End of the Line
SILVER ELITE
You raise an interesting point. What is fascinating is that USSF was ever so close to killing ECNL in one stroke right at the beginning but didn't understand how to make it happen and therefore failed to capitalize. Do you remember when GDA was first announced and all the best ECNL clubs were tripping over themselves to join GDA out of fear that they'd get left behind and leapfrogged by lesser clubs - right up until USSF started telling them they needed to do things that would hurt revenue by causing many of their kids to leave, thereby opening the door to their competitors? At that point, many good ECNL clubs backed out before it even started, some dual clubs relegated it to second tier status, and it took 12 others a couple months into it that the platform was a financial catastrophe for them. If USSF had simply stolen ECNL's model exactly as it was and also exploited ECNL's lukewarm feelings about HS by encouraging it, pretty much every ECNL club would have bought in and ECNL would have been toast. USSF then could have imposed all the dumb rules it wanted because, at least for a while, people would have had no other options for a platform that would get their kid significant college exposure on a national level and, for a few crazy insecure parents, a path to a YNT. Once that happened, USSF could have ruined women's soccer just like it's been doing to the men's side for 10 years already.
Instead, USSF miscalculated that muscling in on ECNL would be harder, so it set out to "differentiate" itself with a bunch of dumb ideas that sound good to dumb soccer people who love soccer so much that they can't understand why a teenager girl and her family might think that giving up everything in their lives beside soccer is a bad idea. USSF also didn't pay attention to the fact that ECNL was built over many years into a successful platform in large part based on years of trial and error, and that ignoring the lessons learned by ECNL was a very bad idea. Clubs already knew that most of them can't prohibit HS soccer without risking their financial future, and even those few that can are so few and far between that they can't create a sustainable league without the others. It isn't like clubs haven't tried to keep their kids playing club during the HS season so they can get 2-3 more months of fees. Clubs also already knew their price points and that they can't charge families more than they already do, regardless of whether the increase is necessary to pay coaches and landlords for 1-2 more practices a week and 3 more months a year, or to fly more places. If families had wanted to pay more money for more training and more travel, and were ok foregoing HS, ECNL would have been doing it years ago.
If USSF really wanted to improve women's soccer, it would negotiate terms of surrender with ECNL. The dilution caused by the two platforms is really hurting the quality of play and training as a whole, and GDA simply can't win the war for the reasons already discussed ad naseum. It would be better served by "partnering" with ECNL, such as by sponsoring ECNL showcases and providing financial assistance. That way, USSF could save some of the money it loses on GDA and would also benefit from goodwill that it lacks but desperately needs. Seriously, USSF is one of the most reviled brands of any kind in the U.S. If you haven't already, spend some time reading responses to their Facebook posts about the men. Yikes.
