Good listen - some very fine points as well. But what will actually change? Personally I think we should start with unifying USC and USY at the top levels and having one league between DA/ECNL and league play - not this MDL/MRL/NPL crap. Then lets deal with Rec soccer! Not sure if we can turn back the clock on the age change though.
I have been following the whole USSF campaign for awhile. I am a big Pro Rel Open Up The Pyramid anti Sunnil/MLS guy
I figured that was one of your points... I'm 1.5 hours in - on and off at work. I'll have to find some time to re-listen, it's really good.
Mike Winograd - terrible - wants to re-ignite ODP and make everything State based with a State Director. No mention on any other level - very short sighted. So far I'm impressed with Kyle Martino. He's addressing the Rec level and also pointing out that the kids that don't make it past High School - or even don't make it that far, are still potential fans of the sport and thusly should be embraced in a way where we are not excluding them. He's all about culture change and I think that has to happen first on many levels. Still listening through though - plenty of time for him to shit the bed
I don't know all the history of ODP and its pros and cons. Why would it be a bad idea to take another look at the state/regional model? It seems like a possible solution for the fact that DA can't cover the entire country.
Caligiuri sounds like he wants to basically merge the DA, ODP and id2. Not sure how that'd work, but it's interesting.
My concern would be that they would just hand that over to the same group who runs USY at the State levels and IMO USY is like the Puzza Hut of soccer... State Cup - Cup State - Presidents Cup - State Cup with stuffed cheese in the crust - all lead to Disney World and you can call yourselves National Champs!
I see. It's not the structure that you see as problematic, it's the people who would likely be running it.
Yes Indeed. I think there should be a discussion of eliminating ODP for id2. Merging ECNL and ENPL and building that out as a means to get kids into college play. The DA can focus on the .0000001% of those players who are capable of playing on a National Team. With a daughter (2005) the marketing of the GDA is ridiculously stupid - focusing on a path to a National Team - please! I want to see a discussion on how we can integrate USY and USC and kill off the pizza hut tournaments that USY has been pushing out for years. I also want to see Rec programs be developed - and not under the garbage 5 star program that USY is offering. We could do way more there for kids to both retain and improve the level of play while educating parents and setting propper expectations. USSF should create a structure and offer incentives. Within that structure it should be up to those clubs/organizations to determine how they operate.
Why do you blame USYS for all these tournaments? Disney and all these "showcase" events are often registered through other organizations. Even if they're registered through USYS, they're not things USYS wants to put in place.
Caligiuri sounds like he wants to go back to the 1984 Olympics - with his nostalgicly misguided idea to give the development keys back to the ODP dopes. He thinks it will be cheaper and better - and I can't figure out what planet he is living on to hold that view. Putting the DA under ODP would be a disaster and how do you exactly do it - he has never explained when pressed. Caliguiri is the weakest candidate of the bunch. Winograd seems to have the best skills for the job i.e. legal negotiation pro. It's shocking to see how empty Waldo's comments are once he gets to his 4th or 5th sentence. He seems devoid of any real substance or ability to build a complex thought. I worry he "sounds" great in sound bites - because he is charming and has charisma. If you listen to what he says or read a transcript on any expanded convo - it's very transparent to see that he struggles to make sense. I'm not trying to be snarky - I just think there is a reason he hasn't been a CEO or leader of an org that reuqires discipline and strategic planning and attention to detail. I think he serves soccer better as a pundant rather than an executive. Martino - means well but really seems too in love with his own words. Most of the time after he finishes you get the sense that everyone in the room is glad "it's over." He's not going to be an effective leader if nobody wants to follow his act. Gans is growing on me - he was smart to play the DA quesiton both ways i.e. a) I don't like it but b) I'm not going to be a dicator and make the decision to change it - I'll ask others to evaluate it and we can see what to do. Overall - interesting how US Club basically has 4% of the vote - but they already got most of the candidates with a few exceptions to say they are against the DA which competes with US Club in terms of registering players. Shouldn't we all be concerned that US Club is basically complaining that the USSF is doing a better job than they are with development -a nd now that our DA program is starting to work - they are getting candidates to say they will kill it???? Isn't that a step backward - and isn't that exactly why we ended up with a dictatorial style of USSF where in order to get things done with US Club and USYS and the like - they basically had to force change through?
I don't see US Club - at least in Illinois coming up with all sorts of tourneys and masking them with words like State/Region/National. I think what they are doing is confusing to most parents and allows clubs to create a reality that is not necessarily true. I am not say US Club is perfect but at least they do not have 3 variations of State and National Championships. How about the 5 Star program as another example. I can name 2 programs that obtained this rank but were not even qualified. They both had to fly out coaches for be licenses that week in order to keep what USY should have never gave them. It's confusion that I think needs to be avoided - the entire lot of youth soccer needs to have a simplyfied path for parents to understand and clubs should fall in line with what ever part of that pyramid they fit best in.
Martio has included the lower levels of the sport often. I find that crucial in moving forward in order to develop a larger pool of players who continue to play. One of my own initiatives in my community to to make rec better so there is no need for kids to run off to D and C level teams - paying $1500.00 per season as opposed to $150-$200. Accomplishing that, solves a handful of critical issues - such as opporutinty for kids who do not have the financial means to play meaningful soccer, retention and cleaning up the BS that many clubs call competitive soccer.
Gans has worked with Kraft. Winograd: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...ograd-promotion-relegation-nwsl-20171107.html What should the relationship be between the federation and the professional leagues? And would you answer that question in three parts: MLS, the NWSL — which the Federation subsidizes — and the lower leagues? The relationship should be really simple. The professional leagues are private, independent businesses. That autonomy needs to be respected. The U.S. Soccer Federation is not in a position to jam anything down anybody’s throats, or dictate anything. However, what U.S. Soccer needs to do is collaborate more than it has. And it has collaborated with MLS to some extent. But I think the collaboration needs to be more. I’m a big fan of, and a big believer that, a rising tide lifts all boats. What’s good for MLS, what’s good for the lower divisions, is good for the U.S. Soccer Federation. And what’s good for the U.S. Soccer Federation is good for those leagues. The better those leagues are, the better the U.S. Soccer Federation will be, and vice versa. So we need to work with them to figure out plans. You broke it down into three groups. If you start with MLS: Can U.S. Soccer make MLS a billion-dollar-a-year company? Can we work with them and put our heads together, get in a conference room. The business folks running MLS are tremendously successful individuals. Can we get into a conference room and figure out ways to increase revenue? One of the things that happens is, the U.S. Soccer Federation says it needs this sponsorship and is not going to give it to MLS. But I think that’s short-sighted. Are there instances where MLS and U.S. Soccer can work together in joint ventures, or joint sponsorships, where despite whichever channel the revenue flows to initially, it will build up one of the entities to the benefit of both. In that context, what is Soccer United Marketing? It has built a corporate relationship between the Federation and MLS, and that relationship has been criticized for being nebulous and developed in a closed room. People have criticized SUM by arguing that there is too much of an overlap and too much of a conflict of interest. I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I think that SUM is a step in the right direction. But I think ultimately, the U.S. Soccer Federation can do more with MLS. And not just MLS. The criticism of SUM is you can’t favor MLS to the exclusion of other divisions. The U.S. Soccer Federation has got to keep in mind that its constituency is broad, and not just one constituent. Sitting down with MLS and figuring out ways to increase revenue is critical, because it’s going to help both organizations. When you look at the lower divisions, the very first step is building their profitability. Let’s focus on doing what we can to get lower divisions into more markets, and getting the stability and the strength and the profitability of those lower divisions to grow — and hopefully close the gap with MLS.
Martino http://americansoccernow.com/articles/kyle-martino-believes-grass-roots-are-key-to-u-s-soccer ASN: As U.S. Soccer president, what will your relationship be with Major League Soccer, the USL, the NASL as the country’s top professional leagues? Martino: All of them are integral in building part of the soccer culture. I played for the Brooklyn Italians when I was little. Every single level of this game is part of the fabric of the soccer culture. People consume this game in different ways and that is the beauty of this huge country that is the size of Europe. You can celebrate a team even if it is not at the top division. Where I stand on that is that I came through Major League Soccer. When I was little, there wasn't a league for a long time. Then all of a sudden we had a league of our own. I told Alexi Lalas this but I went to a game at Giants Stadium to watch the New England Revolution and the Metrostars. I went up and got Alexi's autograph on the program cover and went home and hung it up. I dreamed one day I could be in that stadium. Then fast forward to being in that stadium alongside David Beckham in front of 68,000, that dream was impossible without MLS stepping up and a lot of people willing to lose a lot of money to grow a league and create stability after the failure of the NASL. If opening up the system and involving more teams helps grow this game, people need to look at that. Everyone keeps asking me about pro/rel and that is a hot button topic but of course people should be interested in an idea that could help grow the game. But you have to realize that we are in a very unique sports landscape that isn't like any other sports landscape across this country. If you want to create a road there, then let's talk about it. But if you do it emotionally without thinking about it, then you're going to create a cliff.
This of course is not everything but I am following this election more closely than others. And now Sunil has his choice in with Kathy Carter who is officially the SUM candidate.
I don't get it. You think Martino is a problem because he supports MLS? I would hope that any candidate for USSF president would support the league that they are entrusted to watch over. You would prefer someone who hates MLS? Liking something while simultaneously trying to improve and grow that thing are not mutually exclusive concepts.
I personally think that MLS & SUM is what is wrong with American soccer. MLS & SUM controls the USSF so the USSF makes decisions which benefits MLS the most. Do you think that is fair? The USSF which should be completely independent from all leagues.