The big killer for ECNL are the showcases and playoffs. But, honestly if you were team not in ECNL and you were going to national tournaments it would all be the same. I personally love the ECNL platform.
ECNL. The C stands for Cartel
- Thread starter NorCalUSN
- Start date
The big killer for ECNL are the showcases and playoffs. But, honestly if you were team not in ECNL and you were going to national tournaments it would all be the same. I personally love the ECNL platform.
Cool. Does that have the impact I'd expect? I'd expect relegation would pretty much blow up a top tier team. In Southern California, there are boys lining up that would die to play for even the worst, last place MLS Next or even ECNL team (ECNL is very small boys side SoCal). There are kids commuting hours on the freeway. For ECRL or EA, much less so. And if that's the case, does it have the distortions in the game as a result (pressure to win, short cuts like long balls, recruiting the early bloomers)? I'd expect the impacts to be less but one of my son's old teams recently went from near the top of the table to the rock bottom and it seems to have impacted their game as expected (low block, boot everything, try and run and shoot, lots of fouling).
I'd say this is true if you throw out the academies, and especially true if you throw out SoCal and Florida.
MLS Next seems to be following the if you build it they will come model, given they let in LASC and RedBulls in for SoCal but kept some higher standing teams (like SoCal Elite, for which there were extenuating circumstances obviously) out. But the same happened in Texas when the clubs exited for ECNL. It's hard from the outside to discern what the criteria MLS Next is applying other than field availability and quality. It's not geography as there is still a valley team missing (LASC is supposed to be the Valley team but it's area actually overlaps with LA Surf and sticks closely to the east side of the valley).
For ECNL girlside, it opens them up to criticism in SoCal that they are having a disparate racial impact given that, unlike MLS Next on the boys side which has both TFA and Laufa, there are no teams in the downtown triangle, as complained about in the Downtown LA article recently circulated on this forum.
The reality is everyone here knows it. As consumers, we make a choice. Same way we choose to pay $50 to park at a Dodgers game and $125 for an average seat. We always have the ability to stop it but we don't. Furthermore, year after year after year we don't stop it.
The best part of ECNL? Spending $15k per year for soccer in hopes of landing a $5k per year scholarship.
Hmmmm.......so a parent can take their kid out ECNL, have fun dominating AYSO instead, and then brag to their friends that their brilliant kid got a $90,000 scholarship ($15k / year savings x 6 years).
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
NPL Champions League, their top league, was renamed ECNL-RL. There is promotion, by team rather than club, from lower levels of NPL into ECNL-RL. If teams do particularly badly in ECNL-RL, they are relegated to the lower levels of NPL for the next season.
Info here: https://norcalpremier.com/competition/national-premier-league/resource/npl-league-overview/
But as far as I'm aware, there is no promotion/relegation from ECNL-NL to ECNL-RL or anywhere else. It's only at the RL level and down. There are always whispers about particularly bad ECNL teams/clubs being booted, but they never are.
I feel bad for the Arizona and Nevada teams in the 05/06 ECNL age group. With all the traveling they have to do to SoCal just to be near the bottom of the pack every year..
100%. You responded to a quote from crush? That's not my writing, is it?
I don't think they're doing it for the sake of finishing high. Does any kid remember where they finished in league 2 years ago? I think 95% of kids in ECNL are out there for the college exposure. Why else would you do it? I mean, other than for your parents?
SURF SOCCER STATS (who can compete with these stats)
The San Diego Surf Soccer Club has produced 15 National Championships (The Girls have 11 of those 15)
29 Regional Champions
74 State Champions, 1K+ of college scholarship athletes
157+ National team players
Multiple (more than 2?) MLS and professional players
I think this mentality used to work.
However because of the rankings app recruiters know which teams are doing well regardless of the league they play in + over time will target teams or even clubs over the league they play in alone.
You think college coaches are using the youth soccer rankings app to figure out what players to go watch outside of ecnl and ga teams? I don't think that's the case on the girls side, and certainly not at the higher levels of college soccer. They go to ecnl and ga showcases/playoffs/league games, with more focus on the former. Some say it is lazy, but there are just too many players out there and not enough time in the day. Even if they do see some talent at a camp, watching that player in a game against lesser overall talent doesn't particularly help the coach assess if that player can play at a higher level. If you are talking about lower level d1 or below, then I guess it is possible.
Right, they haven't actually relegated a club yet -- as they're still expanding. De Anza lost ECNL status on the boys side, but I think that was for other reasons, but three other clubs were added (AFC, Newark, and SF Elite). I also don't think they've fully fleshed out how the relegation process will work (timing, etc). I think NorCal is smart here by first implementing pieces in place of NPL. That said, relegating a club will have a devastating impact to the target club. Of course, I'm sure many players/parents at those clubs would probably be happy with the relegation.
I do think it's worth considering a modified pro/rel process. For example, if there's not a clear separation between the bottom club and the rest of the table, then perhaps relegating doesn't make sense. Just use a simple club wide PPG metric.
A agree that recruiters are lazy + like being catered to by leagues.
But the rankings app is free + very good at national rankings.
Installing the rankings app + targeting highly ranked teams is lazier that actually going to showcases. Which is why I think it will win out over time.
Lightning Red
GOLD
I'd say once you ad up all of the Team/Club fees + travel, etc you are certainly getting close to the $15K per year range.
Going into this from the beginning if you are thinking that scholarship $ will be there at the end of the rainbow to cover all of the youth soccer fees you have spent through the journey you are in it for the wrong reasons.
My dd's club team for 2025's already has 15 girls committed to D1 programs ("14" Power 5, "8" to SEC schools) Most are close to full after tuition, books, R&B, NIL, etc.
I certainly realize this is not the norm but it is a possibility.
VegasParent
SILVER ELITE
It is definitely for the college exposure. 12 players on the Nevada 05/06 team are D1 commits with 5 of them going to P5 schools.
This isn't happening. I'd bet very few college coaches are using the app, and most probably don't even know it exists. They have to get some efficiency out of their recruiting time. Going to watch multiple games and players at an ECNL/GA showcase will almost always win out over going to watch a small number of players somewhere else. And don't misunderstand me, I think there are some great players outside of ECNL/GA.
Not going to lie. $20 for parking per day at surf park is outrageous considering teams pay for the tournament. They won't let you drop off either. Not to mention their parking is slow and long as hell at times.
I do wish there were more options with leagues and such to save everyone drive time and fees. Maybe we need some type of soccer club distruptor to shake things up?
Venantsyo
GOLD
You are my hero
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
I've seen it stated on this board, I think I even may have participated - but nobody has substantiated that De Anza Force was booted from ECNL Boys. They are still the #21 boys club in California (out of ~ 300 boys clubs), and are still sporting MLS Next teams from 2011B through 06/05B. Many clubs choose between MLS and ECNL on the boys side, and for the most part, MLS N is a higher tier than anything ECNL provides in this area. It is true that ECNL was the 2nd team for the De Anza Force Boys side, and they weren't particularly good compared to the first team of ECNL-only clubs, but what's posted here sounds more like sour grapes than someone posting anything substantial that De Anza received from ECNL themselves.