Expansion

Not sure what ranking you're referring to. Is this nationwide? Just Washington?

I looked at Rush + theyre in a league called the Washington Youth Soccer’s Regional Club League (RCL) apparently theres 18 clubs in this league + it says that RCL is the highest level for youth soccer competition in Washington. Whatever that means.
In the state.
 
Figured out what happened with Sporting Nebraska + ECNL.

It looks like ECNL was only allowing Sporting Nebraska girls into ECRL. Sporting Nebraska boys were doing very well in ECNL. I bet Sporting Nebraska said screw ECRL if they're not going to put us in the top league we'll just do GA. The boys will probably switch over to MLS Next soon as well.

I wonder how many other ECRL only girls clubs are looking at GA.
 
I'm guessing that Nebraska is in a tough spot since teams probably don't want to have them added to their league and drive/fly all the way to NE.
 
Eclipse holds all the cards for midwest ECNL. That's a 7 hour drive for them to Omaha. They probably already hate having to drive 5 hours to beat up on Iowa team.
Eclipse holds all the Midwest cards in the same way that Concorde Fire holds all the Southeast cards. They’re playing them the same way, and it’s having the same effect, building up GA in their respective regions.
 
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This isnt really a new GA club. What GA has done is provide Lonestar with a 2nd GA team it appears at all age groups.

GA also allows Tophat to have 2 teams per age group.
 
Does anyone know if it will be done as an A and B Team? this seems like a way of expanding while not pissing off the powerful clubs.
I believe the idea is to have 2x A teams in 1 Club.

With Tophat at the 2010 level one of their teams is #1 and the other is #48.

Personally I think giving top clubs 2 teams is a very good idea + something that's going to happen at ECNL over time. (Unofficially you're already seeing it at Slammers) If Surf didnt have all the tournament $$$ coming in they'd have a 2nd top ECNL team to get money that way. As long as the club is consistantly winning with both teams then good to go.

The potential issues 2x top teams per club brings is that it gives a single club 2 chances at a national run per age group and clubs might try to play top talent on both teams for wins.
 
I believe the idea is to have 2x A teams in 1 Club.

With Tophat at the 2010 level one of their teams is #1 and the other is #48.

Personally I think giving top clubs 2 teams is a very good idea + something that's going to happen at ECNL over time. (Unofficially you're already seeing it at Slammers) If Surf didnt have all the tournament $$$ coming in they'd have a 2nd top ECNL team to get money that way. As long as the club is consistantly winning with both teams then good to go.

The potential issues 2x top teams per club brings is that it gives a single club 2 chances at a national run per age group and clubs might try to play top talent on both teams for wins.
Surf also has a few affiliates playing in GA

When is Orange County going to get a second club in GA ? I thought it would have been Strikers a year ago
 
Surf also has a few affiliates playing in GA

When is Orange County going to get a second club in GA ? I thought it would have been Strikers a year ago
Not really sure.

GA has a loose association with Next. What this means is that an existing Next club might go GA for girls or a new Next club might also do GA.

I could also see GA giving a club like City or maybe Albion a 2nd GA team. After Tophat and Lonestar City and Albion are logical choices for 2x GA teams.

Another option might be to get an ECNL club like Blues to switch to GA by giving them 2x GA teams. From a business perspective this would give Blues a really good chance of a national title at all ages with 2x Teams.
 
Surf also has a few affiliates playing in GA

When is Orange County going to get a second club in GA ? I thought it would have been Strikers a year ago
GA really needs teams in IE and Ventura more than anything. These seem like the obvious choices, because no existing club laying claim to the territory. It should be easy pick ups there.
 
GA really needs teams in IE and Ventura more than anything. These seem like the obvious choices, because no existing club laying claim to the territory. It should be easy pick ups there.
In 2017/18 heres what the Girls side of DA looked like...

1681954341300.jpg

As you can see back in the day DA had IE and Camarillo covered.

Although the ECNL people might be against it. Eventually a big ECNL club with jump over to GA. Once one makes a move others will follow. They'll do it for the same seasons clubs jumped in 2016. Perceived wins for girls + higher level of play for Boys. (Via Next)

Its Deja Vu all over again.
 
I believe the idea is to have 2x A teams in 1 Club.

With Tophat at the 2010 level one of their teams is #1 and the other is #48.

Personally I think giving top clubs 2 teams is a very good idea + something that's going to happen at ECNL over time. (Unofficially you're already seeing it at Slammers) If Surf didnt have all the tournament $$$ coming in they'd have a 2nd top ECNL team to get money that way. As long as the club is consistantly winning with both teams then good to go.

The potential issues 2x top teams per club brings is that it gives a single club 2 chances at a national run per age group and clubs might try to play top talent on both teams for wins.

As I understand it for ECNL, and I imagine GA is similar, it's not that you get a second team, it's that a club has to set up a separate program with a separate agreement for which all the same obligations must be met. This looks to be what Lonestar has done (see also Slammers/Koge, FC Stars, PDA, SLSG, FC Dallas, etc in ECNL).

As for Surf, tournament money is irrelevant. I don't think they can find enough qualified coaches (let alone players) for the girls' side to put together a full second program that would be competitive.

That being said, given where the numbers are for the boys' side are right now, it wouldn't shock me to see them try it there in the next few years.

As much as any club might try to spin it, unless there is a geography component to how the programs are broken up, there will never be two "top" teams at a club. They may play at/in the same level/flight/league, but the better talent will always be loaded on to one roster over others. See your TopHat example: Tophat Gold at every age group out performs TopHat Navy and I don't think there's an age group where Navy is ever above the middle of the table. Same thing with Slammers, they play in different divisions to make it less obvious(Mojave/Sonoran), but Koge is ranked higher on SR at just about every age group.
 
In 2017/18 heres what the Girls side of DA looked like...

View attachment 16314

As you can see back in the day DA had IE and Camarillo covered.

Although the ECNL people might be against it. Eventually a big ECNL club with jump over to GA. Once one makes a move others will follow. They'll do it for the same seasons clubs jumped in 2016. Perceived wins for girls + higher level of play for Boys. (Via Next)

Its Deja Vu all over again.
Wow, thanks for that graphic. Hard to imagine anyone leaving ECNL right now, but there are all those teams in DA and yet many of them went to ECNL. Could happen again.
 
As I understand it for ECNL, and I imagine GA is similar, it's not that you get a second team, it's that a club has to set up a separate program with a separate agreement for which all the same obligations must be met. This looks to be what Lonestar has done (see also Slammers/Koge, FC Stars, PDA, SLSG, FC Dallas, etc in ECNL).

As for Surf, tournament money is irrelevant. I don't think they can find enough qualified coaches (let alone players) for the girls' side to put together a full second program that would be competitive.

That being said, given where the numbers are for the boys' side are right now, it wouldn't shock me to see them try it there in the next few years.

As much as any club might try to spin it, unless there is a geography component to how the programs are broken up, there will never be two "top" teams at a club. They may play at/in the same level/flight/league, but the better talent will always be loaded on to one roster over others. See your TopHat example: Tophat Gold at every age group out performs TopHat Navy and I don't think there's an age group where Navy is ever above the middle of the table. Same thing with Slammers, they play in different divisions to make it less obvious(Mojave/Sonoran), but Koge is ranked higher on SR at just about every age group.
I agree that there’s always going to be 1 better team if there’s 2 top teams at a club. But in many situations that’s ok. Maybe parents on the 2nd top team don’t want to go to all the extra travel events the true top team qualifies for. Also with 2 teams there’s always a chance they could go #1 and #2 in league. Which would be pretty cool.
 
I agree that there’s always going to be 1 better team if there’s 2 top teams at a club. But in many situations that’s ok. Maybe parents on the 2nd top team don’t want to go to all the extra travel events the true top team qualifies for. Also with 2 teams there’s always a chance they could go #1 and #2 in league. Which would be pretty cool.

I think any club would LOVE to own the two top spots in a league table, it's just a low probability outcome, for a variety of reasons.
 
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