Get ready folks

[j2five]

I don't get the obsession (Well, I kind of know why) with youth soccer being the pathway to college. Like I said before many times, the top youth soccer league in our country is obsessed with youth soccer + college soccer. I have experience and watched how girls that were ok players jumped the line and play time over better soccer players because they were better students and had 4.5 GPA and insanely high SAT scores. Now the best players are not playing as much (some sat on da bench to watch the better student take over) because it's all about college. That sucks, moo!!!

My answer for the first part is...it's always about the money.

As for the second part about players "jumping" the line...colleges by design are about education first (or at least they should be). So I don't see anything wrong with choosing a great student who is a good soccer player over a great soccer player who is a good student. Isn't that a good thing? It motivates the great soccer player to be a better student. A female student athletes' chances of making a sustained living in anything other than soccer is much higher than making a sustained living in soccer, so why not increase the odds of doing better in the former?

Of course there are the exceptions (e.g. Trinity, Alyssa, etc. as mentioned above). But the fact that we can name the exceptions tells us how rare they are. So rare that their pathway shouldn't be what all but the very best of the best strive for. Again, I don't get the obsession of creating an ecosystem that is designed around just the very best of the best.

 

[crush]

Compare to men's soccer then. Quick google search (correct my numbers if off)...average MLS salary is $600k. Average premier league salary is £8.2 million.

The point isn't the sport itself. The point is the $$$ just isn't there in women's soccer to justify the narrow focus on the pro pathway.

I know a few girls playing pro in Spain, England and Mexico and doing very well and are very happy. Life is not all about money. Life should be explored. They are having fun, making a good living, have zero debt and traveling around the world for free and learning about other cultures. I also know a few girls that went to college, got a degree and are working at Starbucks. One became a store manager and is very happy and just got married.

 

[j2five]

The money to pay players comes from ticket sales (attendance) and the leagues ability to sell the product to TV media companies which use the games to sell advertising in the form of commercials.

If the product leagues produce is low quality then there wont be big media contracts. Half the people in the world are women and soccer is a very popular sport for women to play when they're young. These people should be able to be converted into pro soccer fans as long as the games are fun and exciting to watch. When this happens the amount players get paid will go up.

Lots of when/ifs. Maybe at some point in the next few decades more female soccer players (not just the very best) will get paid well. One can hope.

Until that happens, I don't get the obsession with the pro pathway for female soccer.

 

[crush]

My answer for the first part is...it's always about the money.

As for the second part about players "jumping" the line...colleges by design are about education first (or at least they should be). So I don't see anything wrong with choosing a great student who is a good soccer player over a great soccer player who is a good student. Isn't that a good thing? It motivates the great soccer player to be a better student. A female student athletes' chances of making a sustained living in anything other than soccer is much higher than making a sustained living in soccer, so why not increase the odds of doing better in the former?

Of course there are the exceptions (e.g. Trinity, Alyssa, etc. as mentioned above). But the fact that we can name the exceptions tells us how rare they are. So rare that their pathway shouldn't be what all but the very best of the best strive for. Again, I don't get the obsession of creating an ecosystem that is designed around just the very best of the best.

We should have a top league in SoCal that is ONLY about soccer.

 

[j2five]

I know a few girls playing pro in Spain, England and Mexico and doing very well and are very happy. Life is not all about money. Life should be explored. They are having fun, making a good living, have zero debt and traveling around the world for free and learning about other cultures. I also know a few girls that went to college, got a degree and are working at Starbucks. One became a store manager and is very happy and just got married.

Completely agree. There's more to life than making money.

 

[crush]

For the record, I don't believe we should have a league for Pro players only because we wouldn't have a league. Many of the SoCal kids like my dd got to play with and against the Thompson sisters and Olivia. They helped make them better players. AT is on fire and it's a joy to see her play at a high level. Hard work, dedication and ganas has paid off for her. Plus, she is very fast and quick. We need one top league for the best players. Some will go Pro, some will go to college, some will quit and do something else and all of them would build life lasting friendships. What the top Docs and top leagues have caused is complete chaos, confusion and division, moo!

 

[j2five]

For the record, I don't believe we should have a league for Pro players only because we wouldn't have a league.

You bring up a good point. And Carlsbad alluded to this too. I've been focusing on the demand side, but let's look at the supply side. For those who are calling for an women's academy system in the US, what incentive does an organization have to build one right now?

 

[crush]

You bring up a good point. And Carlsbad alluded to this too. I've been focusing on the demand side, but let's look at the supply side. For those who are calling for an women's academy system in the US, what incentive does an organization have to build one right now?

In other countries, the youth teams are all a part of the Pro teams and it's free. The rest of the kids play for fun in rec. California should have it's own league. Not sure how, but the demand is there. Taking a really good player who has played youth club soccer from U7-U14, dedicating her life and body to a sport she loves and then being asked by her dopy coach driving a BMW asking, "where do you want to play in college" and then the player says, "I'm not sure I want to go to college" and then asshole says, "why are you even here" is insane and wrong. 14 years old. Player went to the bench after that comment. Her old man forked out $3,000 (It's more now) to play soccer, not get recruited as a 14-year-old.

 

[Slobodan]

I wonder of how many drafted are still around 4 years later.

Even on the men's side you've got teams skipping their turn when it comes to the draft. That's embarrassing.

 

[crush]

The pressure to be a kid is already hard in SoCal. Kids and girls especially, want to have fun. What these leaders have done to a sport and to the girl's psyche is cruel. It's already a hard sport to master. Now, a coach will yell at you for making a bad pass and if your grades are under 4.0 you will be benched for a player with a higher GPA. Seriously, this is horrible. It's just a freaking sport and these money-making asshats are making money off the kid's hard work on and off the field. I know one girl that was all everything and finally her Sr in college had a mental breakdown. Another player told her old man, "I quit" because of the pressure and time these players go through.

In psychology, a person's psyche refers to the totality of their mind, encompassing both conscious and unconscious thought, feelings, and emotions. It's the seat of one's personality, beliefs, and mental processes, influencing how a person perceives the world and interacts with it.

 

[whatithink]

Compare to men's soccer then. Quick google search (correct my numbers if off)...average MLS salary is $600k. Average premier league salary is £8.2 million.

The point isn't the sport itself. The point is the $$$ just isn't there in women's soccer to justify the narrow focus on the pro pathway.

Avg for MLS or EPL is a bit of a distorted stat. The min salary in the MLS is $85K. It's likely that the most common salary is closer to that than $600K given the designated players distorting the numbers.

For the EPL, here's a list of clubs where no player salary exceeds $8.5M - I'm not sure where you got the $8.2M from.

• Ipswich Town
• Brentford
• Southampton
• Wolverhampton Wanderers
• Bournemouth
• Brighton & Hove Albion
• Nottingham Forest
• Fulham
• Leicester City
• Everton
• Crystal Palace

That said, if you play in the EPL for a few seasons, you are comfortably a millionaire and should be set for life if you manage your money.

 

[Grace T.]

Avg for MLS or EPL is a bit of a distorted stat. The min salary in the MLS is $85K. It's likely that the most common salary is closer to that than $600K given the designated players distorting the numbers.

For the EPL, here's a list of clubs where no player salary exceeds $8.5M - I'm not sure where you got the $8.2M from.

• Ipswich Town
• Brentford
• Southampton
• Wolverhampton Wanderers
• Bournemouth
• Brighton & Hove Albion
• Nottingham Forest
• Fulham
• Leicester City
• Everton
• Crystal Palace

That said, if you play in the EPL for a few seasons, you are comfortably a millionaire and should be set for life if you manage your money.

This is right. Grok seems to think it's between $80-100K. The math throws off the average, because most players on a roster are senior roster players (at about $100K) or reserve players (at $80K). Each team can carry 3-4 designated players which earn the big bucks but throw off the average. Then there are the middle players who are either part of the U22 initiative at about $150K (to keep homegrown talent in the league) and TAM (additional money the MLS can throw at senior roster players and the money of which can be traded to other teams). The reason why is to keep parity and to keep the league from spiraling costs, each team operates under an overall salary cap. The DPs (partial count), U22 (partial count), reserve and also homegrown/generation addidas players don't count towards the cap. TAM and senior does.

 

[LouSag]

You bring up a good point. And Carlsbad alluded to this too. I've been focusing on the demand side, but let's look at the supply side. For those who are calling for a women's academy system in the US, what incentive does an organization have to build one right now?

On the girls side, there was an academy system attempt called DA. US soccer screwed it up monumentally….all the clubs went back to ECNL after 2 years of DA. The DA idea was right, but the support from US Soccer was inept.

 

[Carlsbad7]

On the girls side, there was an academy system attempt called DA. US soccer screwed it up monumentally….all the clubs went back to ECNL after 2 years of DA. The DA idea was right, but the support from US Soccer was inept.

For boys DA became MLS Next which is basically the same thing but controlled by MLS. DA and now MLSN have remained the top tier for boys youth soccer. This makes sense because theres more willingness to pay top players to play the sport. ECNL people like to say that without Acadamies MLSN wouldn't be that good. But, that's kind of the point. All clubs and playrs in the MLSN ecosystem are feeders for Academy teams.

 

[crush]

On the girls side, there was an academy system attempt called DA. US soccer screwed it up monumentally….all the clubs went back to ECNL after 2 years of DA. The DA idea was right, but the support from US Soccer was inept.

The GDA was a scam and a big fat lie. "The world is watching" we were told & sold. Complete chaos, cheating, confusion, division, dumpster fire, lying, insane pay for play and kickbacks. Rich daddy and mommy got all close to the Docs and won most of the prizes. I still remember being told the "scouts" will only watch the girls from the GDA and this is the pathway to Pro and WNT. Then, when the girls went to NC to play in freezing temperatures in 2018, 100+ college coaches came to watch. Those were the scouts. I knew then it was all about college, not a pathway to pro.

 

[Carlsbad7]

The reason DA for girls failed was because at the time (2017-20) there was no money in the NWSL. There is money now in the NWSL but if you watch Berman what shes trying to do is generate revenue for current owners by expanding the league not by upping the level of play on the field. If you're not aware every time a new NWSL franchise location is sold/purchased the money from the sale gets distributed to current owners. This along with negotiating better media deals makes WAY more money than funding better play on the field. You have to keep in mind that NWSL is like 25 games a season and clubs average 11k per game. You can see why upping the gate isn't the best way to make money when other options are available.

MLS kind of has competition between clubs for talent. This is what makes things like homegrown players and individual clubs pressing to outdo other clubs in the league. NWSL has none of that the clubs are generic with leadership actually pushing for equality between all teams. Fans dont want this. Club owners do want equality because it makes the clubs cheap to run.

 

[Lemmon Pepper Lou]

I wonder of how many drafted are still around 4 years later.

I wonder how many then go to college knowing they gave their dream 110% first?

 

[crush]

The reason DA for girls failed was because at the time (2017-20) there was no money in the NWSL.

The GDA failed because they lied and played favoritism when those with the money, parents!!! Karma took them out!!!

 

[crush]

I liken the GDA like a fantasy MLB camp back in the day. I had a rich friend whose daddy dreamed of playing in the major leagues. Well, he sucked but had lot's of money and went to a fantasy camp down at Vero Beach in the late 80s. Paid a boat load to face MLB pitchers. He had a blast. The GDA clubs would cut good players to make room for DEI players whose parents had boat load of $$$$ and wanted to taste the glory of their kids in the GDA. If you paid, your kid got to start 25% of the games. I saw it up close and personal. It's not how to get the cream to rise to the top.

 

[Grace T.]

The reason DA for girls failed was because at the time (2017-20) there was no money in the NWSL. There is money now in the NWSL but if you watch Berman what shes trying to do is generate revenue for current owners by expanding the league not by upping the level of play on the field. If you're not aware every time a new NWSL franchise location is sold/purchased the money from the sale gets distributed to current owners. This along with negotiating better media deals makes WAY more money than funding better play on the field. You have to keep in mind that NWSL is like 25 games a season and clubs average 11k per game. You can see why upping the gate isn't the best way to make money when other options are available.

MLS kind of has competition between clubs for talent. This is what makes things like homegrown players and individual clubs pressing to outdo other clubs in the league. NWSL has none of that the clubs are generic with leadership actually pushing for equality between all teams. Fans dont want this. Club owners do want equality because it makes the clubs cheap to run.

The mls has the same salary caps and pyramid scheme going. It’s why the galaxy went from a championship team in one year to not being able to win a single game until recently. It’s the exact same system but less mature. The big head scratcher is if the mls is no dipping into markets like San Diego and St. Louis what happens when they hit market saturation are they are no longer able to do it.