Santa Monica Surf is now Albion Santa Monica

That's not how Surf does it. They charge the affiliates large dollars for the (mandatory) uniforms, and the affiliates then charge even larger dollars to the parents. And yes, of course the coaches should be wearing gear that they want the club to be seen in - that gear is paid for with the difference.
 
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr said:
I've never had the impression with Surf branding that there was somehow a tie to SD Surf and its ECNL teams.

The press release announcing Albion Santa Monica at least implied there would be some partnership between Albion Santa Monica and Albion Los Angeles and its MLS Next teams. If someone saw a direct reference that there was some partnership, then I must have missed it.

And I concur with what others posted in this thread: Santa Monica Surf usually puts out good teams.
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Albion LA is the former Laufa. They ran into some apparent financial difficulty before going to Albion. The issue was a lot of the lower teams are required to pay full freight in order to scholarship the MLS Next Teams. Laufa was in an area which was heavily working class Latino and had traditionally tried to keep the fees even for the non-MLS Next Teams manageable, including cutting corners on facilities, coaching fees and requiring teams to manage their own things such as tournaments and securing required veos. As part of the Great Inflation, fees shot up dramatically and many teams just folded or didn't pay (I recall at the B09 level they had at one point MLS Next, EA, EA2, E64 and NPL). Laufa also tried to make a large expansion into the girls teams that never materialized because they didn't have ECNL access and in Latino neighborhoods you don't get as many girls interested as in white neighborhoods (particularly since Latino league is an option for those that want to play and not at the higher levels). That created a problem that you no longer had the economic support to float the MLS Next Team. There's also the issue of facilities and the City of Santa Monica is building a large sports complex where the airport used to be. It wouldn't surprise me if several years from now the MLS Next hub is moved from the inner city to the facilities on the West Side, which is also flushed with more $$$ able to afford the fees. TFA is the other big club in the inner city. I remain curious about their finances about how they make it work and indeed have expanded into the OC (where several of the Albion LA lower level teams have also escaped to).
 
chipmonk said:
Of course PR is gonna PR.

"Santa Monica Surf joins San Diego Surf, OC Surf, LA Surf and Murrieta Surf, in the Southern California region to build an elite development program for Surf players and coaches. This Surf alliance will have unmatched access to top-level programming and network resources. LA Surf, which offers both ECNL and DA programming, will be a direct conduit for Santa Monica Surf athletes to play at the highest levels of competition and achieve increased exposure."

surfsoccernation.com

Santa Monica Surf Joins The Surf Family - Surf Nation

Surf Cup Sports (San Diego, CA) is proud to announce our new partnership with Santa Monica United FC (Santa Monica, CA), a stalwart of the Westside youth soccer landscape for 45 years. Santa Monica Surf will play the remainder of 2019 as Santa Monica United FC but will be fully integrated into...
surfsoccernation.com surfsoccernation.com
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Santa Monica Surf joins San Diego Surf, OC Surf, LA Surf and Murrieta Surf, in the Southern California region to build an elite development program for Surf players and coaches.

How many of these remain...no more SM Surf and OC Surf....
 
chipmonk said:
Of course PR is gonna PR.

"Santa Monica Surf joins San Diego Surf, OC Surf, LA Surf and Murrieta Surf, in the Southern California region to build an elite development program for Surf players and coaches. This Surf alliance will have unmatched access to top-level programming and network resources. LA Surf, which offers both ECNL and DA programming, will be a direct conduit for Santa Monica Surf athletes to play at the highest levels of competition and achieve increased exposure."

surfsoccernation.com

Santa Monica Surf Joins The Surf Family - Surf Nation

Surf Cup Sports (San Diego, CA) is proud to announce our new partnership with Santa Monica United FC (Santa Monica, CA), a stalwart of the Westside youth soccer landscape for 45 years. Santa Monica Surf will play the remainder of 2019 as Santa Monica United FC but will be fully integrated into...
surfsoccernation.com surfsoccernation.com
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Ha! Looks awfully similar to the one for Albion Santa Monica. Thanks for posting
 
Grace T. said:
Albion LA is the former Laufa. They ran into some apparent financial difficulty before going to Albion. The issue was a lot of the lower teams are required to pay full freight in order to scholarship the MLS Next Teams. Laufa was in an area which was heavily working class Latino and had traditionally tried to keep the fees even for the non-MLS Next Teams manageable, including cutting corners on facilities, coaching fees and requiring teams to manage their own things such as tournaments and securing required veos. As part of the Great Inflation, fees shot up dramatically and many teams just folded or didn't pay (I recall at the B09 level they had at one point MLS Next, EA, EA2, E64 and NPL). Laufa also tried to make a large expansion into the girls teams that never materialized because they didn't have ECNL access and in Latino neighborhoods you don't get as many girls interested as in white neighborhoods (particularly since Latino league is an option for those that want to play and not at the higher levels). That created a problem that you no longer had the economic support to float the MLS Next Team. There's also the issue of facilities and the City of Santa Monica is building a large sports complex where the airport used to be. It wouldn't surprise me if several years from now the MLS Next hub is moved from the inner city to the facilities on the West Side, which is also flushed with more $$$ able to afford the fees. TFA is the other big club in the inner city. I remain curious about their finances about how they make it work and indeed have expanded into the OC (where several of the Albion LA lower level teams have also escaped to).
Click to expand...
Right now, Albion MLS Next u15-u19 train in Long Beach at LBCC at a nice facility a couple of days of the week, and at least the the u15 and u17 train in Bell Gardens on a few of the days at a decent sports park with a lot of parking. I could see the change over you describe in a few years. That certainly makes sense, because $$$$$.
 
NewbieMama said:
Santa Monica Surf joins San Diego Surf, OC Surf, LA Surf and Murrieta Surf, in the Southern California region to build an elite development program for Surf players and coaches.

How many of these remain...no more SM Surf and OC Surf....
Click to expand...
2 of the 3 founding chapters of LA Surf broke off to form LASC (SGV Surf and Soltilo). The only founding member remaining from that group is SoCal Academy out of San Marino.
 
chipmonk said:
Of course PR is gonna PR.

"Santa Monica Surf joins San Diego Surf, OC Surf, LA Surf and Murrieta Surf, in the Southern California region to build an elite development program for Surf players and coaches. This Surf alliance will have unmatched access to top-level programming and network resources. LA Surf, which offers both ECNL and DA programming, will be a direct conduit for Santa Monica Surf athletes to play at the highest levels of competition and achieve increased exposure."

surfsoccernation.com

Santa Monica Surf Joins The Surf Family - Surf Nation

Surf Cup Sports (San Diego, CA) is proud to announce our new partnership with Santa Monica United FC (Santa Monica, CA), a stalwart of the Westside youth soccer landscape for 45 years. Santa Monica Surf will play the remainder of 2019 as Santa Monica United FC but will be fully integrated into...
surfsoccernation.com surfsoccernation.com
Click to expand...

LOL that definitely didn't happen.
 
I'm usually skeptical about most of these as well, but it's not universally true. Surf/Albion/Legends/Rush and the few other national brands aren't all identical. Some small clubs joining one of these as affiliates see their costs go down, with more access to insurance, uniforms, training, etc. compared to what they were paying earlier. And while access to resources can certainly be overblown, it's not nothing either, and having the opportunities to play on "super-teams" that weren't available before is attractive to some. But yes - it certainly can seem like it's nothing more than a money grab - and if one local club is doing nothing but hopping from one brand to another as they realize it doesn't pan out for them, it's probably not wrong to continue to be skeptical.
 
RandomSoccerFan said:
I'm usually skeptical about most of these as well, but it's not universally true. Surf/Albion/Legends/Rush and the few other national brands aren't all identical. Some small clubs joining one of these as affiliates see their costs go down, with more access to insurance, uniforms, training, etc. compared to what they were paying earlier. And while access to resources can certainly be overblown, it's not nothing either, and having the opportunities to play on "super-teams" that weren't available before is attractive to some. But yes - it certainly can seem like it's nothing more than a money grab - and if one local club is doing nothing but hopping from one brand to another as they realize it doesn't pan out for them, it's probably not wrong to continue to be skeptica
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr said:
Right now, Albion MLS Next u15-u19 train in Long Beach at LBCC at a nice facility a couple of days of the week, and at least the the u15 and u17 train in Bell Gardens on a few of the days at a decent sports park with a lot of parking. I could see the change over you describe in a few years. That certainly makes sense, because $$$$$.
Click to expand...
before the fires an email sent to Albion LA MLS Next parents informed them practices will be moved to Westside LA locations and the head coach of the Albion LA MLS next team will now be the current SM Surf EA 2011B Coach. They had one 2011 EA - MLSN team practice and scrimmage in SM before the fires shut everything down. The EA looked to be the stronger team. Looks like the LA Albion MLSN will be based more out of SM at least in short term. The Albion showcase was played this past weekend and the SM 2011B team won the super group.
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So does that mean that LA surf will be next to fold ? The Albion mls next coach for 2011/2010 is not at La surf with the 2013 Ea team. Also you look at the 2011 Albion mls next team they are way down the table. SM 2011b team is solid one and most of those parents of the former Albion mls next wont drive all the way to SM to be EA team lol
 
Futbol2dmaxxx said:
So does that mean that LA surf will be next to fold ? The Albion mls next coach for 2011/2010 is not at La surf with the 2013 Ea team. Also you look at the 2011 Albion mls next team they are way down the table. SM 2011b team is solid one and most of those parents of the former Albion mls next wont drive all the way to SM to be EA team lol
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The issue with the old Laufa org (Albion la) is the bottom dropped out of both the girls and lower level boys programs when Laufa folded. The mls next teams relied upon those lower level to fund (generous) scholarships and to provide a recruiting base. Sm surfs problem has always been it doesn’t have access to the highest tier so top talent tends to peel off, which weakens the teams, so rinse repeat. The biggest selling point for sm as a venue is that the city of Santa Monica is completely redoing the airport. They say it will be comparable to great park by way of soccer facilities.
 
Code said:
😉. It never does. These access to resources statements when clubs switch to big brands is always BS. The only change you will see is an increase in costs for the parents, and confusion about where your team is actually from.
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100% true especially for Surf.
 
I noticed the name change, and honestly, it caught me off guard at first. I used to follow Santa Monica Surf because a friend played with them a while back, and it felt like they had a solid identity. Switching to Albion Santa Monica feels like a big shift, but I guess it could mean more resources or a fresh direction for the club. Time will tell if it’s just a rebrand or if there’s more behind it.
 
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