Is there any truth to the ECNL adding a new regional league in the Northeast ? They are looking to taken over the entire country. ECNL now has all but 2/3 top clubs in the league - TOPHAT, NEGC and maybe one more club but now the will take over all the smaller clubs
-
-
They're not that dumb. The market is already oversaturated and soccer participation is falling some. -
I have not heard anything about this and I doubt the NE is where ECNL would start consolidation. ECNL grabbing 2-3 clubs and killing the worst ones off would be great but i cant see it. Take NYSC, STA and NEFC and the entire GA conference is dead. Then ECNL can drop FSA, reduce Stars to one team and own the entire Northern NJ to MA region. This makes too much sense to do, so there's no way its happening. Also, perhaps some of these charter GA clubs like having some ownership over their league now?Comment
-
ECNL should really put GA out of their misery already. Only a matter of time before GA folds or dilutes even further with top club defectionsOriginally posted by Guest View PostComment
-
GA will be just fine as a B league. They've found their groove. ECNL is happy with how things are now as well - they defeated GDA and retained their #1 spotOriginally posted by Guest View PostComment
-
Slammers and Surf inComment
-
-
NYSC? How do they fit into TOP clubs? Cmon man. STA, NEFC and Tophat are all very good GA teams but NYSC. LaughableComment
-
The ECNL will have a new regional league this coming fall. I’m sure clubs like Alleycats, Quickstrike, Manhattan, NY Surf and LI Slammers will be in this league along with various present ECNL clubs putting in their 3rd teams such as SUSA, Matchfit, CFC, Stars, Penn Fusion and PDA. Should interesting when this is announcedComment
-
ECNL has both the national and regional teams. It’s smart, they can relegate teams that struggle nationally to the regional leagues without bouncing them out.
GA has some strong teams as mentioned. Would be great to see more teams battle between ECNL and GA.
In NY we have a lot of ok teams but very few that go into GA or ECNL. I suspect this won’t change anytime soon. Time will tell.Comment
-
All you have to do is look at who is in the NL club v club format or GA. If the club isn't in either of those they aren't getting RL if the expansion really happens.Comment
-
You wont see more GA/ECNL matchups for a reason. ECNL wants to put the lights out on GA once and for all and GA would benefit from playing ECNL teams, not the other way around. Regrettably, while a couple decent teams exist in GA, there are just far too few. Many more in ECNL but they also have far too many teams and lots of bad ones. As for your theory on relegation .... IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED ... NEVER WILL ... too much money on the line for ECNL clubs and they would never risk it. It should happen, but will not.Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
-
Infrastucture, location and facilities is what they have. Their teams are generally awful on girls side but theyve been a top Boys side and have access to coaches, Indoor and outdoor fields and are in an area with a decent player pool. Right now they lose the best kids to World Class and sometimes CFC due to not being ECNLOriginally posted by Guest View PostComment
-
I have heard this as a rumor. As to the particulars, I think they will accept a wider variety of clubs and feature promotion/relegation but probably not up to the top league that would not make sense. US Club soccer is basically dead in the northeast. If US Club soccer wants to grow in this area, adding divisions to their regional league makes sense. It's all a zero-sum game unless teams play in more than one league which is rare except for younger teams that may play with GG on Saturday and another league on Sunday (e.g., LIJSL, WYSL, etc).Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
-
Every spring come, and this "rumor" or some variant of it gets bandied about and as usual, nothing happens because there's no way in hell this is happening. Where can we start with the reasons:
1. US Club is only dead in NYC metro area. They have an NPL league that covers eastern part of upstate NY and the rest of NE. Thus, they are missing a small little part of the NE, granted this portion has money but not enough to dliute their "elite" brand. Yes, you could argue there is money to be made but they would need to add administrative costs to do this, which probably outweight any benefits.
2. Let's say for sake argument that this league is formed, who is going to play in it? Why on earth would NEFC, STA, LISC, NYSC move their A teams there? They won't because they've been selling the notion that GAL is a top league. So, you're either getting their B teams or C teams. Surf and Slammers just sold their parents a bunch of mularkey that Elite 64 and NL Club v Club is the big time. How do they not lose face by now saying well this is even better when you're an A team (Surf and Slammers) and you're playing B and C teams from some of these clubs. Plus travelling up and down the northeast to do it.
3. There is no way that the present member clubs will agree to have their B teams in ECRL now be relegated. These clubs have created infrastructures and marketing for these teams. Why would any club say sure we're OK to be relegated to a C team league. Parents are not going to pay >$4K to play in a C league no matter how you market it.
I could go on but this is not happening. This rumor starts from the usual places, clubs like Surf and Slammers, who have been promising ECNL for years now. This falls more on Surf, since they have been around longer, than on Slammers but they (Slammers) also oversold this NL Club v Club to parents, in which their A teams are playing a bunch of B teams or low level clubs like Manhattan SC, which is abysmal on the girls side.
Comment
Comment