Santa Monica Surf is now Albion Santa Monica

[espola]

There has been years of discussion here on the history of all the little surf offspring throughout the western US getting no visible support from Daddy Surf except perhaps a discount on uniforms. Should Daddy Surf be expecting some sort of loyalty in retu

As far as I'm aware, there is no visible discount on uniforms. They are instead marked up quite a bit, and the difference between the cost to the local club and the cost to the parents is used to get "free" merchandise for the coaches.

In my experience, the uniform retailers/distributors hide the cost of the "free" stuff so the clubs don't have to worry about it. It would not look good for the coaches and BOD members to be out of uniform during games.

In general, the "classiness" of the uniforms (if they are Adidas or Nike) is one of the recruiting points used by the clubs.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

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.

 

[Grace T.]

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.

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).

 

[NewbieMama]

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."

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

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....

 

[Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr]

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."

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

Ha! Looks awfully similar to the one for Albion Santa Monica. Thanks for posting

 

[Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr]

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).

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 $$$$$.

 

[Slobodan]

Why? (honest question. I don’t know any of the politics, background or whatever involved. )

Fudd has been hurting for a week. Ignore him.

 

[TeamDadJokes]

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....

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.

 

[CruzControl]

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."

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

LOL that definitely didn't happen.

 

[Code]

LOL that definitely didn't happen.

. 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.

 

[RandomSoccerFan]

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.