Timbers Academy for 2020-21

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Rumors flying around about what programs will remain. Does anyone know the plan for 05/06/07 years?

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Rumors flying around about what programs will remain. Does anyone know the plan for 05/06/07 years?

No idea. Just hearing that the 3-years is up, no further Peregrine subsidy, and parents will be covering closer to full cost. Suspect Westside will subsidize it a bit so that parents aren't completely overwhelmed, but hearing $7500-8500 next year. That doesn't seem like true full cost given amount of travel.

Can a Thorns' parent confirm? Apparently was told in parents' communication recently, but hearing that from a xfire parent, so who knows if something lost in translation.

Remarkable that this use to be $2k . . . I know intentions were good, but this ends up be an inadvertent bait and switch. Hope families enjoyed the subsidy while it lasted. Write uncle Merritt a thank you note.

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No idea. Just hearing that the 3-years is up, no further Peregrine subsidy, and parents will be covering closer to full cost. Suspect Westside will subsidize it a bit so that parents aren't completely overwhelmed, but hearing $7500-8500 next year. That doesn't seem like true full cost given amount of travel.

Can a Thorns' parent confirm? Apparently was told in parents' communication recently, but hearing that from a xfire parent, so who knows if something lost in translation.

Remarkable that this use to be $2k . . . I know intentions were good, but this ends up be an inadvertent bait and switch. Hope families enjoyed the subsidy while it lasted. Write uncle Merritt a thank you note.

Sounds like you are talking Thorns GDA and the original poster is talking boys Timbers DA. It isn’t looking too good for the Thorns GDA with the Thorns high school aged GDA teams losing 1-8, and 0-9 and 2-7 and sitting in dead last for u17 and u16 and 3rd from last place for u18/19. Unfortunately, this doesn’t attract the better talent to join the GDA. These results were when it was free or close to free. Maybe raising prices will attract the wealthy parents that want a more exclusive experience. I do wish Thorns could’ve done better. It was a great and generous opportunity to have a highly subsidized elite option in Oregon. Competition is always better for the customer than a monopoly. The better Thorns GDA and our Oregon ecnl programs are, the better it is for all Oregon players.

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Timbers Academy for 2020-21

From what I have heard going to be a team under Westside Timbers and funding goes away so around 7K a year.

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Sounds like you are talking Thorns GDA and the original poster is talking boys Timbers DA. It isn’t looking too good for the Thorns GDA with the Thorns high school aged GDA teams losing 1-8, and 0-9 and 2-7 and sitting in dead last for u17 and u16 and 3rd from last place for u18/19. Unfortunately, this doesn’t attract the better talent to join the GDA. These results were when it was free or close to free. Maybe raising prices will attract the wealthy parents that want a more exclusive experience. I do wish Thorns could’ve done better. It was a great and generous opportunity to have a highly subsidized elite option in Oregon. Competition is always better for the customer than a monopoly. The better Thorns GDA and our Oregon ecnl programs are, the better it is for all Oregon players.

Whoops my bad. Haven't head anything on boys' side.

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From what I have heard going to be a team under Westside Timbers and funding goes away so around 7K a year.

Will it still be called “Thorns Academy” and be a part of GDA? How will it be different from the regular Westside teams? Where will they practice? My dd was thinking of doing GDA next year so I’m curious.

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Will it still be called “Thorns Academy” and be a part of GDA? How will it be different from the regular Westside teams? Where will they practice? My dd was thinking of doing GDA next year so I’m curious.

Yes.
Yes.
It won't.
A bunch of different places but at Providence Park a few times for bragging rights/photo ops.

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Yes.
Yes.
It won't.
A bunch of different places but at Providence Park a few times for bragging rights/photo ops.

Interesting.

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Timbers Academy for 2020-21

Heard they Thorns Academy is going ECNL

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Heard they Thorns Academy is going ECNL

Pretty sure they are moving up to OYSA bronze.

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As I've said before, Thorns could have a great girls' academy. They have something that nobody in town has--access to one of the best women's professional teams in the world. Were Thorns Academy players getting to rub shoulders with Thorns players, in a professional environment.

But to be an excellent academy they must recruit talent from around the world, not just Oregon. And to do that, they need to have a residential program (or at least the ability to support players who don't live nearby), and be subsidized.

Instead its local girls (note that OM moved here with her family), paying fees that are similar to club dues, and the whole thing is largely outsourced to Westside, at least at the younger age groups. Rather than training next to the professionals, in a professional environment, with the first-team coaches at least overseeing the process (even if they don't spend much direct time with the academy prospects), Thorns Academy girls are trained at THPRD, or wherever Cony and company can find fields.

And that might be OK, too... rather than running a top-flight academy that recruits nationally or worldwide, the Thorns could choose to run a program for talented but disadvantaged girls--those who can't afford to do ECNL (or attend Jesuit), but want to play high level soccer. But the GDA, with its restrictions on high school and its insane travel requirements, is the wrong platform for that; and that's doubly true if parents are expected to foot the travel bill.

But mixing ECNL prices with a local-club experience, is no way to run a railroad. The girls who can afford to do ECNL are going to do ECNL, for a variety of reasons: Most are interested in college, and ECNL is optimized for getting recruited; many want to play high school, and (let's be honest here) more than a few ECNL families want to avoid the riff-raff, and don't mind paying many thousands of dollars to not have league games in Woodburn.

Perhaps the Thorns are going ECNL, and are going to try and compete against CU and FC on their own turf. That would be regrettable, I'm not sure we need THREE local clubs trying to serve the rich grrrl market (not sure we need two, to be honest).

And perhaps the Thorns don't really need an academy in the first place--they just traded a bunch of talent to land the #1 pick in the NWSL draft, who played at Stanford. Women's soccer doesn't really have a robust transfer market, so is there really any advantage (beyond public goodwill and/or altruism) in running one? Does the current training of OM given them any exclusive rights to sign her if and when she becomes a pro--or could she decide to play for the Reign or the Courage or overseas if she wants to?

Bottom line: Thorns need to decide what they want their academy to be, and run it appropriately. Right now, it looks like they simply want to have "an academy", for reasons, but don't have any expectations of developing players for sale, or for the first team.

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Timbers Academy for 2020-21

Agree, 100 percent.. They are able to lure people with lure that you can be a Thorn one day, but don't lack of development at their program is very poor.

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Agree with the above. Another way to look at it is: What’s in it for the Thorns(Timbers)? Timbers are a business. The MLS teams were forced to do girls academies. To their credit, not only did they do an academy, they heavily subsidized it for several years. It didn’t matter. They built it and gave it away and still the talent didn’t come. Thorns at least tried! The talent already had ecnl which got them college spots while allowing hs soccer and a fun soccer life away from the “rif raf”. The few top players they attracted soon realized they didn’t have a chance for national teams so why give up everything else for GDA? Then, why should Thorns subsidize an academy for mediocre talent that loses games by 8 or 9 goals? GDA simply makes no sense for either side - at least in Oregon. GDA didn’t even make it in Northern California, where ECNL is still king. It’s working in soccer hotbeds like Southern California because ecnl excluded too many good clubs and because that area has enough talent to populate two elite leagues.

I can’t see Thorns joining ecnl. It’s bad enough to lose 9-0 to another GDA team but a similar loss to a local ecnl team would be a death blow.and be a stain on GDA. It’s sad because Thorns really tried to do something good.

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Agree, 100 percent.. They are able to lure people with lure that you can be a Thorn one day, but don't lack of development at their program is very poor.

These posts are about the Timbers Academy not the Thorns Academy. No one cares about the Thorns or Girls ECNL even

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Please tell me there will be changes to TA.