL teams no longer competing in USYS events. If the ECNL clubs had never pulled out those 3 SOCAL clubs would have never won anything. Sorry to share that with you....