As much as GoldenGate sounds like a major asshole, I think he is right about ECNL in NorCal. ECNL isn't about doing the right thing for youth soccer, it's about doing the right thing for their and their associated clubs bottom lines. And that is why I hate it. That said, don't hate the player, hate the game.
This is all wrong. ECNL clubs are doing what is best for their customers and, frankly, for any girl who wants to best leverage their soccer ability and turn it into college opportunity, and is committed to putting in the work. ECNL has been great for youth soccer. In fact, it has been the best thing that has ever happened to youth soccer for elite girls, for our WNT, and for college soccer.
ECNL doesn't owe Ajax or Clovis or their customers anything. The existing ECNL NorCal clubs worked hard for decades to create stable and successful girls' programs at the older age groups, which is not something Ajax or Clovis can say. The ECNL clubs created their league from their blood, sweat and tears most before one of those clubs existed and when the other sucked at older age groups (and still does). Neither Ajax or Clovis is entitled to entrance into ECNL simply because they have some big pre-pubescent kids who helped them win games at U11, but who always leave because the club is too cheap to pay for coaches and facilities that can actually develop them once technical ability becomes as important as being big and strong. "Doing the right thing for youth soccer" does not include allowing clubs into ECNL that are located in remote locations and have done nothing to prove that they can develop older girls in a consistent and financially sound manner. If they want to be in ECNL, they need to provide value rather than just whine how it isn't fair that they don't get a seat at the table in a house they did nothing to build.
The idea that ECNL is only about doing what is best for their bottom lines is absolute b.s. ECNL has been integral to maximizing the development of such a large group of girls that contributed greatly to the longest and most successful run of success that the WNT has ever had. Before ECNL, girls soccer was a joke that virtually always took a back seat to the boys with respect to access, development opportunities and facilities.
Without ECNL, there would be no professional youth coaches on the girls side like Deza, Montoya, Bobak and many others. They only coach girls because they can make a relatively stable and decent income doing it. Otherwise, they would have taken their value as soccer coaches where they could make a decent living (boys), or done something else. If, like in the old days, teams could get "relegated" to lower divisions if they didn't win enough games in a season, every year great coaches would get laid off when teams and entire clubs imploded just because some kids got hurt so they didn't win enough games, or some other yahoo club managed to find a bruiser somewhere to sneak into the higher bracket, probably by jeopardizing its financial stability offering free handouts. Without ECNL, teams would need to put winning games at all costs ahead of development. If you knew anything about Deza, for example, you would know he never plays to win games, it is always about development. It doesn't matter how often a goalie or defender turns the ball over, they are going to play it out of the back always. In fact, it is astounding to see parents wigging out when Deza brings over a player during the middle of a game and has an extended discussion with them, sometimes for five minutes, making the rest of the team play a player down in tight games. You not see this if losing games risked the team getting relegated and then the kids having to change clubs to keep developing against top competition. It would be impossible to emphasize development over winning without ECNL. You'd also have yahoo idiot coaches rushing kids back from serious injury because they really need that win to stay in the top league because, if they don't, everyone is bailing to another team.
Without ECNL, you would also continue to see the race to the bottom when financially unstable clubs provided "scholarships" to induce kids at well-run and financially stable clubs, making all clubs financially unstable all the time. You'd have clubs with one great team one year, and the entire club gone the next. You'd have clubs with teams at the top level folding in mid-season. You would have kids bouncing all over the place every year. All of that is bad for youth soccer.
Without ECNL, you would never have seen the investments that clubs have been able to make to support girls soccer. It is only when a club has the stability that comes with being in ECNL without having to run the risk every year it will collapse that clubs can consistently draw high level players and the income they provide.
Without ECNL, we would be back to daddy ball on the girls side, not developing girls like boys, and the girls being treated as second rate at clubs and having to play on lesser fields, with lesser coaches, and travel over greater distances to do it to places like, gee, Modesto and Clovis just to play even shitty teams. Instead, we have a platform that has made girls' youth soccer into a college admissions machine like nothing any other sport or activity in the entire United States has been able to even touch.
The freeloaders and cheapskates who want top quality training without having to pay for it, don't understand that without ECNL, there would be no top quality training, the WNT would be crap, and the hassle of dealing with petty idiots all the time would drive most kids out of the sport. It be exactly like it was 25 years ago. ECNL provides necessary stability. If a parent in Modesto or Fresno wants to be a part of that, they can get in the car and go where elite soccer makes sense, just like those before them.
