Say bye-bye-bye to Girls and Boys DA

[MakeAPlay]

You get an F- in Business 101. If there are a “bunch of mini-monopolies”, this means there are no monopolies at all. Clubs still have tremendous incentive to provide value to their customers because there are so many other options. If Blues doesn’t float your boat for any reason, there are other ECNL clubs. If you don’t want want to pay what it costs to play for an ECNL club, go to any of the other multitude of clubs. If your kid isn’t good enough to play ECNL, also go to one of those clubs, or play on a lower team at a club that has ECNL.

An open system of promotion/relegation makes no financial sense for ECNL clubs. At most, you’ll see ECNL provide a (still closed) system of maybe two tiers but probably not even that on the girls side. Why? If it can slay the US Soccer dragon without them, why would it screw up a system that works?

The successful business model of ECNL depends on the high quality of the member clubs. But even if they do go to two tiers, they still aren’t going to let any yahoo team with a 12-year old superstar into their league. You keep demanding access to things that cost a lot of money without having to pay for it and without doing the work to earn it.
When are you going to figure out that ECNL does not care that your daughter’s team U12 team is really good? They care only that member clubs are financially stable, which is necessary to ensure members can pay the substantial costs necessary to participate, and also that clubs can regularly field quality and committed teams at all age levels.

You also claim ECNL was created to extract money from the pockets of parents, which is just dumb. Really dumb. Just like virtually every single legitimate business in America, ECNL was created to provide a service or goods in exchange for compensation, and in a sustainable manner that allows the business to reap an appropriate profit. The ECNL/GDA battle is a perfect example of the market working. GDA was financially unsustainable, so it failed. ECNL and all the other SoCal youth soccer leagues that remain are financial sustainable and, go figure, they still exist. If ECNL becomes inefficient and stops proving good value for the market - as it did when it excluded too many SD clubs - rivals like GDA will again rise up to fill the gap. Maybe the next one won’t be as dumb as USSF.

I agree. My kid got good value from the ECNL. I recouped all of her club costs from U9 through U18 (U14-U18 ECNL) in her first year of college. GDA was never necessary once ECNL was created. Just another example of the hubris of US Soccer.

Good luck to everyone out there during this trying time.

 

[sdb]

GDA Current Standings (Based on PPG)
	AVG Standings	U14	U15	U16	U17	U18/U19
San Diego Surf	2.4	2	1	4	4	1
Legends	4	1	7	5	2	5
LA Galaxy	5	3	6	1	7	8
Real So Cal	5.2	4	8	2	10	2
Beach Futbol Club	6.6	13	2	6	3	9
SC Blues	6.6	6	4	9	1	13
Albion SC	7.2	5	5	10	5	11
LA Galaxy San Diego	8.2	10	13	3	11	4
Pateadores	9.2	12	12	7	8	7
SC del Sol	9.2	11	3	12	6	14
LA Surf SC	9.4	9	9	11	12	6
Utah Royals FC - Arizona	9.8	14	11	8	13	3
OC Surf Soccer	10.6	7	14	13	9	10
Albion SC Las Vegas	11.6	8	10	14	14	12

A truly top national league with pro / rel where clubs were replaced for poor performance would a good thing for soccer on this country, I want our ladies to keep winning world cups and inspiring our DDs......asking for a list of "bottom feeder" GDA teams is only going to get people naming the clubs they do not like......I work in an unglamorous "essential" industry where a large part of my job is crunching figures for ordering amounts, weights and percentages of mixes.....it will take me or any one else who wants to step up a half hour max to give the rankings for GDA based on actual standings........there is 5 age groups and 14 Southwest teams in each of those......I will try to do it in my lunch break if nobody else has done it by then.................

 

[Surf Zombie]

GDA Current Standings (Based on PPG)
	AVG Standings	U14	U15	U16	U17	U18/U19
San Diego Surf	2.4	2	1	4	4	1
Legends	4	1	7	5	2	5
LA Galaxy	5	3	6	1	7	8
Real So Cal	5.2	4	8	2	10	2
Beach Futbol Club	6.6	13	2	6	3	9
SC Blues	6.6	6	4	9	1	13
Albion SC	7.2	5	5	10	5	11
LA Galaxy San Diego	8.2	10	13	3	11	4
Pateadores	9.2	12	12	7	8	7
SC del Sol	9.2	11	3	12	6	14
LA Surf SC	9.4	9	9	11	12	6
Utah Royals FC - Arizona	9.8	14	11	8	13	3
OC Surf Soccer	10.6	7	14	13	9	10
Albion SC Las Vegas	11.6	8	10	14	14	12

This is great. Once the dust settles on which clubs got in and which didn't i'd love to see how much DA standings factored in, teams outside of So Cal included.

 

[MakeAPlay]

I don't know a single player on dd DA team who wants to play high school. I am sure there are areas of the country where the parents and players like the rah rah of high school soccer, good for them. Sort of the big fish in the little pond, stokes their egos for some sort of recognition. If that is what they want, go for it.

My player didn't play DA but she played ECNL and loved high school soccer. She got to play with her friends one that she played AYSO with and she never would have gotten to do that without high school soccer. Fast forward she just graduated college and is a pro now and she still is close friends with many more of those girls from her high school team than the "mercenaries" from her club team.

If this pandemic has taught us anything it is that life is too short and this whole soccer journey eventually comes to an end. I am a firm believer in letting our daughters write their own stories. Good luck to everyone and stay safe.

 

[Sandypk]

This is great. Once the dust settles on which clubs got in and which didn't i'd love to see how much DA standings factored in, teams outside of So Cal included.

I doubt LA Galaxy or Real SoCal get ECNL, but the standings show they are top 4. I was wondering where the LA Galaxy players will go?

 

[Ellejustus]

My high up buddy who gives me intel said recruiting will be insane and unlike anything we have witnessed. Good luck to all my 2022 friends out their. I feel your pain and been there and lived it. Be patient and be more patient. Let all the dust settle. What coach you see today might not be the coach next season. Hard to follow the sage advice of coach first and then club second when one does not know who the coach will be. Some much sorting out.......

 

[MakeAPlay]

Old CSL was terrific, flight one was the top flight and teams moved between levels, up and down, based on merit. SCDL started when CSL wouldn't make any changes to support the DA schedule. I think a contraction to youth sports, specifically expensive sports like youth soccer is about to take place. It would make some sense to consolidate the leagues and travel for whenever this starts again.

That is incorrect. DA did not exist on the girls side until very recently. CSL wouldn't allow the 8 original SoCal ECNL member clubs to be guaranteed Premier level status and wouldn't allow them to play their CSL games by ECNL substitution rules.

 

[Ellejustus]

I doubt LA Galaxy or Real SoCal get ECNL, but the standings show they are top 4. I was wondering where the LA Galaxy players will go?

What about Pats? West Coast?

 

[MakeAPlay]

I doubt LA Galaxy or Real SoCal get ECNL, but the standings show they are top 4. I was wondering where the LA Galaxy players will go?

Real So Cal was an original founding member of the ECNL.

 

[Sandypk]

Real So Cal was an original founding member of the ECNL.

True. But I think they made some mistakes, just like Surf. But we will see.

 

[whatithink]

GDA Current Standings (Based on PPG)
	AVG Standings	U14	U15	U16	U17	U18/U19
San Diego Surf	2.4	2	1	4	4	1
Legends	4	1	7	5	2	5
LA Galaxy	5	3	6	1	7	8
Real So Cal	5.2	4	8	2	10	2
Beach Futbol Club	6.6	13	2	6	3	9
SC Blues	6.6	6	4	9	1	13
Albion SC	7.2	5	5	10	5	11
LA Galaxy San Diego	8.2	10	13	3	11	4
Pateadores	9.2	12	12	7	8	7
SC del Sol	9.2	11	3	12	6	14
LA Surf SC	9.4	9	9	11	12	6
Utah Royals FC - Arizona	9.8	14	11	8	13	3
OC Surf Soccer	10.6	7	14	13	9	10
Albion SC Las Vegas	11.6	8	10	14	14	12

only issue with PPG in an incomplete season is it doesn't allow for the relative schedules, so a team at the bottom may have played the top half twice but the bottom half only once etc. in their league. It's a great starting point though and I do think ECNL will also look at geographic placement. So a club that "should" get in may not if they are on top of an existing member club ... all conjecture at the end of the day.

 

[Ellejustus]

Well, I just got an email saying that Strikers have a working partnership with LA Soccer Club.

 

[Sandypk]

only issue with PPG in an incomplete season is it doesn't allow for the relative schedules, so a team at the bottom may have played the top half twice but the bottom half only once etc. in their league. It's a great starting point though and I do think ECNL will also look at geographic placement. So a club that "should" get in may not if they are on top of an existing member club ... all conjecture at the end of the day.

I agree. And the U18/19 shouldn’t factor in. They are leaving or most were youngers to fill rosters. The U17’s and younger will still be around next year and even stronger with recruitment.

 

[sdb]

Most (not all) teams have played 15+ games at this point, so everyone has played at least once.

 

[sdb]

With no U18/U19

GDA Current Standings (Based on PPG)
	AVG Standings	U14	U15	U16	U17
San Diego Surf	2.75	2	1	4	4
Legends	3.75	1	7	5	2
LA Galaxy	4.25	3	6	1	7
SC Blues	5	6	4	9	1
Real So Cal	6	4	8	2	10
Beach Futbol Club	6	13	2	6	3
Albion SC	6.25	5	5	10	5
SC del Sol	8	11	3	12	6
LA Galaxy San Diego	9.25	10	13	3	11
Pateadores	9.75	12	12	7	8
LA Surf SC	10.25	9	9	11	12
OC Surf Soccer	10.75	7	14	13	9
Utah Royals FC - Arizona	11.5	14	11	8	13
Albion SC Las Vegas	11.5	8	10	14	14

 

[Kicker4Life]

Most (not all) teams have played 15+ games at this point, so everyone has played at least once.

Would be interesting to see how the ranking look if we factor in the last 2 full DA seasons. Not sure if you have the time to do that just to “scratch and itch”. I honestly don’t think it changes too much.

 

[outside!]

That is incorrect. DA did not exist on the girls side until very recently. CSL wouldn't allow the 8 original SoCal ECNL member clubs to be guaranteed Premier level status and wouldn't allow them to play their CSL games by ECNL substitution rules.

CSL certainly had it's problems (and politics) but why would a true promotion/relegation system guarantee any club premier status for all of it's age groups? That would allow bad or abusive coaches to hide in the system and take power away from parents (the consumers). Closed marketplaces are bad for consumers.

 

[sdb]

The ECNL NW conference has 16 clubs. In the ECNL SW there are 12. ECNL could drop the 2 worst performing clubs, add 6 of the top 7 in the GDA SW (Blues already has ENCL) and you'd have a strong 16 team SW conference that wouldn't have to have any significant travel.

 

[Sandypk]

Would be interesting to see how the ranking look if we factor in the last 2 full DA seasons. Not sure if you have the time to do that just to “scratch and itch”. I honestly don’t think it changes too much.

It’s great to see some stats again. Starting to bring back memories from the old forums.
I miss Casper’s write ups, too. Those were always fun to read and his perspective was pretty good.

 

[sdb]

Would be interesting to see how the ranking look if we factor in the last 2 full DA seasons. Not sure if you have the time to do that just to “scratch and itch”. I honestly don’t think it changes too much.

I can take a look later today post conf calls.