The potential of a club all star team traveling and playing different competition should help my dd... as far as developing a well rounded player. What are the perks of this and could this maybe be a better indicator for what a club and the players have to offer nationally? (Aside from ODP and DAP?)
Re: The ecnl ECNL is not an "all-stars on tour" outfit. It's a real league, with 52 of the best clubs in the US putting in their best single team in each age group from u15-u18. The teams play at tournament events, but the games are each counted towards a league standings table, and may not use more than 26 players in a full seasonal year, even if one only plays 1 minute of one game out of the 12-game schedule. Whether it's the best place for your DD depends on a lot of things, but if she's good enough, and gets on well with the coaching staff and teammates, it certainly is providing some of the best game-in, game-out competition you can find, while eliminating a lot of the meaningless games where very little is learned by players other than how to be humble in crushing over-matched opponents in local league play. Every player learns more when games are difficult and meaningful. If she's good enough, and college soccer is her goal, it's hard to find a better option to guarantee playing at least 12 games in a year with an average of 50 college coaches watching per game.
Re: The ecnl This league is just another expensive fiasco being forced on families so that DOCs can "network". Some of the U-15 families are excited; perhaps, they just haven’t had all the expenses forced on them long enough. It’s actually a series of four tournaments: Disney (FL), Final IV Showcase (TX or NC), Las Vegas (NV) or PDA (PA) – tournaments that the teams were able to "choose" to attend prior to becoming so-called “elite”. Many of the U-16 and U-17 teams from our east coast state did not want to incur the expense of Las Vegas “again” this year. A VERY LARGE number of families do NOT want to go to Seattle (WA) this summer for the so-called “Nationals”, but have been told that they have no choice, “if” they want to remain on the teams. ALL of the girls want to play in the Premier League – BUT there is no distinction. To play USYS PL, your family has to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for the ECNL. Who exactly is this benefitting? Our daughters were already being recruited to play at D1 schools. What is the actual purpose of this new league for girls? Professional? Ha. Sorry, I just had to vent. When are we going to say enough already.
Re: The ecnl I am with you brother. These cost are what turns some good families and good athletes away from soccer... we all lose then.
Re: The ecnl I am confused by this. US Youth Soccer Premier league is completely unrelated to ECNL (and at some point ECNL teams will not be allowed to do premier league). What are you talking about here? I'm with you on the tournament in Seattle. Unless your kid's team is one of the championship teams it is very expensive to attend four a few more games - especially with summer airfares.
Re: The ecnl Given the choice, the vast majority of families would choose PL "over" ECNL. However, they aren't allowed to choose. The same team plays in both leagues (which is too much btw). No participation at ECNL events .... then your daughter isn't allowed to play PL either.
Re: The ecnl Besides extreme $$$$ they make so many changes you never know what it next. Like they talk about adding event next year bt no one tells. Talk about skipping Vegas but going to San AnTonio, CASL, PDA, heard not Disney but Saratota and a local event. No one know how the local event will be run. Just added 13 clubs but where do they go Challenge A or B. And then they is this rediculous National wher you play ony two games and another friendly. ECNL is a joke
Re: The ecnl ECNL wants to go the way of USDA. Next year they will add more games in addition to the showcase events (probably around 20 games...up from the 12 this year). The following year 2012 they will be full blown 30 game schedule and there will be no participation in USYSA Cup for these teams. This is not my opinion of what will happen. THIS IS THE PLAN.
Re: The ecnl So this was all about less games, more training and now it is going to be more training and more games? On the girls side it will be turned even more so into a rich white suburban sport. A country club is effectively being created in youth soccer. How does this improve the game?
Re: The ecnl For those that don't "know" about the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL), here is the website... http://www.eliteclubsnationalleague.com/default_css.aspx
At least on the boys side there are a few clubs that cover costs, but I don't know if that is being offered on the girls side and if so I'm sure it is only a few clubs. I thought the original model of only accepting 40 clubs was pretty reasonable, even though the top 40 clubs are certainly NOT in the ECNL...nowhere close actually. With that at least it didn't seem they were being greedy. Now, by taking in these additional clubs who didn't want to join in the first year (texans,scorpions, etc) it will be even more watered down and a lot of these clubs shouldn't even be in the league. The truly ELITE clubs will definitely benefit from the league, but these clubs were playing in all the top showcases anyway so it isn't a big change for them. There are however, a bunch of clubs that don't belong and these are the clubs that are getting into these big showcases (PDA, DISNEY, etc) that wouldn't have gotten in otherwise. For those clubs, it is great for the U17 players to get the huge exposure.
I have to disagree with this part of your post. I've seen a little analysis of the clubs involved based on team rankings at U15 and U16 when the league first started. Based on that at that time, they had about half the top 40 clubs (not to be confused with the top teams at each age). Now with the addition of these new clubs, they are pretty darn close to having the top 40 IMO. That doesn't mean that the best teams are being represented at every level, but it certainly is a start in the right direction.
Re: The ecnl I believe the additional games will be added on a regional level. Most of these teams are already playing in USYS regional leagues so I don't think it is much of a change.
I think that now that have added the additional 12 clubs, then YES I 100% agree that they are pretty close to if not are spot on with having the top 40 clubs. My arguement was that they "currently" do NOT have anywhere close because they are missing all the new clubs coming in next year. Of course money rules everything and they are expecting significant expansion for the '11-'12 season which will further water down the league when they have 60-70 clubs. As a previous poster said, I think it makes sense for the U16-U17 age groups. This league is weighing results heavily and will probably start booting clubs from the league if their performances aren't up to par so I think the weaker clubs will be identified sooner than later.