ECNL and Girls DA - My immediate reaction and two cents worth:

Strengths or Positives

A partial list of common goals that I could see with both programs when looking at Boys' DA:

1) Improve Development - Platform for high potential - aspiring female talent for her next level (whatever that may be)
•College (NCAA)
•Pro league (WPS or other)
•National team (USWNT)
2) National Teams Alignment - Align development for both male and female soccer under a unified program
3) Common Player Standards - Improve Player metrics, accountability - fitness, style, player grading, improvement targets, etc.
4) Common Coaching Standards - Improve Coaching standards, metrics, and accountability

Weaknesses or Negatives

1) Parent Confusion and "YAEYSL" - may further confuse parents (so many brands and leagues) may alienate some initially
YAESL = "Yet Another Elite Youth Soccer League"
2) Elite vs. Them Club Soccer Culture Never Help Kids in Long Run
Continue to pitch one league or organization vs. the other (US Club/ECNL vs. USYS/DA)
Similar to member clubs who bash non-member clubs does not help kids or national team in the long run

3) Talent Dilution - Further dilute talent and cause families of other so-called elite leagues to go broke chasing yet another "next best league"
More leagues is not necessarily a bad thing as it spread landscape to find taken, but not all should be called "elite" - there should be some sort of promotion to each level
4) Money Grab - Until pro teams can afford to offer these programs FREE of cost on their own
•Yet another opportunity for the vast amount of club coaches involved (not all) to use this brand to drain families' pocket..particularly those who think little Mia is "DA-elite"..

Opportunities or Threats

1) Centralize Development - Ultimate goal could be to centralize talent into a pro league led academy model. However, talent is too spread out for this to be successful initially until we have more teams generating revenue in a women's pro league or align the female DA under the same umbrella as MLS or have a mix MLS and WPS focus DA program. Long term, I am not quite sure what financial return the men's pro team has to train elite female athlete unless they can sell them to pro teams in Europe, etc.

2) Why Build When You can Buy (Include ECNL) - In the short term, perhaps use the existing platform that ECNL has already built to provide an girls DA solution that include some of the clubs / teams that are already members of that current platform (this may be less costly for USSF). Perhaps the initial girls DA program should reward consistently top girls performing clubs or promoting top players/teams from ECNL to DA, etc.

3) Include Top Performing Non-ENCL Clubs - Make girls DA membership fair by including both existing top performing and Quality coaching ECNL clubs as well as top performing and quality Coaching non-ECNL clubs who may have not gotten get the ECNL membership invite?

4) National Team Accountability and Measuring Stick - Who is accountable (who gets fired?) when the development academy does not produce the results through our national teams? What exactly is the measure of success? What is the timetable for that success? There are many USYS teams or clubs in each age group that are better than most of their ECNL counterparts - how do you create a model that rewards them versus force them to leave their quality coaching development (and friends) to move to DA/ENCL? More often than not when compared to boys counterpart, I would imagine that "elite girl player" would choose to stay with quality coaching and friends over the "destination club" concept.

5) Reduce or Eliminate High Pay to Play Cost on Girls Side - My understanding is that MLS facilitate the ability for some of the DA clubs to provide FREE program on the boys side (at least 30+ boys DA programs). I believe that some non-MLS DA provide tuition free program with players or families only having to cover travel and expenses. Nike and USSF also sponsor "need based" scholarship to qualified players - one of the most compelling differences or missing from existing Girls elite programs that would help expand the talent pool

Overall Reaction

In the end, if girls DA launch in 2017 means a) put players and kids first b) improve Coaching quality and standards, c) improve the Women's National team (Honestly, while they just won this past world cup, they did look horrible in group play, and everyone else is catching up technically), and d) reduce the "my elite badge/club is better than your elite badge/club" culture, and lastly e) reduce overall cost and expand the pool of available top talent by making the sport affordable to all, then it may be worth a shot.

USSF alone does not have the resources to cover the entire US landscape in identifying top talent (300+ million people). If the creators and architects of this program are made up of both soccer and business types, they would use a hybrid, mixed solution approach initially to launch girls development academy that incorporates and not alienate MLS, WPS, USYS, and ECNL to help cover the entire US landscape..Long term goal could ultimately be to leverage USYS and ECNL as feeder/training grounds for the higher level academies. However, this would make too much sense, and would require cooperation and collaboration, and would be of benefits to players, and is wishful thinking on my part - let's wait and see.

Just my two cents as a supporter-promoter of US soccer in general.
Glad that my girl player is done...Your thoughts?

Just as an opening statement - Brought to you by the same people who brought you the age mandate roll out!

Anyway, people have been waiting for some sort of announcement on this front for a few years. soccerpapi and Soccerhouse have already covered considerable ground above. A few additional comments:

1. This can either end up being a great opportunity or an unmitigated disaster. I do not think there is any in-between for something like this. Just because the Fed wants to start such a program there is no guarantee it will work.
2. DAP for boys has been around since 2007. Has there been measurable improvement as a direct result of this program, run by the Fed, to any boys' YNT? Is the senior men's side in a better place as a direct result of this program? When Germany and Belgium changed their national training systems, within 10 years they were both in the top 2 in the world. People say you cannot compare European football to what we do here but I disagree. Every country in the world is held, in the end, to the exact same standard. I think one could reasonably argue that the MNT program is worse; it clearly is not better. There is no evidence, over a 10 year period, that the Fed can be entrusted to enhancing the development on the male side. Why would we think they would be any better on the female side?
3. The Fed did not want to start this type of program for girls until US Club Soccer and their ECNL demonstrated that there was demand and that people would pay for, maybe flock to, it. The only reason I say this is because the one person I know who actually has information about this kind of thing told me that in meetings about DAP for girls, up until about 3 years ago Gulati stated unequivocally that USSF had no interest; ECNL was doing this for them. So something has changed.
4. One thing that maybe has changed is that US Club Soccer has demonstrated that there is money to be made. US Club is doing this as a business. As a result, I doubt they will go quietly into the night. Their system is not perfect, but I do think they are genuinely interested in development, but they would not be doing this if they did not have paying customers. As a result, unless there is some organized and as yet unspecified arrangement for how the different organizations will slice the pie, I doubt US Club will accept whatever vision the Fed has for DA versus ECNL. We will probably find out more about how this might work in a few weeks during the annual coaches convention.
5. The organized development and training platform is a nice theory, and would seem to make sense. But has anyone watched the WNTs at the youth level and compared them to the way the USWNT plays? If you have, I think you would draw the conclusion that there is no comparison. Is not the Fed currently in charge of the way the YNTs play? Are they not in charge of the USWNT? The same can be said of the men's side.
6. The same coaches out there coaching now are going to be the same coaches available for any new league. I doubt if you call a new league DA those coaches are going to improve and/or change their style.
7. Competition is good! One of the ways this works in Germany is that there are regional centers, and those regional centers compete to see who does the best job of developing talent. What the Fed wants to do is eliminate competition. They want to homogenize the training process. I think this is a bad idea. This stifles creativity in training and development. Again, if you had an elite level player in your house, seeing how the Fed has performed with boy's DAP, would you trust them with your DD?
8. It is absolutely the case that a new "Elite" league will result in further dilution of talent, but maybe that gives more players the chance to shine.
9. Unless there is some major sponsor that is going to fund a major part of this operation, it will end up being even more expensive than the current top leagues for girls. Travel and training costs will be considerable. For instance, I think SoccerMom is probably right that the reason ECNL head went to ATL FC is to start girls DAP. How many such programs will be in the Southeast? As many as there are ECNL clubs, which is 10? Probably not. That means clubs could be more distributed geographically. Actually, this move will probably increase costs for everyone in all leagues that want to market themselves as playing an "elite" level of competition because talent, meaning also member clubs, will be more distributed. Top level coaches will be the ones benefitting the most. More people will be competing monetarily for their talents. Good for them.
10. It is possible that with 2 year age group teams (U13/14, U15/16, U17/18) they might be able to pack clubs in more densely. It is a lot easier to find 10-15 truly top notch players per age than is is to find twice that number. If so, then maybe they could pack academies more closely.
11. Can you imagine the griping that is going to take place after certain clubs are awarded Academy status and others are not? Their status will be awarded, not earned. Keeping it might be another matter. Listen to the griping now with regard to ECNL clubs. As soccerpapi said above, there are certainly other good teams at other clubs, and those teams could compete in ECNL, or anywhere for that matter. The problem is that ECNL, just like DAP, is necessarily club-based. You have to have teams at your club that can compete at every age level. This is not so easy.
12. There is no substantial pro path for girls. If the same organizational structure holds for girls as exists for boys, how many girls' families will be in positions to get themselves to Cobb County, or MOVE to Cobb County, so their DD can train 4 days per week? There is no big payoff in the end. Heck, the payoff for boys is pretty shabby. There is already a proven mechanism for getting girls to college. They do not need DAP for that purpose and this is the main purpose for most such really elite players. Maybe the girls we are talking about for a DAP would be willing to give up high school and other non-club soccer activities. Maybe not. But like one of them per Academy MIGHT have a shot at the USWNT. Not good odds. And they are doing this to enhance USWNT in the end? Are there really top level players being missed now? Is there really someone better than Mallory Pugh, for instance, who the USSF staff have overlooked?
13. I like the idea of a free market dictating success and failure. So I like the idea of competition between leagues and training structures/ideas. I hope this move, if it is a move, by the USSF ends up stimulating such a process.
14. I don't have any special information, but I have heard that the real roll-out date is Fall 2016. I have also heard the rumor that they might start with the youngest age group and phase it in that way, which would make a lot of sense. But as others have said with regard to the age mandate, this type of phase in would have made a lot of sense there, and they did not do it. Chances are they will screw this up also.