I agree. The problem for girls DA was creating/funneling elite players into a small group without a buyer. The USWNT wasn't going to pay but they'd gladly take the talent being offered. Without a buyer people (coaches + docs) figured out that DA was on a path to nowhere. Might as well pocket a much as you can before spit hits the fan.
Get ready folks
- Thread starter soccer4us
- Start date
My guess is MLS will end up like NFL with a couple of Spanos owned Chargers type teams that constantly lose and only exist because of the rules.
Clipper Nation! Clippers!!!!!!
Scrub It Kook
SILVER
MLS is already at saturation, what's next, Vegas? Phoenix? I have only been to a handful of different MLS Team games, but they all feel cookie cutter and unoriginal. The outlier is LAFC which seems to put an emphasis on fan entertainment, maybe due to the Hollywood connection.
Code
GOLD
Two of the Wave players came straight from ECNL; still in Highschool. Looking like the direct path into NWSL is via ECNL, same as college.
Sigh...
One of the Wave Starters came straight from GA; still in Highschool. Looking like the direct path into the NWSL is via crazy parents being supported by crazy clubs and scouts.
wow! that's a big deal for GA.
Mlsn only serves the needs of the academies. The question is what the academies do. And it looks like the academies might be waiting on what happens in Europe since that is what motivated the change to by in the first place. It’s also likely why they picked September instead of August (since August makes more sense from the way us school enrollment works in the majority of states). England iirc is on a September by.
Btw is anyone is interested in seeing how tiered rec works in Northern Europe there’s a Dutch series on Netflix called “soccer parents”. It really just is tiered ayso. They make fun of referees that don’t know the rules and are overtly biased, coaches chasing trophies, parents critiquing practices, and parents behaving badly at games same as here. What’s different is their volunteer coaches know what they are doing and are interested in getting the Youngers selected for the academies. The system is tiered with pro rel but it’s less of an issue since no college concerns…just to shame the club which they make fun of for putting too much emphasis…there also no private training or multiple sessions more than twice a week due to severe field limitations.
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
I enjoyed that series! Binged it in a day or two. (link on Netflix)
Okay but can we get the fat, shirtless guys to stop staring at us and playing the drums?
They also get room and board and a number of other benefits. I'd value that 65K at 80K. It will be above 100K in two years. The best situation would be to graduate college at 21 and start playing professionally during your 20's, with a degree to fall back on once retired, injured, tired of playing or replaced.
They don’t go to high school—home schooled.
It makes you wonder if you could take any reasonably athletic player with size, homeshool them, and do 4+ hours a day of privates with whatever coach has connections into NWSL, spread crazy money around to open doors + get on a team.
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
Given today's parameters - it would work a good percentage of the time - and it also would be hugely cost-ineffective. Expected average salaries at the end would need to be 5x to 10x today's to make it a good investment for anyone not interested in dumping $ on their own kid. Money always opens doors, whether soccer, tennis, karting, or just about any other type of sporting event.
If this is true it just highlights where leagues and clubs arent preparing players correctly. It also highlights that there must be a lot of talent that's looked over on the girls/women's side.
You cant do this on the mens side. You cant do this with American football. It doesnt seem like you could do this with any mens sport that I can think of.
RandomSoccerFan
PREMIER
You have a point. It doesn't work at some point with American football, and also at some point with basketball. Sports that pretty much require a specific body type and unique athleticism at the extremes have their own inherent thresholds/requirements that no amount of money can broach. But I'd venture that's a minority of sports, rather than the bulk of them. If you just take the five big professional men's sports in the US (Football/Basketball/Baseball/Hockey/Soccer), 2 of them are completely amenable to a "normal" body type, 1 of them less so - but still quite possible. 2 of them as described above are off-limits unless someone already fits the mold - regardless of any additional factors. Once you go past those 5 to the dozens of other sports (skiing, bowling, curling, fishing, whatever) - most of them aren't nearly as restrictive as football or basketball either.
One position actually requires both in American football: QB. The time/money is correlated by how difficult the technical skill is in the position. Almost all the D1 QB prospects start young (see Friday Night Tykes). It's the one position where 7v7 really matters. The stories I've heard: a public school giving a Dad a job to keep the private school from poaching him, a QB moves to a private school and the father offers to pay part of the tuition for the WRs to come with him, a public school arranging housing for a QB, a private school giving a QB a full ride and car and tutors to keep up with the demanding curriculum, donations to get the report needed for ADHD or dyslexia accommodations, HGH/steroids, the salaries of some of the top private trainers, the relationships some of the private school coaches with college coaches. The privates are worse than the publics because it has more levers to play, but gridiron football has far more funny business going on than soccer-- not even the same neighborhoods.
Anecdotally I hear basketball and volleyball are also moving more in that direction, but I don't know them as well. Same with football WRs but body type and running speed will still get you quite a bit.