MLS Next Alliances

G

Grace T.

The news previously dropped in the GD forum about the MLS Next alliance with GA. Now there's this. Looks like MLS Next is making an expansion of control. This doesn't mean they are sweeping everyone into MLS Next, but they are opening up new tiers within the MLS Next rubric. From the press release National Academy League, EA (which EA confirmed separately in a separate press release), and Cal North (which they also confirmed in a separate press release...I guess this will supersede their MLS 2) have all signed on. Thoughts? My 2 cents is that this is all directed against ECNL, and it's also a possible way to deflect any anticompetition allegations from clubs being excluded from MLS Next while effectively preserving the top tier.

p.s. hope everyone is safe out there with the fires

www.mlssoccer.com

MLS NEXT Announces New Competition Tier | MLSSoccer.com

MLS NEXT today announced a new competition tier that will increase the number of clubs in MLS NEXT and deepen the overall pool of players and coaches. Starting in September 2025, clubs in the program will compete in regular season games, regional tournaments, and various MLS NEXT national events as
www.mlssoccer.com www.mlssoccer.com
 
Grace T. said:
The news previously dropped in the GD forum about the MLS Next alliance with GA. Now there's this. Looks like MLS Next is making an expansion of control. This doesn't mean they are sweeping everyone into MLS Next, but they are opening up new tiers within the MLS Next rubric. From the press release National Academy League, EA (which EA confirmed separately in a separate press release), and Cal North (which they also confirmed in a separate press release...I guess this will supersede their MLS 2) have all signed on. Thoughts? My 2 cents is that this is all directed against ECNL, and it's also a possible way to deflect any anticompetition allegations from clubs being excluded from MLS Next while effectively preserving the top tier.

p.s. hope everyone is safe out there with the fires

www.mlssoccer.com

MLS NEXT Announces New Competition Tier | MLSSoccer.com

MLS NEXT today announced a new competition tier that will increase the number of clubs in MLS NEXT and deepen the overall pool of players and coaches. Starting in September 2025, clubs in the program will compete in regular season games, regional tournaments, and various MLS NEXT national events as
www.mlssoccer.com www.mlssoccer.com
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Just what youth soccer needs...another tier. It would be funny, if it weren't so sad.
 
watfly said:
Just what youth soccer needs...another tier. It would be funny, if it weren't so sad.
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Well, in this instance it appears there would be some consolidation. NAL and EA (the split which was becoming a bit untenable with EA in the West and NAL in the East) and Cal North's MLS 2 would be folded into whatever this new tier is supposed to be. At least that's how I read it. It's all very nebulous.
 
This is just formalizing what was obvious. MLS Next needed to compete/protect its space vs ECNL/RL. NAL started on the east coast with a majority of MLS Next club's 2nd teams. Some clubs pulled their 2nd teams out of ECNL (Boston Bolts, Tampa Bay). They tried to get it going on west coast but...politics in Norcal(?) and EA dominance in SoCal got in the way. The NorCal Premier league dominates Northern Cal and aligned with ECNL. Cal North a dying league propped up X2 with support from MLS clubs. I would not be surprised if NAL, EA, X2 rebranded to MLS Next 2 or MLS Next"Regional" to enshrine it as the 2nd team league for all of these clubs.
 
Seems part of this is to be able to better align MLSN and EA teams from a scheduling perspective. Will make it easier for coaches to overlap and bring the teams closer to help promote talent.

Curious how it will look in the end and what it means for EA2.
 
Starting to get crazy with all the league moves going on.

This spring is going to be interesting.

I think ECNL might have stepped in it pushing the BY vs SY action.
 
Barca2021 said:
This is just formalizing what was obvious. MLS Next needed to compete/protect its space vs ECNL/RL. NAL started on the east coast with a majority of MLS Next club's 2nd teams. Some clubs pulled their 2nd teams out of ECNL (Boston Bolts, Tampa Bay). They tried to get it going on west coast but...politics in Norcal(?) and EA dominance in SoCal got in the way. The NorCal Premier league dominates Northern Cal and aligned with ECNL. Cal North a dying league propped up X2 with support from MLS clubs. I would not be surprised if NAL, EA, X2 rebranded to MLS Next 2 or MLS Next"Regional" to enshrine it as the 2nd team league for all of these clubs.
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i doubt they "pulled" their clubs from ECNL... if its anything like what happened in AZ, ECNL gave them an ultimatum and then dropped them. ECNL is going scorched earth in regards to having top boys team in ECNL. Creating a lot of ill will and growing EA.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
Starting to get crazy with all the league moves going on.

This spring is going to be interesting.

I think ECNL might have stepped in it pushing the BY vs SY action.
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MLS Next is likely to stay BY right? So if EA formally goes/aligns with MLS Next, then it will likely also stay birth year. While ECNL/ECRL will likely go school year, creating a rift. I wonder how SoCal league will go as it's the feeder to both.
 
CBDad said:
MLS Next is likely to stay BY right? So if EA formally goes/aligns with MLS Next, then it will likely also stay birth year. While ECNL/ECRL will likely go school year, creating a rift. I wonder how SoCal league will go as it's the feeder to both.
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SOCAL has already stated that they plan to go SY.
 
It will be interesting to see if any MLSN clubs that also have ECNL on the girls side move to GA. In NorCal that's just DeAnza and BA Surf. If those two moved to GA that would be pretty significant. That would put a pretty big dent in the ECNL table.
 
NorCalDad said:
It will be interesting to see if any MLSN clubs that also have ECNL on the girls side move to GA. In NorCal that's just DeAnza and BA Surf. If those two moved to GA that would be pretty significant. That would put a pretty big dent in the ECNL table.
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If they follow the ECNL playbook they will demand that if your boys teams are MLSN your top girls team must be be GA or they kick you from MLSN. Now that is how ECNL operates not sure if MLSN will be that petty. Being as there are 1.2m boys playing club soccer and only 488k girls playing club soccer and MLSN is the undisputed king of boys club soccer I would think they could pull that off if they wanted to.
 
tjinaz said:
If they follow the ECNL playbook they will demand that if your boys teams are MLSN your top girls team must be be GA or they kick you from MLSN. Now that is how ECNL operates not sure if MLSN will be that petty. Being as there are 1.2m boys playing club soccer and only 488k girls playing club soccer and MLSN is the undisputed king of boys club soccer I would think they could pull that off if they wanted to.
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Do it
 
tjinaz said:
Being as there are 1.2m boys playing club soccer and only 488k girls playing club soccer
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Could you share a source where you're pulling this from? Here's what I got, pulling numbers out of the air, and guesstimating based on # of teams in SR. (790K boys, 477K girls). It shows about 1.65 boys for every girl, while yours shows 2.45 for every girl, which is a huge difference in ratio. These numbers are only for competitive, not rec, which may or may not be the same set for "club soccer".

boys by bracket.png


girls by bracket.png
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
Could you share a source where you're pulling this from? Here's what I got, pulling numbers out of the air, and guesstimating based on # of teams in SR. (790K boys, 477K girls). It shows about 1.65 boys for every girl, while yours shows 2.45 for every girl, which is a huge difference in ratio. These numbers are only for competitive, not rec, which may or may not be the same set for "club soccer".

View attachment 24443


View attachment 24444
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pretty much say your post. Although i got the 477 wrong
 
Can someone please explain what this means with clubs that only have EA not MLS next? Why are those clubs so excited now. Does this mean now those clubs with only EA here will now have MLS next teams? Very confused.
 
Lou789 said:
Can someone please explain what this means with clubs that only have EA not MLS next? Why are those clubs so excited now. Does this mean now those clubs with only EA here will now have MLS next teams? Very confused.
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It’s a little early to tell, but so far it seems to mean that top EA teams might be invited to MLS events and get more opportunities to play against the academy teams.

I’ve heard that the true MLS academies are very frustrated with the level and travel of the other MLS Next teams and this structure is supposed to help them get better competition. I mean, in socal, some of the EA2 teams are better than the MLS next teams.
 
chipmonk said:
It’s a little early to tell, but so far it seems to mean that top EA teams might be invited to MLS events and get more opportunities to play against the academy teams.

I’ve heard that the true MLS academies are very frustrated with the level and travel of the other MLS Next teams and this structure is supposed to help them get better competition. I mean, in socal, some of the EA2 teams are better than the MLS next teams.
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There's a few reasons for this:
1) When a pro academy plays one of the MLS Next teams, and they see a player they like, the player gets poached. The pro academies have been hoarding the best players for years. Some of them have rosters of up to 30+ players.
2) MLS keeps granting clubs MLS NEXT, diluting the talent pool across too many teams. There's only so many good players to go around.
 
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