OK, then how far does this get us towards say a Germany type set up? 2 pro divisions MLS & NASL and then the 3rd division as the regional system spread around the whole country. Also, is Spain like this as well ? Thought i read if there is no USL team in the MLS area, the MLS team would field their own? Would we be better doing this with PDL since their are many, many more teams than USL Pro? LA Galaxy reserves could play all the PDL teams in the southern half of the state (Chivas also) and SJ would be in the northern half of the state. Keep the distances as close as possible. = I love the concept even with not knowing all the details yet - But it could be finally a first big step to cleaning up the alphabet soup of leagues we have D1 should really be MLS + best of last couple markets D2 should be NASL + best of USL Pro + maybe a few good markets not covered D3 should be the regional set up of the left over USL pro + PDL +NPSL D4 NCAA-NAIA-JC (with some modified rules, longer season) D5 Super Y- academy for players not going to college D6 youth (high school, club, AYSO. USYSA etc) =a fairly clear defined path from top to bottom =will be very interested to see what is finally announced .
Sounds awesome. Since we're talking about hopes, I'd like to see the college game get more attention. The way I see it, here you have a load of schools with good (sometimes great) coaches, medical staff, and facilities. Hell, some of the conferences even have their own television networks. And best of all, it's free to play (minus tuition, that is). I would love to see the NCAA and USSF work together to create something similar to the Development Academy for colleges/conferences with serious soccer programs. The schedule would have to be tweaked with the school year and weather in mind, but the overall philosophy would be the same: international rules, less frequent matches, more training. I'm no expert on the rules and regulations, but we already have the BCS, hockey only conferences, etc. It doesn't seem that crazy.
If Reg is using this as an excuse not to go to the prom with you, then I'd suspect he's just not that into you.
What's the point of going to elementary school, when Jr. High is where its at? But then, what's the point of Jr. High, when high school is where its at? Then again, what's the point of high school when college is where its at? Its called preparation smart guy. Why do you think EPL, La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga teams loan younger players out to lower division sides?
The power of 1 is an exponent. Just saying. USL Pro isn't exactly raking in advertising dollars these days.
According to this logic, one would expect any high level baseball prospect to turn down a college baseball scholarship - if offered the opportunity to instead start out in the minors at $30,000 per year and with no signing bonus. I don't think this view reflects the reality of college vs. pro baseball. I also don't see it as realistic in MLS soccer, given that the financial rewards of MLB baseball, and the level of development of its minor leagues, are far beyond the wildest dreams of MLS. Integrating the MLS reserve structure with the minor leagues could certainly provide a way to prevent some not-quite-ready players from languishing on the bench or being confined to a small number of low-quality reserve matches. I doubt that it will have any significant impact on the relevance or importance of college soccer, which will continue to be the primary avenue by which players enter the league.
Sponsorship dollars are cratering everywhere. If the WPS teams had received anywhere near the sponsorship revenues their WUSA forebears had, the WPS would still be with us. Minor league local business sponsorships are way off across the board. The real struggle some minor league teams are having is finding cash sponsors. A lot of the signage and logos you find at minor league parks these days are payment in kind.
Just to make my previous point clearer, here is a website I found with the signing bonuses for MLB draftees in 2011. http://www.perfectgame.org/draft/signings.aspx Take a look over the first 300 draft picks or so. Note that, even with those kinds of bonuses, promising baseball prospects still sometimes decide to sign with, or stay with, college teams. Keep this in mind when assessing the probability that this (or any other) MLS development initiative will have a drastic impact on the relevance of college soccer as an option for young players.
There is a difference with the perception in sports though with college and professional. It's why good players would rather play in Norway than go to college. Are they doing this to keep players that opt for college? Or are they doing this to aide the players who already selected a strictly pro career and the ones who jump to Europe like Josh Gatt? Being in a professional enviroment, training without limitations and playing against higher quality opposition is key for developing players and the better players are leaving the America for this reason. Essentially with these moves the league is trying to have comparable opportunities as some leagues in Europe, which I feel would see more top prospects turn towards the MLS. Also comparing this to baseball isn't apt given that many players don't begin to reach their prime till around 28-30. Staying in college is less of a risk, in soccer you can be left behind very quickly.
Honest question...how many US players have skipped college to sign with second tier leagues in Europe? Even guys like Gabe Ferrari signed with a Serie A club before being loaned out to lower tier teams. I follow our players pretty closely and from what I can tell, kids are either getting offers from a team in a Big 4 league, are Generation Adidas or youth national team guys that get drafted by MLS, or they go to College. The number of players that skip college for Scandinavia or some obscure Eastern European league are so small I'm betting you could count the number that falls into this category in the last 10 years on one hand.
Obviously not all players play in Scandinavia, I didn't mean that literally. The point is the higher rated players tend to opt for a professional enviroment over college, which I don't blame them for. College imo doesn't prepare players of Pelosi's potential to step up to the next level. So some of our best prospects would prefer playing in Norway than college, obviously not all of them. Josh Gatt would be the #1 pick and probably another 3 to 4 years away from making the step up to a top 4/6 European league if he stayed home. I'm a Galaxy fan I'm not upset when we lose any of our better youth players because I understand, Mendiola will probably jump soon as well. To me this would aide in giving more opportunities to young players, which might make staying home more attractive in 2-3 years than it currently is for our top prospects. I don't see many negatives with this frankly. It just feels like people are trying to poke holes in it because of college soccer, it gives the impression that they would be opposed to anything that could potentially threaten it.
Using Norway as your example league is a self defeating argument then. It just doesn't happen that US players are forgoing college in favor of second tier Scandinavian leagues. Like I said in my original post, if a guy isn't getting an offer from a team in a Big 4 league, or if he isn't a GA player, then they are pretty much all going to college. Ummm. Its more like none of them than some of them. Provide a list of players that have skipped college entirely to directly sign with a team outside of the Big 4? Josh Gatt might be the only one. This is pure speculation. I can do it to. Gatt would have played one year at Indiana, been drafted #1 overall, and then would have been sold off to Bundesliga team after 2 seasons in MLS. I don't have any problems with a reserve league/USL pro merger either. I agree that it will help speed up development of younger players as well. All I'm disagreeing with is your assertion that US colleges are losing prospects to 2nd tier European leagues. There is maybe one example of this happening in the past 10 years - Josh Gatt. I'll say it again...if our young prospects aren't being offered a contract by a team in a Big 4 league or a Generation Adidas contract, 99.9% of them are choosing NCAA soccer over second tier Euro Leagues. Its just a fact.
Yeah I guess it was a poor choice in league, to be fair I didn't expect anyone to get a sandy vagina about it. I was just thinking of Gatt at the time so I mentioned Norway. That's not to say every player would prefer to play in Norway over college. It does seem like the higher rated Americans these days have no issues with leaving if possible. Even if it means they'll get loaned to random leagues like Bijev because they can't even get a permit. How about no, sorry I don't respond well when people ask me to digitally do things, to refute someone I didn't know existed before today. So off the top of my head Sean Cunningham, then there's a boys in Mexico (not big 4), also players who move to the lower levels of Top 4 countries. All inferior leagues, if you want to make a more thorough list of players who have opted for a league outside of the Top 4 than be my guest, I really can't be arsed. Yeah because that happens a lot. More realistic he gets drafted after a couple years. The MLS holds onto him demanding high fees for a player making derisory wages for his ability. Goes to Europe eventually, probably 3 years and is far behind other players at a similar age because of the lack of development. Please don't say it again, because I really don't care, I've heard it enough. What's being lost in all this is my original point. We need this to aide in keeping players like Gatt, Cunningham, Guido, etc. from jumping. Obviously it's not the solution but it would help. I said Norway because Gatt was on the mind when writing that post, as a Galaxy fan Mexico is more of an issue to me than Norway.
Not sure about the 99.9% I guess if we count every single player in the NCAA all divisions and all Junior Colleges, then the 99.9% is probably accurate. But if we only count the 5 - 10% of those players that have the talent to someday go pro, then the % would be lower IMO. Some go to Mexico now in days, Lee Nguyen went to college for one year and then bolted for Holland. I see that happening, but not a lot for sure. I guess it depends on the scholarship and how risk adverse the player happens to be. College is the safer route for sure, I would probably pick college over MLS and 90% of the leagues in the world, now I probably would make the same choice as Nguyen and forgo college to play for PSV (even if turns out the same way it did for Lee at the end).
Josh Gatt skipped college for an Austrian 2nd division team, balled out right away, and was then purchased by Molde . I also don't believe he was a huge "can't miss" prospect. (Its also worth noting that Michigan Wolves now have a partnership with Columbus, so if he were a year or two younger he would have been eligible to go straight to the Crew . Same goes for Sean Cunningham) After following development of US top prospects the last couple years, I won't lose any sleep on losing a couple good 17/18 year old prospects to foreign leagues. The younger the kids the bigger the crap shoot. I don't believe either Cunningham/Gatt were "can't miss pro prospects" coming out of high school. ( Guido was, but he also turned down European offers as well). I'll always maintain the more avenues kids have to continue their careers into their early 20s the less players will fall through the cracks.
I said last 10 years. Point being, if you can count the number of guys on one hand, then its a non-issue. As far as the Mexican/Americans in Liga MX are concerned I don't count them for two reasons. 1) They are typically 1st generation Americans with dual citizenship, who would be unlikely to choose the US if they had a choice. And by extension, would never choose MLS if they had a choice. 2) By and large, the Mexican culture doesn't value education.
Funny, I was just reading in the Economist how Mexico has more engineers than Germany. Somehow, I think that's a lot more credible than you are.
Minor league baseball contracts are nowhere near as attractive as MLS rookie contracts. The maximum salary for a rookie in the minors, per the MiLB web site, is $1,100 a month, which I believe is only paid during the season, plus a $25 per diem on the road. Even with that, many kids prefer to go pro. Colleges are still part of the MLB system, but most of the top prospects still come out of high school, and most college players leave early--only about 5% of MLB players have a four-year degree. Nobody is arguing that college soccer is going to disappear or that some good players won't continue to come to MLS by the college route. But if the balance shifts to something more like we see in baseball, that will be a significant shift in and of itself.
Wow. Did you... Did you really just make those statements? I see somebody got a white hood for Christmas.
I facepalmed too Who says these kinds of things? Corona was in college but had to drop out to help his family out. Joya I believe could have gone to college as well but chose to start making a living to help his parents out. These families value education but like you said many are first generation so if the choice is between working right away and being able to help your family out (which in turn helps your siblings out) and going to college, most will choice starting a pro career.
Joya worked nights while attending high school but had also managed to keep up his grades and soccer enough to be recruited by Cal-State Bakersfield. Impressive kid.
I don't want to belittle what he did while in high school but millions who come from tough backgrounds work, do school, and play sport at a high level. I realize the point being made in context to the conversation.
We either need a parallel system or a branch of the existing system for those not going to college. Some would argue too much emphasis on college. College players do get a sense of training, coaching, planning , traveling etc. But, the time has come to recognize we need to work the non-college angle better. That though,is where better scouting and a farm team set up need to come together and the pro divisions supporting and working with this pyramid. Until we get NASL-MLS working together, or more importantly USL-PDL-NASL-NPSL all on the same page, then of course, MLS is going to continue to take the short cut and draft college players.
Funny, none of those engineers are crossing the border to live in the USA. Yes, there are more millionaires in Mexico than there are in Germany. People complain about the "1%" here, but it is much worse in Mexico. And the Mexican/American families that live here in the US, by and large, tend not to value education. Its not really a difficult concept to wrap your head around. If your rich and privileged in Mexico, you have access to education, and hence, don't risk death crossing miles of desert to work low paying blue collar jobs in the United States. If you're not rich and privileged in Mexico education is very far down the priority list for most families.