Friday 17 Apr 2020

"Los Angeles FC head coach Michael Bradley"

Nice promotion for the kid.

 

As has been noted, the girls are mostly better off without the USSDA. USSF started it for PR reasons, not soccer ones. Particularly since college soccer is still the goal for 99% of young girls, they already had a structure that was producing the best players in the world. Tough to improve on that.

Obviously the boys side is completely different.

ISTM that bringing elite boys soccer in-house hastens the day when MLS teams have residential academies. Otherwise you're shutting out kids who dont live within reasonable daily travel distance of an MLS city, which is self defeating.

Not long ago I talked to a guy whose daughter is an elite youth ballet student. I was astonished at the similarities. The best training, the best facilities and the best teachers work at one of the ballet schools attached to big ballet companies, and if you're good enough to get in - which isnt easy - then you still have to get to class 6 days a week in Houston or San Francisco or Boston or Miami etc.

If you cant swing that then you're just SOL as far as that professional dancing career you wanted. And figure on paying 25k a year for the privilege

Pay to play, pay to dance.

 

SKC, Philly, Vancouver, Seattle, & DCU are just some of the MLS teams that already have residential academies.

The reality is that this is talking about a small percentage of players at the end of the day. The percentage of soccer players that go on to play at the college level is small. It's also going to get smaller as more school eliminate programs to cut costs. Now, out of these elite players, it's still a very small percentage that go on to play professionally, let alone for a national team.

These academies are solely dealing with the top prospects. The growing of the game needs to happen at the local level. The USSF needs to come up with a better way to educate coaches, and also a way to help fund high school and local youth programs through grants. The new reality, is that High School sports are going to increasingly become pay to play themselves. Also, schools are more likely to shutter programs that school boards deem less popular.

I realize we're also talking about opportunity here as well. The bottomline is that if you have elite talent and the desire, elite teams and schools will find a way to get you that opportunity. That may be through a sponsor or a scholarship, etc.

 

Atlas, yes.

 

*shrug*

 

My conspiracy theory as MLS makes its play to take over the world (insert evil genius laugh). With the U.S., Mexico & Canada set to host the 2026 World Cup and talks of a North American superleague rumor gaining traction, I believe I've figured out their diabolical plan.
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With top teams in Liga MX worried about teams being promoted being viable for promotion the league introduced a certification system.
Second division clubs were affected by the decision by Liga MX to implement a certification system to qualify for promotion, which was done in order to guarantee clubs moving up had sufficient funds, that the money was coming from a legitimate source and that it had adequate facilities.
As it stands now none of the second division teams qualified as the league has shrunk from 18 teams to just twelve. What if the plan is to end pro/rel so they can expand the league to 20 and eventually to thirty to create the super league.
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The new league could consist of ten teams in two divisions from each league. They would play a 38 game schedule with the top three teams qualifying for playoffs with the division winner getting a bye and all games being one off. Each year the bottom team would be relegated and the champion of Liga MX and MLS would be promoted. Only teams from the new league would qualify for CONCACAF with the exception of a Canadian team if they aren't promoted that year. That would make League Cup for MLS and Liga MX and solve schedule congestion.
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So what would all this accomplish? Well the controversy would surely create a buzz in America and Mexico not to mention the rest of the world I would imagine. I could see the end of single entity and both leagues moving to some type of a franchise system with a salary cap. It would protect investment of current owners of MLS at the same time giving owners of Liga MX teams more stability and the chance to create a developmental league.
According to reports, none of the Ascenso MX clubs qualified for the certification this season. The league has been reduced from 18 teams to 12 over the past three years, with clubs dropping out. A development league with age and foreign player limits is set to replace the current format, according to reports.
It would also create a faux system of pro/rel which might appease some but obviously not all. At the same time it could help create more revenue from T.V. with more eyeballs from two countries.This could give these 12 teams a chance to get up to par to make it into Liga MX at the same time letting them know if you don't the alternative is the second division at best. With countries of the two leagues set to host in 2026, I could see a target date of two years after to build off that momentum with a start date of 2028 (insert evil genius laugh).

 

Well played, sir...well played.

 

Boom, it's done.

Liga MX president Enrique Bonilla confirms:

- pro/rel in Mexico's top two divisions is suspended for the next five years

- Second division to promote young Mexican players

- Minors rule in Liga MX to disappear

- Second division clubs to get guaranteed income for 5 years.

— Tom Marshall (@mexicoworldcup) April 17, 2020

 

This but uniroincally.

 

I was talking to a friend who's a D1 coach who's a big name in an obscure sport and he was saying that the non-revenue sports are bracing for the worst right now. If football loses a season don't be unprepared for a Thanos snapping his fingers level wipeout of men's programs.

 

Evil genius laugh.

 

Pro/rel zealots angry that...a soccer league (that barely relegates its teams, after they literally pay the league to stay off from relegation), doesn't wanna play footsies anymore?

Boo hoo. Soccer is (apparently) dead.

 

Just like everything else, sports are going to need a bail out. The amount depends on what happens with the NFL and NCAA football/basketball. The bailout will be tied to a broader bailout of arts and colleges in general.

The NFL are about 20-25% of annual sports revenue. If the NFL can play and don’t need bailed out, that would be big, upwards of $20 billion. The NBA’s biggest risk is a rebound of the disease next winter.

Baseball and soccer are going to take the biggest hit.

College basketball lost over $1 billion by canceling the tournament. Total college sports revenues are about $11 billion. Football and basketball are the money makers, where sports make money.

 

If you wanted to see what Jim Curtin would look like if he played drums in a Jazz Trio run by a Thrash Metal guitarist, well wait no more.

 

That or just fully professionalize the major football teams, UNAM Pumas style.

 

I appreciate what you are saying.

College sports are broadcast by for-profit networks using the airwaves for the public purpose of making private profits.

These for profit networks are paying not-for-profit NCAA that employs high paid executives. The college athletic departments are filled with high paid executives.

There is all this money moving around because us alumni want to relive our glory days.

With all this money running around, the high brow goal of amateurism is a pipe dream

 

I used to think the nepotism charge was overblown.

 

This whole virus deal is going to bring down a lot of marginal enterprises, in and out of college sports, which has been wallowing around in cash like pigs in mud for far too long.

Fortunately, the sport I care most about-soccer, obviously - is already well down the road to complete separation from the NCAA. A lot of other sports have no place else to go and that's just reality.

I'm not immune to feeling bad about it, but change was long overdue.