In Southern California we are quickly coming to a soccer landscape with 5 mega clubs and their franchisee/affiliates. What is it like in the rest of the country? Do clubs merge? Buy each other? Buy branding? The 5 mega clubs are: Pateadores - They've been gobbling up smaller clubs for several years. Surf - Lots of recent affiliates across the country. Just heard they are taking over West Coast FC. Not sure if this is a merger, affiliation or buyout. Slammers - They have CDA Slammers and South Slammers paying for their name. LA Galaxy - Chapters in LA, Southbay, Orange County and San Diego Beach - More focused on LA We also have coaches the float around to a new club every year. Bringing most of their team with them. Madness!!!
I think it's more likely in our area to separate and create a new club. Heck, we have 9 clubs in a 7 county area (and much more throughout the state).
I think we had the break off/separate about 6 years ago. Someone got mad and started their own thing. Now they are all being swallowed up.
I think the Naperville Aurora area has about 15 clubs. Honestly there needs to be a consolidation and my guess it will happen in the next few years due to the population drop in my area.
Who knows - some clubs out by me just seem to stay alive on llife support for years. I don't think many parents understand soccer.
Not much in the way of mergers, but where I live, while not necessarily rural, certain not a metro or suburbia….more mid-sized city in the heartland…1 mid-sized and established club and 1 slightly smaller and more up and comer, with a handful of independent teams in the mix…about 4-5 mid-sized clubs in other cities about 1 hour in most directions….hard to say most of those clubs (in different cities) are in direct competition with each other for the same player pool, but does happen occasionally…the smaller club in our city has partnered or has some kind of association with the DA club to the south of us, but hasn’t really made much of a splash or changed the dynamic as far as I can tell… The trend I noticed recently is those mid-sized, regional clubs working together to form supposedly better teams (in the summer) and a new-ish regional club targeting and drawing in regional talent to create older showcase teams (boys side only)…they run ’00 and ’01 teams full time, ’02 and ’03 part-time (in addition to your regular club), and they are also starting or trying to get an 04 and/or 05 team up and running… Like I say, no mergers per say, but the effort to consolidate talent, which can be a part of the merger motivation, seems to be gaining more traction in my area…
Is that the club that's based in Pekin or that area? Have you guys had many players give that a shot?
Yes, I believe so…my son was just up in Pekin Monday trying out for ‘03 team…I am still learning who and what they are…I understand they have been running an 00 and/or 01 team for couple of years (and have enjoyed some success with them), and looking to expand, supposed be running 5 or 6 teams this year… From just the tryout, the talent level, compared to the 03 Super-Y team, is noticeably and considerably better….we had 5 kids from my son’s team (including him) at tryout…not sure what numbers are for the other clubs in the area… So far, I am impressed….
I'd be curious to hear what you think if you guys give this a shot. I know at least two or three families from our club have put older players in this, though I don't have any idea how it worked for them (my impression is the level of play is high, but that's purely anecdotal). That's a long drive from here for what I assume would be three practices a week. If you don't mind me asking, were your son and the others you mention invited to try out? I think we've talked about this previously, but my son's 05 Super Y team had what I think was one of the better experiences among those teams put together from multiple clubs.
Big in terms of numbers. A non factor in quality aside from a couple teams that were above average when they went by their old clubs name.
Too many egos and too many directors salaries. When clubs combine, someone inevitably gets upset because they don't get the top team or they are not the director. If you are not the director anymore you either take a pay cut or have to coach more teams.
Perhaps maybe a parent of one of those families is someone who I know as well…older kid played for this club, younger kids drove down to play with my son’s club/team the last couple of years…. In any case, there were some conversations between several of us parents the year before (with looming age change) as to future options…this was one possible option batted around…nothing came it at the time, but my son’s name did get on some “list” so I did receive a few emails once they decided to move forward with a ‘03 team… I wouldn’t say its “invite-only”, I believe it was open to the public (they have a Facebook page), but I do get the sense they trying keep somewhat a low profile (as much as you can in a such a "small" community) …not sure what their long term plan is, but, as I mentioned, they are expanding into younger age groups…reading between the lines a bit, I think they are a little concerned about backlash from the local clubs for “stealing” their talent, which is probably inevitable if they keep moving forward…just trying to soft-pedal things as long as they can…but once again, just speculation on my part… Training is going to be in Peking and Springfield (so far anyway), so works out well for us…but yeah, a bit of a drive from where you’re at…if only Clinton had some nice facilities… And yeah, Y-Super was a disappointment for us, but I think my son’s age group was an aberration and not the norm; sounds like a good experience at a lot of the other age groups….
Yeah I would agree. But if you have the players that's half the battle. With the right infrastructure and focus on quality coaches it could develop into a decent club. But it also could not. It's not an easy task - that's for sure!
It will be interesting to see how this "mega club" emerges and changes the landscape... if at all... It seems like this has been happening a lot recently in the Chicagoland area. Sometimes massive growth is not better though in such a short period of time, especially if you cannot oversee that growth properly which if certain posts suggest seems to be the case in certain clubs in the area. It could just as easily blow up.
Yeah it's a tough battle that has a history of failure. I would love to hear how they intend to move forward - and not in a smarmy sort of way.They are loaded with teams. What's are they going to do that different then other mergers that have been heavily challenged before?
I think an additional challenge for clubs growing with mergers is what can they offer the top teams. In Chicagoland market the top leagues are closed (Boys DA / Girls DA and ECNL) A merger created top team can hope to move through MRL (which at least the first division is hopelessly watered down) to MRL Premier and then maybe USYS National League. For a new team this takes 2+ years to get into a top league. Maybe for younger ages a merger created top team can start the MRL process and move up by recruiting age but what do you offer a newly created U15 "top" team? U15 play MRL first division, hopefully U16 Play MRL premier 2, U17 Hopefully Play MRL premier 1, U18 (A few years and many hopefully's) later make National league?
It seems that the "non-top" teams have 1 or 2 players that could play on the top team, but for a host of possible reasons, they don't. These players dominate a game. And the other 14 parents on the team think that their coach/team is amazing.
MRL Prem is not a bad division. MRL 1st division seems similar to NPL in that all those teams should just play in the A division. I tried explaining all this to a dad in my neck of the woods at a game and it was painful - I think I hurt his brain. NPL - on the girls side needs an overhaul and frankly needs marketing. Games are in abetter location (Olympic) and it's cheaper than MRL but they don't have the heavy hitters. Those teams are in MRL Prem and maybe 1-2 are decent in the 1st Div. It's all just another mess of USC vs USY not willing to work together. Sometimes I wish my kid would try basketball!
This year in NC the former CASL merged with Triangle Futbol Club, which over the last few years had merged with 2 other smaller clubs. So now the new club NCFC is (at least by their accounts) the largest youth club in the country. Something like 13000 kids. We left this year. Sounds like they're struggling under the sheer size.
Everything in MRL outside of the Premiere is pure marketing Well after the weather we have had the last 2 weeks , my wife said we should have gotten the girls in to volleyball. The IWSL season in Illinois should start in Aug and end in mid October.
Yes - MRL is just A teams. A teams are A/B teams and so on. But right now the MRL is marketing better then NPL - which is all I am saying. The entire thing is a mess. 10 years ago my older kids A team would destroy the A teams currently out there. But now we have Club Open, NPL, MRL where all these former A teams are playing. Again spreading the pool - meamingless games and more travel. But thats for a different thread.