Here's my assessment:
- DA going away impact to G09: Clearly competition will be extremely tough to get into an ECNL team for the G09 group. This is going to make Flight 1 even stronger as some of the players cant make it to ECNL. ECNL will have more teams in SoCal so it will be less travel. Problem is that this is a business so chances are price to get into ECNL will increase.
- Tournaments: I really thought that by August everything is going to be back to normal. We may not see any Summer tournaments and maybe even State Cup could get postponed/cancelled if we get a new wave of COVID-19 (very likely) next year.
- Leage Games: I think it will be business as usual or maybe delayed by 1 month.
- Folding Teams: Unfortunately I think that a lot of teams will fold or will have very few subs. Recruitment will be interesting in August . I think that CSL/SCDSL/Others, will need to allow clubs to add players through the day before season starts.
- Quality of Play: I think it's going to be very poor as you will see a lot of players gaining weight and trying to get back into fitness. Now is the time for our kids to stay fit and active to have an advantage over others that are static and not working out at home.
Pretty much agree with you spot on. I think by next year, everyone will see how we over-reacted to this virus. The real damage will be to our economy....
We got very lucky. Our original plan was to play a year up with the local 2008 DA team. In December rumors began to fly locally about our local girls DA program going under. Knowing this as well as having other issues with the our current club, we switched to a weaker team at Bethesda Soccer Club. An ECNL member and also one of the most established clubs in the US. Lucky for us, two other quality players in our area also moved mid-season from other clubs. Although weaker, the existing team already had very good players, but lacked depth. Needless to say, we only played one tournament, boat-raced it, as we should have since the tournament did not know about the new players.
The difference is night and day. Bethesda SC uses the Techne App which has been a great during this quarantine. Just got news our new Head Coach was the Boys National Coach of the Year in 2019 among an even more impressive history...
If I were in your shoes, and had to think about moving after the "DA Demise", I would look at the most established along with the coach regardless of any ranking.
As for the future, ECNL is now on the throne with its future set in concrete for the foreseeable future. Yes, DA clubs now are creating a new league but the damage has been done. Fool me once, shame on me, and fool me twice...
I am strong believer the other road for success is play at a smaller club and play ODP. ODP will likely see a big boost in numbers and scouting moving forward. We had a good experience playing up a year in MD ODP before this disaster ended it.
Lastly, my advice would be for anyone to find their DD landing spot by the start of '21-'22 season. Next season will be re-alignment and evaluation of current players. Between small clubs going under and the re-emergence of ECNL being top dog, there will be a ton of movement. We already saw it here in the winter because of the local rumors.
I am hoping, at worst case scenerio, we will be watching our kids play games again by July 15th. Yes, I know, I am on the optimistic side.
Hopefully all of you are staying safe and healthy in the meantime!