AYSO UNITED

[zags77]

AYSO United Program Update

AYSO United was created to expand competitive opportunities for players within the AYSO ecosystem. Over time, the program grew to a scale and structure best suited to operate independently.

Following the completion of the current season, AYSO United will conclude operations as a nationally administered AYSO program. All AYSO United teams will complete the current season as planned, with no changes to training, teams, or competition.

Beginning with the 2026–27 season, the competitive pathway previously available through AYSO United may continue through Athletic Soccer Club (ASC). This option is supported by an agreement intended to facilitate an orderly transition for players, families, coaches, and Directors of Coaching who choose to continue their competitive soccer experience in an independent club environment.

Families who wish to remain within AYSO will continue to have access to AYSO-run competitive programs, where available, including tryout-based options that operate under AYSO’s values, safety standards, and oversight.

AYSO will communicate additional information regarding AYSO competitive options, timelines, and next steps directly with families as the season progresses.

Our priority remains providing clarity, continuity, and support for players and families, while ensuring a strong and successful conclusion to the current season.

 

[sandiegofutbolguy]

Wonder what will happen to the bargain price

 

[Grace T.]

AYSO United Program Update

AYSO United was created to expand competitive opportunities for players within the AYSO ecosystem. Over time, the program grew to a scale and structure best suited to operate independently.

Following the completion of the current season, AYSO United will conclude operations as a nationally administered AYSO program. All AYSO United teams will complete the current season as planned, with no changes to training, teams, or competition.

Beginning with the 2026–27 season, the competitive pathway previously available through AYSO United may continue through Athletic Soccer Club (ASC). This option is supported by an agreement intended to facilitate an orderly transition for players, families, coaches, and Directors of Coaching who choose to continue their competitive soccer experience in an independent club environment.

Families who wish to remain within AYSO will continue to have access to AYSO-run competitive programs, where available, including tryout-based options that operate under AYSO’s values, safety standards, and oversight.

AYSO will communicate additional information regarding AYSO competitive options, timelines, and next steps directly with families as the season progresses.

Our priority remains providing clarity, continuity, and support for players and families, while ensuring a strong and successful conclusion to the current season.

This is hilarious. Ayso finds it can’t compete after u12 because parents want tiered soccer and people are leaving but Ayso doesn’t want to abandon its principles. Ayso tiers and forms extras but club coaches realize it’s a great way to recruit and poach players even whole teams. Ayso creates United to compete with club soccer. Extras dies because kids go straight to United. Club soccer locks out United from higher letter league citing among others the everyone plays philosophy. United starts to die at the high school level because the best players move onto letter league. Ayso abandons United. I remember writing years ago when my son first started extras and I was a babe in these forums that this would happen. It’s tragically comical.

I’ll lay down a marker for the future: we are seeing the radical pyramiding of youth soccer. For the same reasons like that kid complaining on the forums he can’t get on a high school team because of rec. the effect is that club ball (which keeps going younger) in the immediate future replaces ayso (which is dying) as the intro to the sport. Outside of mls/mls2/ea and ecnl/ecrl in a few years we won’t see club ball at the high school level for boys and major school programs either fold or only take top letter leaguers. It’s simply not cost effective. Too expensive (given rising salary, insurance, field costs) for too little bang for your buck (lost school hours doing other things and I still can’t get onto my varsity team). Club sports as we know it is over and this is the canary in the coal mine.

 

[Scrub It Kook]

I’ll lay down a marker for the future: we are seeing the radical pyramiding of youth soccer. For the same reasons like that kid complaining on the forums he can’t get on a high school team because of rec. the effect is that club ball (which keeps going younger) in the immediate future replaces ayso (which is dying) as the intro to the sport. Outside of mls/mls2/ea and ecnl/ecrl in a few years we won’t see club ball at the high school level for boys and major school programs either fold or only take top letter leaguers. It’s simply not cost effective. Too expensive (given rising salary, insurance, field costs) for too little bang for your buck (lost school hours doing other things and I still can’t get onto my varsity team). Club sports as we know it is over and this is the canary in the coal mine.

I think the High School Soccer evolution will heavily depend on where schools are regionally. Some HS's in my area are chock full of ECNL/MLS2 players while others have half the roster that only play school soccer. no doubt it is changing though.

What's the over-under on when MLS & ECNL merge pyramids? 3 years?

 

[Teamelli]

I guess $2600 is a "bargain price" when compared to some of these other clubs in SoCal. My son's (U14) been on a United team for 2 years now. They've done pretty well in EA2 this year and just beat 2 EA and 1 MLS Next2 team in the MLK tournament over the weekend on the way to winning it all. Frankly, I don't see much difference between most of these clubs. As long as my kid's having fun and I see some development, I'm happy.

 

[Karlton Athletic]

I think the High School Soccer evolution will heavily depend on where schools are regionally. Some HS's in my area are chock full of ECNL/MLS2 players while others have half the roster that only play school soccer. no doubt it is changing though.

What's the over-under on when MLS & ECNL merge pyramids? 3 years?

I'd heard horror stories, but I'm enjoying my first season of HS soccer (as a JV parent). The ref's are definitely a step down, but the actual football is pretty good, even very good at times, and representing your school seems to actually matter to the kids.

 

[Grace T.]

I think the High School Soccer evolution will heavily depend on where schools are regionally. Some HS's in my area are chock full of ECNL/MLS2 players while others have half the roster that only play school soccer. no doubt it is changing though.

What's the over-under on when MLS & ECNL merge pyramids? 3 years?

Ecnl (under current or next gen leadership) will never accept second tier which would be the price. On the boys side the end comes as the second tier of pro soccer begins to build out. Once you have enough academies you can have mls academy division (with the academies, boarding schools and a few others), mls training ground (for regular clubs) and mls 2. Ecnl is doomed. What happens on the girls side depends on what happens with women’s academy. SoCal sees the effect on high school last (because of Latinos and Latino clubs and Latino league funneling players into also ran high schools) but elsewhere you see the effect in 2-3 years time. Also ran high school teams will just fold. We’ve already seen this concentration effect on high school football basketball and waterpolo which are all ahead of us.

 

[Jamisfoes]

Unless they get MLS next or ECNL, their best players are still going to leave.

 

[Grace T.]

I guess $2600 is a "bargain price" when compared to some of these other clubs in SoCal. My son's (U14) been on a United team for 2 years now. They've done pretty well in EA2 this year and just beat 2 EA and 1 MLS Next2 team in the MLK tournament over the weekend on the way to winning it all. Frankly, I don't see much difference between most of these clubs. As long as my kid's having fun and I see some development, I'm happy.

United teams have done well because of the large pool they have to draw from for players (they can scout multiple regions) and most parents are clueless when they first hop into club. And you are in one of the few United letter leagues and will feel the effect in high school (best players will leave even for the mls2 team you beat). This situation makes it worse because there’s no longer the seamless recruitment out of rec for ayso (2 different legal orgs is a huge wall) and ea2 in any case will die as the academies build out in the next years (ea2 will in 2-3 years be fifth tier).

My kids first club was Ayso United. Positives and negatives. Coaches knew what they were doing, good facilities, stable program. But they approached everything like winning and little league. The parents once mocked a Latino team that played us as “garbage and a waste of time”. Coast forces us to start bronze and we stomped teams 10-0. As a gk my kid had nothing to do. Come league cup and we get stomped on by silver teams. We get stomped on, coaches and parents are furious, my kid gets scape goated dropped and told by his coach he’ll never make it as a player. Flash forward. My kid left for a great development team but the United team kept winning state cups advancing to highest level, recruiting players, dropping long timers. By high school there were only 3 og players on the team. The coach even dropped the assistant coach’s kid, which was funny because they were best buddies and the assistant coach had been the first to scapegoat my kid. In more sweet sweet irony by high school the teams best players start getting picked off by mlsn teams and some of the kids that were superstars in the run and shoot game are no longer superstars. Last year (my kids sophomore year) they folded, mid season iirc. Parents also objected to the longer drives required by SoCal once they switched from coast so the barely interested or multi sports dropped. Only a handful of kids are still playing the game and high school, all letter league, none at United. The coach had built the hub first by becoming doc but I guess that’s gone now too. The area got a new mls2 club (a club that formerly was an la galaxy affiliate club and which struggled once they lost the galaxy name)…the exit to the door across the club became a bit of a stampede and one of the Crown Jewels in the United system they could point to as a non letter league success faded.

 

[Scrub It Kook]

Ecnl (under current or next gen leadership) will never accept second tier which would be the price. On the boys side the end comes as the second tier of pro soccer begins to build out. Once you have enough academies you can have mls academy division (with the academies, boarding schools and a few others), mls training ground (for regular clubs) and mls 2. Ecnl is doomed. What happens on the girls side depends on what happens with women’s academy. SoCal sees the effect on high school last (because of Latinos and Latino clubs and Latino league funneling players into also ran high schools) but elsewhere you see the effect in 2-3 years time. Also ran high school teams will just fold. We’ve already seen this concentration effect on high school football basketball and waterpolo which are all ahead of us.

I was thinking maybe ECNL is integrated at a combo tier 1/2. Meaning some clubs get full MLS status while others drop to MLS2 or even EA based on performance. And yes in this hypothetical world, the MLS name prevails IMO.