Right..........if the kids come to the FCD "residency" program, then it's clear. But if FCD were to open academies in Waco, El Paso, Austin, and San Antonio..........would the kids developed there be "homegrown players?" And what level of involvement must the MLS club have with the satellite club for it to be considered part of their academy structure? It could get out of control real fast..........
First of all, the kids in those academies wouldn't go straight to the first team. They would go to the FCD Jrs. program (where the residency program would apply), which THEN makes them homegrowns. That's where the tie-in with the academy clubs, residency program with the FCD Jrs., and the first team would come together. All they have to be is feeder clubs for the FCD Jrs. system and that is the only level of involvement the MLS club should have. No control issues there, thus that particular problem is solved. I could be sorely mistaken, but isn't the definition of "homegrown" meaning players developed by the club itself? Last I checked, players didn't have to be from the area to be considered homegrowns. They merely had to be developed from the ground-up by the club who owns the academies in question. The introduction of a residency program echoes this idea. For those who live more than, say, 100-150 miles away from Dallas or one of their academies, the residency program is perfect. It allows FCD to have access to practically the whole country in terms of a talent pool. This, I think, is what might end up happening, because otherwise a residency program isn't necessary and this forum thread would not exist in the first place. Like I said, I could be wrong, but I do not believe the "homegrown" tag means they have to be from a particular region. It only means that the team in question built the player from within their system. Conceivably ANY team could have this power and therefore "control" is not an issue. It sounds a lot like college recruiting tactics to me... If anyone has detailed factual information on this, please let me know as now I am extremely curious as to how this whole process works.
But surely, there has to be some involvement of the FCD development staff and the "feeder clubs". Wouldn't FCD want to send someone like Pareja and, its first team coaching staff in the offseason, to work with these "feeder club" coaches to establish some sort of consistency of training and other standards?
But to some extent........what's the point? You can only sign two homegrown players a year............and you can't fill up your senior roster ad infinitum. The vast majority (99%?) of these kids you'd be moving from all around couldn't and wouldn't be signed to the senior team. This isn't Barcelona, where they can "promote" as many players from their youth setup to their senior team as possible. They're going to pay to house, train, clothe, bathe, educate, and entertain 100 players in residency? (the number given by the FCD tech director Gorman) 96 or more of whom have zero chance of playing one second for the senior team? MLS rules will have to change in order for this to be worth the expense.
Simply identifying players from such a talent pool would be investment enough. Those 96 who don't make still have an option to go to college or deals could be reached to send them to lower leagues or to other clubs. How much do you think the biggest clubs in the world lose when the bulk of their development systems do not produce professionals? They don't really care because the mere 3 or 4 that DO make it are expected to recoup the investment. There has to be a reason why this talk of an RA program has come about. A new reserve division might also help this idea. Remember that even Barcelona can't ensure that all of their youth will play on the senior team, but they can sure make other arrangements like sending them to lower leagues or other clubs. When you go to one of these academies, wherever in the world they are, the individual player has to earn it; it is a privilege, not a right. So what if 96 don't make it to the senior club? They DO have other options and the senior teams know this very well. One thing I am concerned about is why these "issues" are coming up in the first place. Nothing is in place with a residency program yet and I seriously doubt that FCD isn't going to spend the money on this without planning ahead for these eventualities. If you aren't willing to lose money on the initial investment, you don't deserve to be an owner of any team in this sport, business or otherwise. The true value of such a program will have to grow along with the clubs that provide them.
They can train 100 players, if you include the "feeder clubs", but it seems like a waste of money for the residency academy since there so much winnowing will take place after that.
The bottom line is none of us really know how this is going to pan out if it happens. All any of us can do at this point is speculate. If FCD wants to do this, then I am curious to see how the whole process would turn out. I just don't see the harm in trying...
I have no problem with the idea of residency. If FCD wants to give it a shot.......then why the hell not? I just don't see the point with MLS' current rule system. FCD already had 3 kids make their all-conference team in the development academy (Luna, Hernandez, Ulloa)....with a fourth from the Dallas area making it in Zach Barnes of the Texans. It's one thing if this was RSL or Columbus we were talking about. The DFW metroplex, however, is one of the hotbeds of youth soccer in this country. (3 of the top 8 youth clubs in 2009 as ranked by Soccer America.....not counting FCD. So in 2010 it'll probably be 4 of the top 10) With the talent that lives within a 45 minute radius from Pizza Hut Park, FCD could challege for the development academy title every single year. They won both the U15/16 and U17/18 divisions of the Texas Division of the Development Academy this season (one of the toughest in the country). They have former Bradenton players like Marlon Duran on their academy team that just look like average players. The Hunts are known as some of the more frugal owners in MLS...............and people think they're going to pay to house, feed, educate, entertain, etc. 100 kids? No chance. With the current MLS rules it's not needed. The talent's already here!!!!!!!!
It's four a year now. http://www.mlssoccer.com/content/mls-expands-roster-encourage-youth-development
After spending nearly $1M on bringing Inter, the consistent building of their youth development system, and completely reconfiguring their FO and part of their coaching staff over the last two years, I beg to differ. I honestly don't know what to think of the Hunts right now. All I know is that within the past two seasons, (with the exception of advertising) they have been anything but frugal. Now with this talk of a possible DP in the Winter transfer window and a possible residency program, the Hunts and "frugality" won't be in the same sentence for long. I'm sure Barry Gorman wouldn't be bringing these things up without the Hunts' approval, which tells me that HSG might be considering the option of carefully removing their heads from their asses. If you want to talk about frugality, look no further than Robert Kraft. Other than helping to bring in Don Garber, what has he really done? Garber's been great, but that's no thanks to Kraft, who is probably the most stagnant owner this league has seen since the days of the Florida teams. Compared to the Hunts, who have spent money on two very good teams (one underachieving but getting better and the other a top contender and former champion) Kraft has enough trouble with just one team without its own SSS. The Revs have reached the MLS Cup Final a few times, but without a title, they're no better than FC Dallas is, especially as things are now. Now I suppose I could bring up Stan Kroenke, but he isn't frugal. Being the primary shareholder in Arsenal costs money. However, he is insanely frugal with the Rapids, which is a damn shame.
Sure........but you're not going to keep promoting & promoting kids (even two a year) ad infinitum. You don't have the roster slots available for that after a while. I'm looking at FCD next season, and there's virtually no roster room left after the signing of 4 youth players for this year and next. I guess they'll have to dump Generation Adidas players like Peri Marosevic & Andrew Wiedeman or other former U20 internationals like Kyle Davies, Josh Lambo, and Eric Avila in order to create room for a drafted player. Or maybe Yeisely, who in 2009 was a nominee for the National Player of the Year while at Penn State. (who's actually getting on the field ahead of the two GenAds) They already dumped another former U20 international in Anthony Wallace to the Rapids for a 4th round draft pick that they won't actually use (for lack of a roster spot). With Eric Alexander doing well, what in the world do you do with him when Dax McCarty gets back to fitness? It's one thing if you think you've got a special talent in your academy system. Ruben Luna, by all accounts is a special talent. Or Najar for example. Or Bowen. I'm unconvinced right now, however, that Moises Hernandez and Victor Ulloa are better talents than they could have acquired to play the same positions from the draft. Only time will tell. They're CHEAP.......that's for sure. Just end of the bench roster fodder as far as I can tell. And without a reserve league.......they will NEVER PLAY. Ulloa is not going to get playing time ahead of Dax McCarty, Eric Alexander, captain Daniel Hernandez, etc. Garbage time I guess, if he's actually named in the 18.
Last I checked, the rules were that each club got an exclusive zone, and then they could bring in home grown players from up to two satellite academies outside it, as long as they were in no one else's zone. The pattern has been pretty well entrenched for the last 2 or 3 years that whenever league rules become the choke point (and not money), the rules get changed. To wit, It's being considered a formality in reporting circles at this point that reserve play of some variety or another is coming back.
I think residency is quite important for Los Angeles, while there is plenty of talent near Chivas/Galaxy, there are also lots of kids in the outlying areas, and you just can't get to Carson from some places in L.A. during rush hour. I also think Residency could be a better academic/soccer balance, and thats important for the vast majority who wash out. By not having a bunch of travel to a club and having soccer integrated into the day, the kids could be more serious about their school work then at normal high school where they are being pulled in a bunch of different directions. MLS should work hard on this aspect of residency to attract the middle class parents, maybe integrate an International Baccalareate (sp?) into the program so the kids would have the education to go to a good school if pro soccer does not work out. As much as we discuss kids from poor backgrounds, this is an overwhelmingly middle class country and most of the talent will be from families who highly value college.
I don't think these youth professionals are being signed to compete for first team minutes immediately. My thoughts are that they realize that there is an interim process between academy and first team. I also think there has been talk to establish a 'reserve team' to accomplish this. I believe MLS will expand these reserve roster slots. I have no idea what games they will play or what form a league will take. I also think that the residency idea isn't for what the academy is right now but what it could be in the future. Even with kids traveling 45 minutes one way and an hour and half round trip during a school day how many times can we really expect players to travel along with weekend games? Twice or Three times a week. With residency going to a local school you can increase training time by 200%. Even have 2 trainings per day if all our local. Imagine how much better 15-16 yr old players will become over 3 yrs by increasing their touches on the ball that much.
The part about the Hunts not doing this because they are frugal is totally irrelevant because this academy would be all about selling the players and making money. Their partnership with Atletico Paranaense totally educated the Hunt's about this...ever since they went down there and figured out how much money can be made, they've been dedicated to this. Give Ruben Luna and Brian Leyva a few more years and they'll be worth a million. A complete win-win for the Hunts....develop players who will be hometown favorites at low contracts then sell them when they want more money. The reserve league will be back or FCD will make a PDL team....guaranteed within 2 years.
I was merely correcting your understanding of the rule, not intending to get into a debate on how it will affect Dallas' roster moves.
Though Dallas seemed to be the first MLS academy to seriously explore a residential academy, it looks like RSL is taking the first steps towards actually doing it. http://www.trivalleycentral.com/art...dispatch/sports/doc4c6c187be8f8d911652201.txt
To me the financial viability of some of these plans I'm seeing (not really FCD, but in general) are questionable. After all, in the last round of CBA talks..............MLS owners had us believe that they were losing money hand over fist.......and couldn't afford to raise the salary cap, veer from their single-entity structure, etc. They were threatening all kids of things should the players have the gall to continue their demand for free agency (which for the players would mean the possibility of higher salaries on the open market). Dave Checketts being a vocal leader of that crew!!!!! Now we're reading stories of RSL housing/training/feeding kids, etc. at a luxury hotel & golf resort in Arizona! Who decided that Casa Grande, Arizona was in the "exclusive zone" of Real Salt Lake? If I were to look at a little mapquest map here, it would show me that Casa Grande is a hell of a lot closer to Los Angeles (where we have 2 teams) than Salt Lake City. In fact Casa Grande is a 6 hour drive to LA......but a 12 hour drive to Salt Lake City. And it's not much closer to Real Salt Lake than it is to Denver. Don't we think Houston and Dallas might be considering kids from Arizona and New Mexico for their development academies? If I was a rich MLS owner........I'd just find out what the minimum interaction/funding I'd need with a youth club for it to be considered part of my academy. Hell, set up 25 such arrangements in my "exclusive zone." If I was Hunt, I'd just make Andromeda, Solar, the Texans, etc. part of my academy..............and let Don Garber tell me that arrangement is any different than what RSL is doing in frickin' Casa Grande, Arizona. [Don't get me wrong. It might seem like I'm against clubs having acadmies/residency, etc. To me it's just starting to look like a free-for-all mess. If RSL can have an academy in Arizona and claim those kids as "homegrown" then RBNY can have an academy in Charlston, South Carolina.....and claim them as "homegrown." That's how far Casa Grande, Arizona is from RSL. Silly.]
There are only a few methods for talent acquisition and in my mind the most cost effective long term talent acquistion is to develop your own the way you want good players to play under a good coach. I wonder why you are dismissing this vs paying Landin over 1 million or DeGuzman. Again Long Term I believe that we can develop many more good players and initially pay them less, and get a comparable talent to Europeans being paid between 500K and 1 Million. It's just a long term talent vs expense philosophy. Who cares if it's a free for all? In my mind it won't be a mess. Each MLS Academy will have to develop facilities and coaches to be able to recruit nationally for the very best players regardless of location. Race to the top in my mind.
Except, if you make a mistake with a Landin type, you can cut your losses quickly. What do you do with the academy if there are simply too few jobs available for its graduates? Do you sell them to Traffic? Spain B? Belgium? At least, these academies may want to hedge their risks by partnering with some Euros or Mexican teams in terms of the co-ownership.
That is why there has obviously been some discussion of instituting a 'reserve' team of these professionally signed academy players, and now that pros and Amateurs can train together it's not terrible for these players to alternately train with the U18's and the first team in a professional environment. The number was 2 a yr now I read somewhere it's 3 or 4. Then it will be 5 or 6. In a Yr or two you'll have 10 roster spots for a Reserve Team.
Re: FCD Explores Residential Acedemy + Vancouver has a strong, working relationship with Energie Cottbus in Germany. Many Vancouver Academy players go on loan over there.
http://rise.espn.go.com/boys-soccer/articles/2010/08/21-News-and-Notes.aspx Rosters have not been finalized, but there are rumors circulating top prospects Boyd Okwuono from Oklahoma and Michael Ambrose from Texas will join RSL-Ariz. Interesting report that two of FCD's youth players (and good ones) are thinking of joining up with RSL-Arizona. Why? I don't know.
Why do you say this? Not to get into a discussion about what went on during the CBA negotiations, but I was always under the impression that the owners were willing to increase the Salary Cap significantly, but the players weren't at all worried about the cap. They just were after free agency.