ECNL vs. DA turf war has created a 'toxic environment'

V

VegasParent

SILVER ELITE
I thought this was interesting. Full interview in the link.

https://www.socceramerica.com/publi...ow-the-ecnl-vs-development-ac.html?verified=1

SOCCER AMERICA: Your club, Real Colorado, is one of a handful that fields teams in both the ECNL, launched in 2009, and the Girls U.S. Soccer Development Academy, which started in 2017 and is now in its second season. How do you manage both?

LORNE DONALDSON: I think we have a good staff and our management is good. We really have no problem. We have the fields to do it. And we have the players because the kids want to play for us because it’s a good environment.

We have a good pool of players, and it’s going to get better if they allow us to stay in both leagues. But who knows what’s going to happen now? I think there are going to be some decisions coming up.

SA: You may not continue fielding teams in both the Girls DA and the ECNL?

LORNE DONALDSON: The ECNL wanted us to get out of [the Development Academy]. There are some clubs already out of the ECNL. They have been kicked out.

The ECNL thinks that at the clubs that play both ECNL and DA, your top players are playing in the DA and the second-string players are playing in the ECNL. They [the ECNL] want all the top players. The ECNL is saying, you can’t do both. You can just do one.

SA: So what do you think will happen next season (2019-20)?

LORNE DONALDSON: I don’t know yet for sure if we’re going to be in both. Three or four days ago, I told them if we come to the ECNL, we want two teams [in each age group]. They have to go and discuss it.

SA: Because if you leave the Girls DA, about half the Real Colorado players who now play in the Girls DA and ECNL will no longer be playing in one of the nation’s elite girls leagues?

LORNE DONALDSON: Yes. If we're only going to play ECNL, we can’t just take one team. It doesn’t make any sense. We would like to see both teams in if we’re going to do it. We have the environment to do it. But that’s a discussion with the ECNL.

SA: And if it comes down to making a choice between the two?

LORNE DONALDSON: Then most likely we would stay in the DA. We will lose our ECNL group.
 
Hmmm, let me follow this logic:
-Before there was DA, Real Colorado was able to field one elite ECNL team per age group.
-Now they have a DA and an ECNL team.
-If they leave DA after two years, they now believe they can field two elite ECNL teams.
-Where did the extra 16 elite players come from?

The clubs are not innocent bystanders in this mess.
 
The ECNL thinks the best players are in the DA because the Girls DA application, signed by the club, includes this requirement under Roster Management: "Development Academy clubs will be required to field teams that consist of the top players from the club's entire player pool."

If the ECNL is stating that they do not want second teams from clubs as large as Real Colorado, time appears to be running out for dual clubs.
 
Dos Equis said:
The ECNL thinks the best players are in the DA because the Girls DA application, signed by the club, includes this requirement under Roster Management: "Development Academy clubs will be required to field teams that consist of the top players from the club's entire player pool."

If the ECNL is stating that they do not want second teams from clubs as large as Real Colorado, time appears to be running out for dual clubs.
Click to expand...

But if they give Real Colorado two ECNL teams are they not getting a second team along with the first team?
 
The nature of competition in Colorado soccer is significantly different to here.

In the metro area there are only 3 truly competitive clubs on the girls side. Real, Rush and Rapids. Rapids only so because they absorbed Storm when they folded.

Real would want 2 teams so they could maintain their competitive edge and monopoly over the best players in the Denver/ South Denver areas.
 
The biggest reasons I had been seeing about why clubs were leaving DA and going to ECNL was high school soccer and the sub rules. At least those seemed to be the 2 biggest. But reading this interview makes it seem like there was pressure from ECNL to the dual clubs to leave DA. Real Colorado is asking to have 2 teams in every age group and they will do it. Did the dual clubs that left previously make the same demands or did ECNL offer that to them? Is high school soccer really the reason those clubs left DA for ECNL or is it something else? Real Colorado said they would choose DA if they had to choose between the two leagues. Does that kill the "we did it for high school soccer" argument that's been used? It appears that clubs could be choosing ECNL to continue having 2 national level "elite" teams in every age group IMHO. Lots of questions that will probably never get answered.
 
VegasParent said:
The biggest reasons I had been seeing about why clubs were leaving DA and going to ECNL was high school soccer and the sub rules. At least those seemed to be the 2 biggest. But reading this interview makes it seem like there was pressure from ECNL to the dual clubs to leave DA. Real Colorado is asking to have 2 teams in every age group and they will do it. Did the dual clubs that left previously make the same demands or did ECNL offer that to them? Is high school soccer really the reason those clubs left DA for ECNL or is it something else? Real Colorado said they would choose DA if they had to choose between the two leagues. Does that kill the "we did it for high school soccer" argument that's been used? It appears that clubs could be choosing ECNL to continue having 2 national level "elite" teams in every age group IMHO. Lots of questions that will probably never get answered.
Click to expand...

I think they are using the argument to get two teams per age group. If they are only allowed one team, they are letting a lot of money walk away. Five teams worth. It doesn’t kill off the we did it for high school argument , or the sub rules argument. I believe people are listening to their markets.

We all can agree that it’s getting pretty foolish at this point. Some areas high school does matter, and it’s foolish of GDA to continue to think otherwise. I watched some of the featured games and I was honestly disappointed by the lack of subs being utilized in a showcase. It was freezing yesterday, and I saw a player subbed in at 68 minute mark of a u15 game. What does that do to morale?
 
For giggles I looked at the ECNL Showcase Locations...On the surface they seem to do a better job selecting locations for events (only seeing the 18-19 locations and no idea of previous year locations)...I also had a friend suggest why not give SD the spring showcase and another location summer where the weather might be a little more predictable than spring. I get spreading the locations around to be fair for clubs and travel distance etc. I don’t know which is worse, longer travel for some to the same locations where weather is less of a factor and the games get in, or rolling the dice and spending 5 Days/4 Nights for two games.

They could have even looked to secure the turf locations they used and attempted to use today to have the kids play on their off day when the weather was “good”...I know it goes against the no more than 2 play dates in a row programming, but sometimes you need to adjust with the circumstances. We all knew what the weather was going to be...all you had to do is open the app on your phone.

US Soccer should have had a plan and needs to get their stuff together. Not a good customer experience. The poor planning did not deliver the value. Spoke to a mom from Ohio on the shuttle to the airport and they got a call at 11pm last night that their 11am game today, got moved to 8:30am...they showed up at 7:30am and game was cancelled as the turf field was unplayable.

I also heard some games got pushed back and some teams were scrambling to change flights/arrangements, etc.
 
VegasParent said:
The biggest reasons I had been seeing about why clubs were leaving DA and going to ECNL was high school soccer and the sub rules. At least those seemed to be the 2 biggest. But reading this interview makes it seem like there was pressure from ECNL to the dual clubs to leave DA. Real Colorado is asking to have 2 teams in every age group and they will do it. Did the dual clubs that left previously make the same demands or did ECNL offer that to them? Is high school soccer really the reason those clubs left DA for ECNL or is it something else? Real Colorado said they would choose DA if they had to choose between the two leagues. Does that kill the "we did it for high school soccer" argument that's been used? It appears that clubs could be choosing ECNL to continue having 2 national level "elite" teams in every age group IMHO. Lots of questions that will probably never get answered.
Click to expand...

For the clubs that got two teams in ECNL, yes, it kills that argument. If the market is causing clubs to revert back to ECNL, why is ECNL giving these clubs two teams? It makes no sense for ECNL to do that. By ECNL giving clubs two teams, ECNL is in fact admitting that the market factors in favor of ECNL (high school soccer and sub arguments) are not enough to sway those particular clubs. But for clubs with one ECNL team or clubs that never entered into GDA, the high school soccer and sub arguments are still viable reasons a club may choose ECNL over GDA - it's those clubs that we will never really know.
 
This is what I heard from various coaches and the ECNL Director for our club. Clubs that are fielding DA and ECNL teams (Dual Clubs) have the following timeline placed upon them and only them by ECNL. Dual Clubs must win a national championship. After that they have two years to field a total of four team into the playoffs. This can be accomplished by any combination of age groups and years. For example, Solar won the ECNL championship in 2017. At that point the clock started ticking for us to field 4 playoff teams over the next two years. I believe we had one team in the playoffs in 2018 so we will need to field three teams in the playoffs this year to retain ECNL status or we are out. Even more so than that, next year ECNL will expect Solar to win another championship or we will need to make a decision. Even if Solar wins a championship next year the clock will start ticking again. So, in other words Dual Clubs are punished by ECNL in terms of placing on them the HIGHEST standards year after year. Eventually Dual Clubs will not be able to sustain this standard and have to decide between DA and ECNL.
 
Simisoccerfan said:
Eagles can’t field two teams at that level across the age groups. The talent pool does not support it.
Click to expand...

Eagles was only in GDA. Thus they will only have one team. The other clubs were dual clubs. Only dual clubs have the two teams. Fc Stars, Michigan Hawks, Crossfire, etc.
 
Comparing the ECNL site with GDA here are the remaining dual clubs...
Solar
Crossfire Premiere
Real Colorado
SoCal Blues
Tophat
FC Dallas

and yes it looks like a couple of clubs have two ECNL teams like Michagin Hawks, Concord Fire, FC Stars, PDA and Eclipse Select
 
El Clasico said:
Didn't crossfire go all in?
Click to expand...
I still see Crossfire Premiere in the DA Northwest conference out of Kirkland WA. The other ECNL Crossfire teams are Crossfire Premiere out of Redmond, WA and Crossfire United out of Portland, OR. Not sure if there is an affiliation but the DA Crossfire team and the Crossfire Premiere in ECNL share the same logo.
 
Woobie06 said:
I also heard some games got pushed back and some teams were scrambling to change flights/arrangements, etc.
Click to expand...

Yup! Found out about the changes on twitter, then got the text. Pushed our game out 30 minutes. Sounds harmless, doesn't it? But that meant a flight change because we were already a bit tight on time, but it was doable. Last minute change cost us $660. Next afternoon, we played 3rd game in 29 degrees. The good news though, over the course of the weekend, there were 80 plus coaches at 2 of the 3 games. The 29 degree game though, had only 6. Was it worth it? For us, yes as one of those 6 stayed behind just to see our dd play. We are now home safe and warm. Very very happy that the playoffs will be in sunny so cal. Denver has some bipolar weather, for sure. But the kids said the harder part was dealing with the altitude. My kid is exhausted today. More tired than any other showcase trip we've been on. Anyone else feel that way?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top