Club-based ECNL RL
- Thread starter Jar!23
- Start date
It appears that Norcal league is providing a defined pathway for I would assume top Norcal league NPL teams to compete in ECRL events and maybe ECRL league.
While a defined pathway is nice top Norcal NPL clubs can pick and choose the league they want to play in. ECRL is just one of the different options.
General FYI, DPL and GA do the same things for top clubs. Usually it starts with the team participating in events like showcases. Then if they do well the club gets promoted to DPL or GA league the next season.
The difference with Norcal is that they're making the pathway from top NPL to ECRL official. Meaning if teams do X, Y, and Z they will be ECRL the next season. But this likely would have happened either way depending on performance.
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
Personally, I'm disappointed. Norcal was an example of team-based pro/rel so a team's performance alone would be enough to get them from Premier to NPL to ECNL-RL, regardless of how well-connected or large a club they played with. Now this is an acknowledgement that instead they are creating a club-specific ECNL-RL, which will only be open to those clubs that are either already in ECNL, or are large enough and connected enough to join.
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
This is dated. It happened several seasons ago. And team-based pro/rel was the hook. The new announcement today is in a different direction, saying that they will now be creating a club-based ECNL-RL league, in addition to the existing team-based ECNL-RL league.
Either way it puts NPL clubs that are performing in the same position.
1. Ask ECNL if you can join at the ECNL level.
2. Ask GA if you can join
If you participate in ECNL girls, for new clubs the assumption is that you'll do ECNL boys.
If you participate in GA ideally as a club you'd also get MLSN.
ECRL DPL EA are all placeholder / transition leagues.
A top NPL team is equivalent or better than many ECRL EA and DPL teams. Unless the doors become open at the highest levels it probably makes more sense to stay NPL.
RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
ECNL-RL *is* the top level of NPL for NorCal. It has been for several seasons. It used to be called NPL Champions league. There is no choice for NPL teams to make in whether to move up or not. If they perform well enough in NPL1, the top few teams from each area compete in ECNL-RL for the next season. For U13, after that season, they come back to be called NPL again for the fall season U14, and in the spring once again the top few teams from each geography move to the ECNL-RL bracket for the spring. Once U15, if they make it to the ECNL-RL bracket, it is year round and they no longer come back to NPL automatically. However, there is continuous Pro/Rel for all of the age groups, where the bottom few teams of that RL bracket are at risk of being moved down to NPL1 for the next season, while the top teams of NPL1 take their place. If you are curious about how it actually works, just look here: https://norcalpremier.com/competition/ecnl-regional-league/resource/ecnl-rl-overview/
Of course at any point teams/clubs could choose to opt out from these NorCal lower levels and try to join ECNL/GA directly, it's just not typically how it works. Many clubs have all of the above, and will have teams in these NorCal levels, as well as either an ECNL or MLS team.
This new announcement promises that it will be somewhat more complicated, and for 2025/2026 clubs now can put their teams in to this new "club-based" ECNL-RL bracket, or leave them in the existing ECNL-RL bracket. If most clubs favor the new bracket, that's where most others will follow, and the existing "team-based" ECNL-RL will not attract the same level of players/teams/clubs. It makes it less likely that a good team can work their way up without losing players to larger clubs. It was never highly likely, but it was possible from time to time. With MLS N now pushing MLS X2 and X2+ as yet another league for these 2nd/3rd tier teams to play in, it seems that all that can be predicted is that they won't all succeed equally. There are only a certain amount of kids, there is only a certain amount of money/time/resources, and we'll see what wins out over time.
Of course at any point teams/clubs could choose to opt out from these NorCal lower levels and try to join ECNL/GA directly, it's just not typically how it works. Many clubs have all of the above, and will have teams in these NorCal levels, as well as either an ECNL or MLS team.
This new announcement promises that it will be somewhat more complicated, and for 2025/2026 clubs now can put their teams in to this new "club-based" ECNL-RL bracket, or leave them in the existing ECNL-RL bracket. If most clubs favor the new bracket, that's where most others will follow, and the existing "team-based" ECNL-RL will not attract the same level of players/teams/clubs. It makes it less likely that a good team can work their way up without losing players to larger clubs. It was never highly likely, but it was possible from time to time. With MLS N now pushing MLS X2 and X2+ as yet another league for these 2nd/3rd tier teams to play in, it seems that all that can be predicted is that they won't all succeed equally. There are only a certain amount of kids, there is only a certain amount of money/time/resources, and we'll see what wins out over time.