Youth Soccer Ratings - Remaking it.

[Carlsbad7]

It's called promotion and relegation. We are trying to fix a problem in US youth soccer that we created. Gate keepers will come up with all kinds of reasons why promotion and relegation won't work; because it won't work for the status quo, those clubs will blow up, which is the solution.

The problem with pro/rel is if $$$ isnt behind player development ie lower level clubs aren't compensated for pushing up talent to higher levels. The next best thing is the pay to play system and pay to play hates pro/rel because they want the money and a gated system guarantees that money doesnt go to players. Without the crazy amount of $$$ players can potentially make Soccer via Acadamies + pro/rel the sport will never become as popular as other sports in America.

Not to point out the gambling perspective but what makes soccer fun to bet on is that clubs are going all in players and development. Money clarifies better than anything else who is the best.

 

[SurfSupDude]

I’m not as familiar with other club sports, but is there pro/rel in say, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, others? If so, does that make those sports better or worse at win/loss predications? Is there pro/rel for baseball in, say, Venezuela? Do they predict wins and losses for baseball in Venezuela? Or soccer in the EU? Genuine question, do they care about wins/losses at the youth level?

Still trying to figure out how this (closed leagues, pro/rel) connects so closely to model accuracy. It’s just a model. And a good one.

 

[SurfSupDude]

BTW, Massey does the same thing for college sports and there is no pro/rel and very little crossover across conferences and certainly divisions in college sports.

 

[Carlsbad7]

I’m not as familiar with other club sports, but is there pro/rel in say, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, others? If so, does that make those sports better or worse at win/loss predications? Is there pro/rel for baseball in, say, Venezuela? Do they predict wins and losses for baseball in Venezuela? Or soccer in the EU? Genuine question, do they care about wins/losses at the youth level?

Still trying to figure out how this (closed leagues, pro/rel) connects so closely to model accuracy. It’s just a model. And a good one.

No, Basketball, Baseball, Lacrosse, etc are not pro/rel.

Heres the big difference Football Basketball, Hockey, etc are all leagues that sell the rights to play in the league as franchises. Why this is important is because the league basically "owns" the teams that participate in the league because the league can revoke franchise rights at any time.

In other countries clubs are completely seperate entities from the league and they function independently from each other. This is what makes pro/rel possible. If one club is relegated other clubs are availabe to fill the void. Often in other countries the league itself is a goverment entity and theres multiple levels.

This all goes back to why Premier League is more exciting than MLS. In Premier League you can spend as much money as it takes to win the game and so can other clubs. The league while important is secondary to clubs and the teams they field to win games. In MLS the "clubs" are all just tentacles of the same thing.