I played for this club as a kid. My niece currently plays for a Developmental Academy club out here in California. I have a hard time believing that the dues are simply to cover operating costs. Especially when most of these coaches coach multiple teams. So unless these coaches are being paid 6 figures across the board (which I know they aren't) then the dues far outpace administrative costs, filed space cost for practice and other bits and pieces. Solidarity payments aren't a cure all, but there are roughly 70 non-MLS clubs in each age group of the US Developmental Academy. If you look at the map, these clubs cover a large portion of the map. Lets say that US Soccer mandates that all teams in the DA have to offer tuition/dues free spots. If a team like Delco or Texans or Nomads want to field 3 teams at the U-15 level, they can. But the one team that actually competes in the DA needs to be 100% tuition free. Any player that plays in more than 50% of a team's DA games is eligible for free tuition. And only those players would be eligible for a solidarity payment. It doesn't eliminate the pay to play system, but it creates a system where at the absolutely elite level teams are more inclined to find and develop the best players available instead of the ones that can pay. They can still charge for their B, C and D teams if they want. Heck they can even sell the opportunity to advance to the DA team to parents. I realize it's less than perfect, but 16 x 70 x 3 = 3,360 players getting elite training and competition for free.
Yeah, right. You think I'm stupid to give up my millions bucks ticket to you for doing what I can do too and give you also 1000 bucks on top of that.
Your joking right? Drive to overcome not having money? That kid would have needed someone more connected than me to give a ******** about him and get him to a team and help with the cost. He essentially had PAL soccer for another 3-4 years then HS and hope for college. Your idea only works if someone sees and knows the sport and wants to be Pele. This kid like lots of American kids had an interest but that interest hadn't been natured and that spark needs to be kindled and turn into a fire. I am a rugby coach and I have taken Fencers and field hockey players and made then into rugby players. It is not easy and required work with them to build up a love for the game. Why would a poor city kid fall for soccer when there is basketball that is better recognized and cheaper. I heard someone bragging that they made the small local business colleges basketball team. That ain't happening with soccer.
It's not just the English/German current college folk. I'm pretty sure there were early complaints from Jamaican youth clubs for training comp for college signees. That's what opens the legal can of worms. Imagine you have a Caribbean kid come hear during high school, go through college and get drafted. If compensation is put in place just on international transfers/signings, you could very well have a Green Card carrying draftee that would 'cost' MLS more than a normal citizen.
There are so many flaws. If Steven Gerrard had played a couple of years in Tranmere Rover's academy they would never have received a penny in solidarity fees whereas Manchester United would have received a solidarity payment when they re-signed Paul Pogba.
The average height of a Latino male adult is 5 feet 7.1 inches. And how is basketball cheaper? The balls cost about the same but you need a basket to play basketball whereas all you need to play soccer is a couple of sweaters and an imagination. In fact you don't even need a soccer ball. I've played soccer with tennis balls, tin cans and dishwashing liquid bottles.
Definitely NOT joking. Do your Rugby players play pick up games in the backyard or at the park with their friends? You spoke of taking Fencers and Field Hockey players..............those aren't exactly sports that are played in public schools..... There are avenues for kids and soccer players who love the game. Becoming a pro athlete in any sport is extremely difficult, and takes way more than just talent to make it, let alone stay at that level long enough to make a career of it. Michael Jordan was cut from his High School Team as a Freshman. Did that stop him? Most South American players do not come from affluent families. Same with African players. Many youth clubs have scholarships for players who cannot afford the membership fees. There is always a way for those who persevere and overcome. There's a reason that less then 1% of all college athletes play their sport professionally after college............most aren't willing to put in the work and sacrifice that it takes to get to and stay at that level.
Both of you are talking about players that already have the love and ambition. I am talking about I had a kid that is discovering the sport. What keeps him in it. Unless the kid is Puerto Rican or Dominican, most Latino kids (will be from Mexico, central and south American descent) have an understanding of the larger world stage, money and fame that is attached to soccer, can't say the same for a run of the mill American black or white kid. I get the point your trying to make but your are talking about kids that have decided they love soccer and want to become a pro. I am talking about a kid that just discovered the sport and has the natural athleticism to be good in if he gets the love and want to be good at it. As for the fencers and field hockey players, the fencer was at a Men's club I coached and he found the Rugby team out of looking for a new challenge since he gave up fencing. The field hockey player was part of a women's team I coached in college and she had just had the sport removed from varsity status. So definitely not the same thing, ftr.
And there are baskets all over cities. And tons of programs for kids to play. And AAU teams that do everything but directly pay the players.
Just to further my point, I just took my toddler to the park. As I pushed the stroller, I passed a Latin family with the little boy trying to kick a MLS brand soccer ball around with his brother. Further off was a black family get-together and they were playing touch American football. Now considering that parents have to pay for a kid to play youth sports, how do you take an athletic kid that has minimal awareness of soccer and get him to like and want to be good at soccer? That Latin kid will do whatever it takes cause he loves it already. The parent will pay for youth football up until High School and if the kid is really good, they are fine. For soccer, you have cheap to free PAL every summer than maybe high school. If the kid wants to get better he has to have more money to join a team that plays more often in a good league and that will cost money. You remove the cost to soccer and you remove a barrier to entry and then the kid has to be good enough or work to be good enough to make the academy.
You're in NYC..............MLS Academies are free.........there are no barriers there. Awareness of sports comes from kids being exposed to them either on TV, their friends, or their families.
You don't. You focus on the ones that like and want to be good at soccer. It would be like trying to make Gareth Bale a rugby player because he comes from a rugby playing country.
I am in the Buffalo area. It is more work than you think. Also my argument is not about me specifically. It is about Buffalo to Santa Clara and everywhere in between
So we only preach to the choir is your plan for growth and you obviously didn't read or understand my example with the 10 year old PAL kid.
If you have limited resources you focus on what you have rather than what you wish to have or would like to have at a future date. 400k high schoolers play soccer. 1.1 million play football. Focus on the 400k. And if I got the gist of your post wrong please clarify.
Which is why eMLS will only grow in importance in the branding and awareness of MLS moving forward. It seems like every boy in the United States (and possibly the world) under 30 plays or has played FIFA. Clubs around the world aren't signing FIFA players and having them play under their umbrella for the feels. Hell PSG just signed one of the top Dota 2 teams. The Chinese LGD team is now PSG.LGD and will be one of the favorites in a couple of weeks as the 25-30 million (US$) prize fund is divided up in Vancouver.
Fair enough on your first point. On the PAL kid he stumbled onto our team. Like he joined because another kid invited him. He shows up and he is the first kid you see that has natural ability to be able to actually push the ball past defenders, get to ball and take a shot. He probably wasnt good enough for any academy but in my mind, you could take him to a tryout and at least have the coaches tell him to work on this and that, come back in a year and you can get free training and work towards becoming a pro is critical, but we dont have that now. And I wonder how many kids like that we lose because of the pay to play structure.
Why is it that nobody thinks of structuring amateur football in clubs the Dutch way? I did line out in several threads in the USA forum how it works in Dutchie land.
If you use the search tool and type amateur posted by member feyenoordsoccerfan in the USA forum you get al hits. Choose views by date. Than you can select in the results page the specific thread under the forum. It specifies the hits per thread. As the last post is on top, you should strat with the last page
A short summery: Amateur clubs are foundations, "owned" by the members. Members are in all ages and also contain non playing members. Members pay a member fee to be able to play in the amateur leagues. Those fees are low in comparison to the USA P2P, as these arenot ment to make money, but to make ends meet, including longer term existance. Part of the costs are covered by sponsors, like local business men and women. Some clubs are huge, having several thousands of members, but those are often multi sports clubs. To play matches in the leagues the club must be member of the Dutch FA, the KNVB. Every playing member is also member of the KNVB.