Here's a good article : https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...cademy-da-ecnl-termination-showcase-san-diego Hopefully the ECNL will fold next. These closed leagues are holding back true development.
I don't think the DA closing is catastrophic, though the lack of any clear succession plan is a concern. What could be worse is a big upheaval in the youth scene happening at the same time as a major recession sets in, causing MLS clubs to significantly scale back youth investment. We'll see. There are many unknowns right now.
There was no money to be made. The idea that MLS is going to set academies right away sponsored by the big corporations like Nike, Volkswagen or AT&T is a pipe dream: lack of sponsors renewing is what has brought the end to this one, and it's unlikely they're ready to take the chance in academies within a league that is losing money. http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2019/...-ponzi-scheme-maybe-its-the-wework-of-sports/
The DA was an XFL type play.Vince's game was always to get to a seat at the NFL table,just as USSF wants to play with the big boys. Things like pandemics show the Emperor as the bareass broke bitch he is. As this goes on,the pro sports landscape will change dramatically in ways we still don't understand yet.
As usual, the roll out is being handled extremely well by USSF. As usual, it will all be decided without stakeholder input. Another PR disaster. Maybe, identify a problem, work with people on a solution, then announce the solution instead of just blindsiding everyone?
It is and isn't. Because of the MLS clubs wanting to pull out of the DA for a while anyways it was coming, but the pandemic accelerated this development by easily 2-3 years and has forced clubs to act without a plan put in place.
From an elite player perspective, it seems like what's most important (in addition to stuff like quality of coaching) is continued growth in professional opportunities, free-to-play academy slots, and a competitive structure that can be efficiently scouted. Could that all be improved? Sure. I do wonder how much lower-division pro academy expansion we'll see in an economic downturn. We might have looked to those organizations as the next wave, but that seems at risk, at least in the short-term. If that's true then the focus shifts back toward non-pro clubs. That seems to me like a big deal in terms of finding a structure that works.
Official announcement: We know you will have a lot of questions about what this means for the future of your club, and we recognize those concerns. While we do not have all the answers on what the future will look like across the youth soccer landscape, as the governing body of the sport in the United States we are committed to doing as much as we can to assist during these extremely challenging times. In the immediate future, we will continue to engage all stakeholders across the youth soccer landscape. At the same time, we will also look to increase our efforts on coaching education as well as being engaged and active in the identification and scouting of youth players across the country for all our National Teams. https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2020/04/a-letter-to-development-academy-clubs
And if that was the single, this is the b-side, or vice versa -- from the inbox: Major League Soccer today announced it will launch a new elite youth competition platform which will provide year-round high-level matches for MLS club academy teams and non-MLS academy teams that previously participated in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. The new platform will provide elite competition against domestic and international teams, and MLS is evaluating expanding participation to include clubs beyond the former Development Academy. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020...ayer-development-launch-new-elite-competition
Not a surprise. MLS was planning on breaking away to form their own youth leagues anyway. Without them, the DA isn't financially viable in any way. Non-MLS/USL clubs don't make money. They're not-for-profits. Who didn't see this coming? As parents/sycophants of clubs like Solar vociferously rooted for the downfall of academies like FC Dallas', what they didn't realize was that they were dancing gleefully on their own graves. You needed FCD a lot more than FCD needed you. Vaya con dios.
Also, in some regional areas there were MLS clubs that were not really serious about getting good coaching and investing in development. As long as they had strong DA clubs in their territory, they had the player rights. Maybe this will be the catalyst for them to actually attempt real player development.
There are pros and cons of everything happening: Pros: - An MLS and USL league (whether combined or each on their own) are in the works and will provide high level soccer and a path to the pros - The players in non MLS academies will move to MLS academies creating the only two clubs who really have shown no signs of giving a shit are Orlando and Portland. Every other club has either been signing and developing kids for a while (and will soon start selling) or is starting to seriously invest in their academies.
At this point, with USL and non-Pro academies still able to compete, the biggest difference here seems to be MLS paying the administration costs and exerting more control? (And if you think MLS controls USSF, it's just USSF pawning off funding, which actually seems like a net positive?) I know people love the underdog programs, and I know many do a good job, but in a very macro sense, professional academies are fundamentally better. They are almost entirely free, and will be free in the future. They will be able to pay coaches more and therefore have more coaches and better coaches in the long run. They will have better facilities They can give players professional game experience while still young, whether in MLS, USL or a MLS U23 league They can give those players significant exposure to the first team coaching and practicing with the first team I realize not all teams have these advantages right now. It doesn't mean non-professional teams are terrible or can't even have a better coach or a better situation from time to time. But in the long run, the professionalization of the elite levels of youth development is an unabashedly a good thing. Also, as an aside, more than 40% of MLS teams are taking their academy seriously. It's a relatively new phenomenom, so we haven't seen the production, but a larger number of unproductive academies have shifted their strategy: San Jose is investing, Houston is now investing, Orlando is now investing, Chicago is now investing. Many of the new expansion teams seem to be all in, like LAFC and Miami. I'm not saying that these teams are suddenly going to be FC Dallas. Despite LA Galaxy bringing in DTK precisely to be more productive there; they are never going to be FC Dallas in terms of promotion. But the investment in facilities, coaching and being free is growing across the league. More and more teams are starting lower level teams, hiring people who focused at development, etc. We'll see how productive they all are. But the league is attempting a significant shift. The Portlands of the world are the outlier now in intent.
That above was the optimistic spin. This is the pessimistic one: https://us.yahoo.com/sports/u-soccer-shuts-down-youth-164327162.html New CEO Will Wilson has made some huge decisions just a few weeks into his tenure as the new leading figure of USSF, as the Development Academy program has been cut, while he has also confirmed that youth national teams not involved in any upcoming competitions will be suspended until 2021. [...] The effect COVID-19 has had on our lives is unlike anything any of us have ever experienced. While this is just the second time I have had the opportunity to communicate with you directly, I wish it was with better news. Like most businesses across the country, U.S. Soccer has not been immune to the unanticipated and harsh economic impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic. ---- So it wasn't anything planned. Their hand was forced by current events.
Thats simply not true. This has been in the works for a long time. Their finances after this pandemic might effect youth soccer in this country in a few different ways, but this decision was not based off any pandemic.
hot take inbound The MLS was trying to do this league for a long time and was actively trying to pull their academies out long before COVID-19. They tried hard to leave the DA last year and Ussoccer conceeded to them by changing up the u-19 divisions without telling any of the other clubs what was happening because their hand was forced. What the pandemic did was give the MLS the upper hand in the decision to try to leave the DA. Ussoccer no longer had anything they could do to keep the MLS in so they decided to give in and let the MLS leave and stopped the DA. Luckily, the MLS will still let in other academies and will likely let the financially stable USL clubs in as well as satellite MLS academies like Michigan Wolves and Indiana Fire. The worst thing that could happen is entire states/regions with no real set MLS future get left out of the new academy league like Phoenix, Detroit, and Indianapolis where there are tons of quality prospects.
It's both. I think people on here are way underestimating how bad the economic situation is for many of these club teams or USSF. USSF gets most of its revenue from national team games; those aren't being played. The DA was apparently close to 10% of its budget. With no revenue coming in, and a decent number of expenses difficult to cut, it's an easy decision. Something NEEDS to be cut; if you've been wavering on the ROI, it's just time to make the move. US Soccer is basically looking at losing anywhere from 70-95% of its revenue this year. The rest come from dues; are people paying those for youth leagues that aren't running?
Agree and I don't think the economics behind this can be overlooked. Saw a post on a florida soccer forum that Orlando City told the MLS they plan to cut all youth teams for the next year and not participate in this league. They plan to come back and fund youth teams in the fall of 2021. No idea on the veracity of this but if true, could other MLS teams follow suit due to costs? No telling what things will look like in a few months or who and where anyone will be playing.
That's disappointing, if true. Orlando is one of the poorer ownership groups, I believe. I don't expect this will be widespread, but I can see the cheaper owners doing it.
The structure of MLS actually makes it much more likely to survive this relative to revenues than most leagues.