Speaking of retention... my son plays for Fire West and have a feeling a lot of people are bolting with the move to Plainfield United. Side note - could have done better than a soccer ball and the P.U. name but I get it. they are selling the 'United Elite' thing. speaking of Elite - that Galaxy Elite 64 was also a smart way to grab other teams talent! Will be interesting to see how all these re-branded fire teams shake out.
I'm interested to see what the Fire South(Chicagoland United) ability to keep kids. That area has too many clubs, but nothing for the most serious players at younger ages. imo. Within 10 miles of Orland Park, there has to be 6 different clubs. My kid played there, enjoyed the coaches and teammates. However, double rostering was needed at times.
Chicagoland United and Plainfield United have a partnership going on. It sounds like they'll occasionally field essentially all-star teams of players from both clubs.
What is going on with Eclipse Central Illinois? Looks like they are dropping the Eclipse name and joining the Girls Academy League. So much movement into and out of leagues these days.
Joining (or moving back to) Central Illinois United. I think that's where they used to be. CIU has been boys-only for the past year as the girls moved. There's some coaching crossover between the two. No idea about why it's happening.
Soooo many factors in this. Do you have one parent stirring the pot? Is it the B or C team? Does the coach not fit the players/parents? Is another local club aggressively chasing players? Experiencing all of these right now.
Chicago Magic boys are now part of ECNL and it looks like they are no longer associated with FCU. Clubs been through some of the biggest transitions of just about any club and they are in the backyard of FCU and a few other competitors... Not just out there on there our in Frankfort.
It will be interesting to see what competitions Evolution puts their teams in. They have been pretty active in MWC/National League/State Cup. Will they put the same teams in those and ECNL. The Eclipse top teams are still doing well in the main ECNL but the North teams and the ECNL-RL teams have very poor records.
With the explosion of ecnl-rl teams in the west it looks like the clubs will be competing against each other for the second Chicagoland Ecnl club invite. This should have some decent negative impact Eclipse in the next few years. Not sure if this helps or hurts the FCU and Sockers of the world or if the GA exists in 2 or 3 years.
Seems to me that the ECNL is just clearing the IYSA league altogether by adding RL - pulling teams from MWC altogether. It's a good play that will also bring more talent in while GA essentially lays stagnet. Will GA respond by offering the same? Maybe in 3-4 years you'll have IWSL and then GA/ECNL leagues.
FC1974 just got Ecnl-RL. Is MWC officially dead? Will E64 teams play their top team in both leagues now? Lots of soccer on young athletes legs.
I am thinking so. IWSL A teams to Prem II, B teams to Qualifiers and clubs who get nothing Prem I with maybe a few sprinkled in Prem II. IWSL C & D are super rec and rec? IYSA did it to themselves - they have destroyed the sport IMO.
I think the soccer community is giving the ECNL WAY TOO much credit. Even after all the issues surrounding Eclipse, the ECNL has done/said nothing. The ECNL continues to protect Eclipse's market share in the Chicagoland area. It is incredibly optimistic/naive based on ECNL's track record to think that the Chicagoland teams who have received the Regional League badge have any chance to get a full ECNL spot. A more likely scenario is that these teams get a taste of the ECNL (flags/banners/events) but to get the full experience/benefits (college coaches(ugly secret the power 5 coaches don't attend RL games) the kids will have to move to a full ECNL club. Oh wait in Chicago, that means Eclipse.... Ultimately, ECNL gets more $$$, and also creates a direct feeder system for Eclipse. Mission accomplished.....
I think the point is to eliminate MRL and E64 with multiple clubs getting ECNL RL. That's likely a ton of money for ECNL and the side effect is a much larger ECNL based pool to pull players out of - who as you stated, will go to Eclipse and maybe Raptors. But IMO the main point is to eliminate the lower ranks which feed into GA buy just expanding the ECNL brand downward and marketing the hell out of it.
You just need to remember who runs ECNL and see what club he was at back in the day. Then look at the directors page of said club and see whose family is still at the club despite supposed "no involvement."
The odd thing is that this RL is a big move for the ECNL. You would think they would be better to clean house and set new guidlines to protect players before they expanded.
That would be amazing if the purpose of the RL is to develop the game of soccer. The reality is that it provides a massive new source of income. I've heard a lot of things said about ECNL, but missing profit streams is not one of them....
Anyone ever send kids to or know anything about this All Illinois ID Camp? The price/low time commitment are attractive if they get even a small fraction of the number coaches they say they invite, but I've never heard of it: https://tsarecruiting.com/event/all-illinois-id-camp-boys/
Wow, lots going on here. This is my .02 from up north. So first... From a distance, I think what the ECNL is doing (Selfishly speaking) by giving all these teams RL teams is smart business. Eclipse was never going to go away. It just wasnt. For my kids age, they just won conference, and they are one of, if not the biggest club in the conference and compete nationwide. I just look at all of this as business. As far as strategy, what else could they do to lockdown all of northern and central Illinois? Eclipse in Northbrook, Rockford, Evolution in Naperville, and I dont know where Chicago Inter is. But between those teams, thats really good soccer, spreading from east to west-ish to center in the top half of the state. The ECNL has shown they will let teams go up if they succeed in the RL. If that remains true, they would have a stranglehold. The news of Rory and Eclipse broke in Fall of '21. Potentially, and its still a big IF, but by the Fall of '23 there could be 3-4 ECNL teams as compared to the 1 from two years prior. Which for a parent like me, who plays against all these teams, would be a absolute miracle. Rockford... I know that they were impressive in the standings for most of their age groups. They won conference in my daughters RL age. Our ECNL team played them in a pre season match and won by a couple goals, but they were decent. But I also know for a fact that they had some ******** ups off the field. Issues with scheduling, cancelling games, club logistic things that they need to clean up. Also, them getting girls from Campton and Inferno should help them with numbers. But it will only help them for a year, especially if those other teams do come. Im basing that off of my rough geography. Im curious to see how that shakes out. Evolution... We also played them in pre season last summer. They beat the brakes off our girls. Hahaha I fully expect them to go full ECNL by the summer of '23. That will lock up central Illinois and they have a decent team thats finding the MWC a bit easy. 3rd Chicago Inter.... I know nothing of this team. And i have not seen anything about Libertyville joining the RL. Interesting stuff.