MLS NEXT NEW TIER - SOUTHWEST

Grace it makes 0 sense....

LA Bulls have the 2 worst fields in West LA, Daniel Webster Middle which they did MLS Next tryouts on, on a Friday Night under portable light on a grass field that is horrible and they also have Paul Revere Middle School which is 10x worse than Webster. They have 0 facilities in west LA now that Pacific Palisades turf field is closed indefinitely...

Juventus operates out of field Stoner Park which is on par with Webster and Paul Revere. They have no state cup championships at the CSL level. They have 8 boys teams 2013 and older that went 33-41-15 in COAST SOCCER LEAGUE.

Autobahn SC and Albion Santa Monica have the best fields in West LA and its not even close. AYSO United also sneaks their LA teams on to the fields on Santa Monica.

OAKS FC is also a horrible choice, they play in the DPL and struggle with game rosters and they don't have good fields either.

Very confused by these additions. Who is making these decisions at MLS???
 
Grace it makes 0 sense....

LA Bulls have the 2 worst fields in West LA, Daniel Webster Middle which they did MLS Next tryouts on, on a Friday Night under portable light on a grass field that is horrible and they also have Paul Revere Middle School which is 10x worse than Webster. They have 0 facilities in west LA now that Pacific Palisades turf field is closed indefinitely...

Juventus operates out of field Stoner Park which is on par with Webster and Paul Revere. They have no state cup championships at the CSL level. They have 8 boys teams 2013 and older that went 33-41-15 in COAST SOCCER LEAGUE.

Autobahn SC and Albion Santa Monica have the best fields in West LA and its not even close. AYSO United also sneaks their LA teams on to the fields on Santa Monica.

OAKS FC is also a horrible choice, they play in the DPL and struggle with game rosters and they don't have good fields either.

Very confused by these additions. Who is making these decisions at MLS???
Santa Monica city is building a huge new complex that will rival great park. But I think the thinking there is that Santa Monica long term will swallow up Los Angeles. Already several teams have moved over to the west side and the families on that side just have more money to subsidize club soccer. Long term Albion la doesn’t have the economic base (the rental at Long Beach community college is expensive) without running into the same problem that Laufa did.

Tfa also has for some nights their teams practicing on public park grass but at least tfa can make the access argument for an underserved community which, with Laufa gone, is more underserved. Red bullls and oaks can’t make that argument. Juventus can. So it’s not facilities.

But it’s not merit. If it is merit then sorry SoCal elite whatever criticism of their aggressive practices deserves it.
 
My personal observation is some were chosen to give families easy Non ECNL options. Dont shoot my tin foil hat.....
 
Grace it makes 0 sense....

LA Bulls have the 2 worst fields in West LA, Daniel Webster Middle which they did MLS Next tryouts on, on a Friday Night under portable light on a grass field that is horrible and they also have Paul Revere Middle School which is 10x worse than Webster. They have 0 facilities in west LA now that Pacific Palisades turf field is closed indefinitely...

Juventus operates out of field Stoner Park which is on par with Webster and Paul Revere. They have no state cup championships at the CSL level. They have 8 boys teams 2013 and older that went 33-41-15 in COAST SOCCER LEAGUE.

Autobahn SC and Albion Santa Monica have the best fields in West LA and its not even close. AYSO United also sneaks their LA teams on to the fields on Santa Monica.

OAKS FC is also a horrible choice, they play in the DPL and struggle with game rosters and they don't have good fields either.

Very confused by these additions. Who is making these decisions at MLS???
Ps Daniel Websters fields are an abomination.
My personal observation is some were chosen to give families easy Non ECNL options. Dont shoot my tin foil hat.....
Don’t thinks that’s the case with oaks fc or juventus. There are no boys ecnl teams in the Latino part of the city near the downtown triangle. Reason always cited is facilities. Thereby aren’t very many boys ecnl teams period and the nearest to oaks is real so cal aka lafc. Ecnl has stubbornly refused the promotion of eagles in Camarillo out of ecrl despite ecnl on the girls side. Ecnl has been more resistant to the “if you build it they will come”. Perhaps some grain of truth with bulls v breakers and one of the selling points of bulls is the promise they’d be at the forefront of the girls academy league if that ever got off the ground. No i don’t think it’s anti ecnl moved, any more than merit or facilities.
 
Santa Monica city is building a huge new complex that will rival great park. But I think the thinking there is that Santa Monica long term will swallow up Los Angeles. Already several teams have moved over to the west side and the families on that side just have more money to subsidize club soccer. Long term Albion la doesn’t have the economic base (the rental at Long Beach community college is expensive) without running into the same problem that Laufa did.

Tfa also has for some nights their teams practicing on public park grass but at least tfa can make the access argument for an underserved community which, with Laufa gone, is more underserved. Red bullls and oaks can’t make that argument. Juventus can. So it’s not facilities.

But it’s not merit. If it is merit then sorry SoCal elite whatever criticism of their aggressive practices deserves it.
100%. And I'd like to hear the arguments against inclusion because I think it would be limited to just what you highlight, here.
 
EA is now MLS 2 in the southwest. It replaces EA.

EA2 will still exist.

The teams listed have been in EA or EA2.

EA has promotion from EA2 if a club wins a certain number of age groups.

Albion has been the major owner/promoter of EA so they will get their teams in.

Also some clubs just don't want to do EA or they are an affiliate so they aren't allowed to do it. By parent company.

There a major cost difference for clubs between EA and EA2. More practice requriements. High quality Turf field are recommended in EA but not EA2. EA also requires water stations and a trainer on site during games. None of these are required for EA2
 
Money.

Also probably lots of player movement since FC England joined Albion too. Albion won’t have enough spots in the top 2 teams.
Albion Santa Monica plus FC England is 10x a better program then Juventus LA. Albion Santa Monica Boys program always builds good teams and the resources they have blow away BULLS and JUVENTUS.

The top 2 club on the westside are LA Breakers and Albion Santa Monica, continuing to reward these small clubs with entry into these leagues will just continue to dilute the player pool...

LA Bulls is struggle with the platform already, they have expanded into having tryouts in West Hollywood and the SF Valley. They will have a FULL MLS Pathway next season and now MLS 2, there is no way they will be able to build these teams unless they go out of the west side. Due to the MLS pathway their girls program has massively suffered, they have 4 girls teams listed in SO CAL SOCCER LEAGUE and 2 girls teams in CSL?

Id actually be willing to bet they get their girls program into a league just because of the story and 0 to do with merit, player pool or resources.

This example is the reason we are falling behind US Soccer, be better if we want to keep up!
 
Interesting. Where can I find info on this?
Is that Memorial Park?

EA is now MLS 2 in the southwest. It replaces EA.

EA2 will still exist.

The teams listed have been in EA or EA2.

EA has promotion from EA2 if a club wins a certain number of age groups.

Albion has been the major owner/promoter of EA so they will get their teams in.

Also some clubs just don't want to do EA or they are an affiliate so they aren't allowed to do it. By parent company.

There a major cost difference for clubs between EA and EA2. More practice requriements. High quality Turf field are recommended in EA but not EA2. EA also requires water stations and a trainer on site during games. None of these are required for EA2
I doubt it's Albion driving this. They didn't get MLS2 for Bakersfield/Santa Ana meaning those teams will now drop to what was EA2. Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and FC England will have to combine for the city based slot. MLS and EA also have long turned a blind eye to the facilities requirements of several clubs such as TFA, and it's hard to see what assurances either Juventus or Oaks could have given them regarding facilities.

The players that are really on the chopping block BTW are the squads that have large MLS Next teams, for those players that don't dress. The excuse for not forcing them down to EA has always been EA was not integrated and not eligible. If I held position 16 or lower, or 3rd keeper, I'd be worried.
 
Interesting. Where can I find info on this?
Is that Memorial Park?
There is more information if you google "Santa Monica Airport project" Below is an idea....


Its Memorial park and encompasses all the land in between that and Airport field...
 
What makes zero sense, is if an additional layer, tier, division (whatever) is being added to youth soccer . (Assuming this isn't a wholesale rebranding of EA.)
It’s not a rebranding even though ea will be “operating” mls 2 in SoCal. And if it was just a rebranding why SoCal elite getting dropped, albion and la surf getting consolidated downward, oaks and juventus being putting in and ea2 still around. What’s driving this is nda on the east coast which the mls next clubs formed to better be able to control things (without 3rd party interference like ea) and to be able to more fluidly pull their bench sitters, banded, and non dressing players down. If SoCal elite (assuming it doesn’t explode) and strikers (which will now be diluted by the reds) however stay ea that league is going to be even more skill variable since you’ll have those teams dominate and the stronger players on the remaining teams just leaving ea altogether…it will be a shell and I’m not sure the base is around out there to support both ea and ea2. Not saying it’s what happened, but I wouldn’t be surprised if given what happened back east, ea wasn’t presented “an offer they couldn’t refuse”. Some people in the know have been assuring me that won’t happen and it will take time for mls2 to become effective but I disagree and think the effect will be very sudden. Unless you are a 1-first off the bench at a mls next team, this is going to be a massive disruption on the boys side middle-older.
 
It’s not a rebranding even though ea will be “operating” mls 2 in SoCal. And if it was just a rebranding why SoCal elite getting dropped, albion and la surf getting consolidated downward, oaks and juventus being putting in and ea2 still around. What’s driving this is nda on the east coast which the mls next clubs formed to better be able to control things (without 3rd party interference like ea) and to be able to more fluidly pull their bench sitters, banded, and non dressing players down. If SoCal elite (assuming it doesn’t explode) and strikers (which will now be diluted by the reds) however stay ea that league is going to be even more skill variable since you’ll have those teams dominate and the stronger players on the remaining teams just leaving ea altogether…it will be a shell and I’m not sure the base is around out there to support both ea and ea2. Not saying it’s what happened, but I wouldn’t be surprised if given what happened back east, ea wasn’t presented “an offer they couldn’t refuse”. Some people in the know have been assuring me that won’t happen and it will take time for mls2 to become effective but I disagree and think the effect will be very sudden. Unless you are a 1-first off the bench at a mls next team, this is going to be a massive disruption on the boys side middle-older.
Sounds like a cluster. The clubs that had both MLS and EA seemed to easily navigate and utilize moving players up and down between the two.
 
Grace it makes 0 sense....

LA Bulls have the 2 worst fields in West LA, Daniel Webster Middle which they did MLS Next tryouts on, on a Friday Night under portable light on a grass field that is horrible and they also have Paul Revere Middle School which is 10x worse than Webster. They have 0 facilities in west LA now that Pacific Palisades turf field is closed indefinitely...

Juventus operates out of field Stoner Park which is on par with Webster and Paul Revere. They have no state cup championships at the CSL level. They have 8 boys teams 2013 and older that went 33-41-15 in COAST SOCCER LEAGUE.

Autobahn SC and Albion Santa Monica have the best fields in West LA and its not even close. AYSO United also sneaks their LA teams on to the fields on Santa Monica.

OAKS FC is also a horrible choice, they play in the DPL and struggle with game rosters and they don't have good fields either.

Very confused by these additions. Who is making these decisions at MLS???
Juventus didn’t even have any teams in the top flight of CSL…

And stoner park is even worse than Webster.

Oaks is one of the stronger clubs in EA2 at least, though AC Brea would have have made more sense on average team strength.
 
Juventus didn’t even have any teams in the top flight of CSL…

And stoner park is even worse than Webster.

Oaks is one of the stronger clubs in EA2 at least, though AC Brea would have have made more sense on average team strength.
The Conejo Valley has long been a cluster f of soccer. The stronger players make their way up to either Fusion in Ventura or Real SoCal in the Val. There are a lot of little clubs (Power Elite, Moorpark, Newbury Park) which draw field space. AYSO United was the coast giant there until Coast blew up (Steve Brown was very aggressive about building up winning teams) and AYSO has a first come monopoly on the field space there...there's not much else by way of field space....the new Y has a small turf field and the high schools are occupied during the fall with football (many of those football programs are also respected and stacked, so it's not like they have practice time to throw away). Oaks was the former Conejo Galaxy and did very well especially with youngers when it was under the Galaxy brand but they relied mostly on the parks which have degenerated because of California restrictions on water use. I expect this move will put them back on the map, but the demographics of the area also aren't favorable to soccer....the Latino families in Moorpark/Simi have cheaper options, everything in Thousand Oaks south skews older/retirement and both football and baseball are big in the area. Again, ECNL could have countered all this by giving the Eagles ECNL on the boys side, but MLS seems to believe much heavier in the "build it and they will come" philosophy.
 
Someone mentioned something today about an old BULLS director now working at MLS Next.....

Looking at the timeline, its all starting to add up to when and why Bulls got MLS Next over Santa Monica Surf.

Fast forward to today and it looks like the same individual still might be making decisions on who is in and who is out. MLS probably agreed they needed a presence on the Westside of LA and it looks like MLS steered away from adding Albion Santa Monica and added someone else.

On the other hand too many Albion's in league isn't a great look so maybe ultimately the big cheese at Albion had the final say....
 
Back
Top