Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA Ok, I've read that press release several times now. What exactly does this mean for EPYSA or MLS Philly?
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA It's about grabbing that talented and athletic 12 year old before baseball does. It's getting kids involved with the team, and their ticket and merchandise buying parents, too. It's about creating a fan base and a player pool at the same time.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA this is a great thing pulling the most talented kids into the academy system getting the entire eastern half of PA aware and involved with the team. the chance to sell ticket packages to parents from chester to Scranton and every town village and city between ..
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA This is the exact marketing I was referring to in another thread. This is a win win situation. Every youth league in Eastern PA will now be accessible to MLS Philly. The marketing possibilites are endless.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA This is a good and necessary alliance. As you said, there is a great chance to market the team to youth soccer organizations. But let's not get kid ourselves with the academy. If the most talented kids in the tri-state area get pulled into the Philly MLS academy, there are several established youth clubs that will lose out: FC Delco and the Philadelphia Soccer Club are two examples. In the 5-year view, yes, this is a zero-sum game: if one organization gets stronger, another will get weaker. I am all in favor of a Philly MLS academy getting the best players in a 50-mile radius. And charging nothing or a nominal fee to play. But when you have youth clubs out there charging $500 - $1000/yr to participate, somebody's going to put up a fight.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA FYI (all) The total cost for a premier level travel player is higher, much higher
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA The FC Delcos of the world are not going anywhere and will not really suffer with the addition of a academy team . Their Dynamic and relation with the very top tier players may change abit . Hopefully the academy is not just syphoning off players from other teams , but is also seeking out the under-scouted and the lower economy players often ignored by the system . The MLS is starting to see the results of finding hidden gems in ethnic leagues and players who are flying under the ODP / BIG CLUB radar . In the end having professional money, coaching and training involved in the youth game, can only be seen as a positive thing for Soccer in PA .
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA A rec player might pay $200 if he plays fall, winter, and spring. A travel player costs more. An academy player costs even more. Will there be increased competition for elite talent, maybe. I don't think Delco is going down without a fight. But the club is reaching out to all the right things and being PC about everything. Shaking the hands that need shaking so they are viewed as a peer in the fight for soccer. This is a huge partnership. EPYSA isn't that easy to get along with. When told about the Sons of Ben in 2007, they scoffed and said "Where were they 25 years ago?" When they were told middle school or younger. Then they realized that they have been acting as protectionary sole survivors of the NASL crash and soccer's legacy. Now when people think soccer there is gonna be a new big boy in town and wisely, the two biggest have hearby aligned themselves.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA Wow. My boss' son is a striker for FC Delco's U-13 team, and got to play in this year's Dallas cup @ The Hut. When he left West Chester United, someone got the opportunity to fill his spot. The biggest pro on this deal, is giving these kids playing time. I'm sure I could have been one of the all-time great keepers in soccer history, but the kid in front of me was just a hair better, so I didn't play. I quit a few weeks later. Would anyone like to speculate on why the USMNT has been so vastly improved since the mid '90s? How about the reason American reserve players want to come back to the US and back to MLS? This deal is fantastic, for everyone from the kids who will get more opportunities to play, to MLS and the USMNT, who one day may reap the rewards of letting a couple of extra kids get off the bench. Being part of a team is a great experience for kids, and this way more kids will be able to grow and develop, both as soccer players, and as the men our world and country need them to be.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA Maybe I am missing something here, but I don't think this deal has anything to do with playing time and youth leagues and acadamies. From what I read, its a business deal, not a soccer deal. From the press release: "Through the long-term alliance, MLS Philadelphia will receive EPYSA’s exclusive marketing rights and be able to provide team partners with extensive grassroots access." I read that to mean that Philly is the only team that EPYSA can use in promotions, tournament sponsorships, etc. The soccer aspect of this deal to me is minimal. Its really about marketing and brand recognition. On a semi-related note - can someone please explain to me the purpose of having a youth academy in the current MLS format. I was under the impression that just about everyone must go through the draft process, so having an academy and finding and training young talent doesn't seem to be worth it if you can't ensure that you can keep the player when they are ready for the next level. It seems to me to be a wasted expense.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA Right now, you can promote one player each year from your academy to the senior roster. I hope that over time, all academy players are eligible to join the senior team without using a pick or allocation.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA epysa basically sold out franklin field in 1989 for the usmnt and in 1991, got over 50k at the vet for sheffield wednesday... they will fill your stadium.. 20k in chester, will become a scalpers delighy given the expected demand and shortage in supply
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA So are they trying the Pete Wilt method of getting EPYSA to buy into bulk season tickets? Read more about what I am talking about here: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/31852489.html
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA I thought the same Wilt-related thing when I saw the title of the press release but it the does not seem to indicate a number of items that Wisconsin was getting (i.e. part ownership of team even if it was just a small portion, minimum of 3 roster spots for WYSA alumni) - I can see a spot on the Board of Directors. In terms of the Wisconsin ticket commitment, it was a voucher sort of program and guaranteed minimum ticket sales revenue as is done on a more limited basis in other MLS cities - a kid gets a companion voucher (i.e. buy one, get one free on tickets) which usually translates into buy two (other parent goes, kid's friend goes) tickets along with the free one. Every youth player (all 56,000) in Wisconsin would have gotten such a voucher - half of them would have used them. EPYSA has 125,000 players - given the current season ticket base in Philly and stadium size, I doubt that they need to give away any free tickets to fill the stadium but the voucher do entice folks to come out and see a game - perhaps Philly just sticks with lots of group night deals for youth soccer clubs where 20% - 30% discounts off normal ticket prices are common. The deal not only gives WYSA a piece of the MLS team, but also gives the group a seat on the franchise's board of directors. There's more. In addition to guaranteeing the proposed MLS franchise that it will commit to buying hundreds of thousands of dollars in season tickets, the WYSA get annual statewide coaching and youth clinics featuring MLS team members. The WYSA also will be the beneficiary of the franchise's charitable arm, and it is guaranteed that at least three WYSA alumni will be on the team's roster at any time.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA what 3 ex-members... convey, valentin and some old guy hurt at dc united currently??
FC DELCO,MLS ACADEMY AND NOW PENN FUSION ACADEMY?It looks like Spirit United and West Chester united are tired of losing all of there elite players.Now that they merged to form an academy where will all the talent come from?There has been much debate on here about how the area will cope with 2 academies but now there is 3.
Re: 2010 Partners with EPYSA Well, it's pretty obvious, really: they're going to "combine forces, creating a cohesive and progressive regional soccer environment" in order to "offer additional resources for youth players to reach their full potential." Obviously, this means leveraging the synergy of their combined skills ecosystems to achieve both organizations' core principles and enhance their core competencies by adopting best-of-breed best practices and, ideally, by monetizing the value chain. In other words, EPYSA will give Nick their mailing list and Nick will let EPYSA slap Union Philadelphia logos on anything and everything they send out to people.