US soccer and the continued failure of its pay-to-play model

[Unregistered]

That's the rub... our system is fine for college and high school. If our goal is to win world cups and international competition and/or for MLS to be a destination league on par with the other top leagues in the world, we're woefully inadequate. It starts with better coaching, which means more educated and adequately licensed coaches (see Iceland) and ends with a smaller, more regional system of high level play. Somewhere in there, MLS and NWSL needs to play a bigger role in reducing fees and the pay-to-play model.

If all we care about is upper middle class families paying through the nose for a chance at a college acholarship, we deserve the system we have.

I personally don't want the current model but can do little to change it. Me "sticking it to the man" wont' matter. It would take tens of thousands of families saying enough to get things to start changing. The higher level families worried about college opportunities are too afraid to say no. They write the checks that keep they system going. I didn't vote on the new USSF president. I didn't ask for GDA and all the other leagues mucking up the landscape. I'm just trying to get my kids through it as best I can.

[Unregistered]

I personally don't want the current model but can do little to change it. Me "sticking it to the man" wont' matter. It would take tens of thousands of families saying enough to get things to start changing. The higher level families worried about college opportunities are too afraid to say no. They write the checks that keep they system going. I didn't vote on the new USSF president. I didn't ask for GDA and all the other leagues mucking up the landscape. I'm just trying to get my kids through it as best I can.

No one soccer family will be doing anything about this mess. We cant care too much if it is DA or ECNL or NPL. We look at the 3 or 4 options in striking distance and have to pick one. What league the club is in is only one factor and does not necessarily override all the other considerations.

[Unregistered]

To add onto the article only 1 in 5 goals this year in MLS have been scored by a US born player.

[Unregistered]

That's the rub... our system is fine for college and high school. If our goal is to win world cups and international competition and/or for MLS to be a destination league on par with the other top leagues in the world, we're woefully inadequate. It starts with better coaching, which means more educated and adequately licensed coaches (see Iceland) and ends with a smaller, more regional system of high level play. Somewhere in there, MLS and NWSL needs to play a bigger role in reducing fees and the pay-to-play model.

If all we care about is upper middle class families paying through the nose for a chance at a college acholarship, we deserve the system we have.

Feel free to change the world now that I've monetized my soccer investment.

[Unregistered]

Please substantiate this claim.

Go checkout the next GDA or ECNL practice and game. Observe the imported SUVs lined up in the lot, the hundred plus dollar footwear the players are sporting, how many mochalokka chino cups are tossed in the trash. Give me break. Open your eyes.

[Unregistered]

Go checkout the next GDA or ECNL practice and game. Observe the imported SUVs lined up in the lot, the hundred plus dollar footwear the players are sporting, how many mochalokka chino cups are tossed in the trash. Give me break. Open your eyes.

Participation in any sport is driven by family income. Soccer isn't alone in that regard. Even sports one thinks of having lower cost participation (the big 3) are going up in price dramatically. eg. basketball with AAU. But, I posit that the cost of soccer keeps more kids out the sport at an earlier age when skill development is critical. There still is a well develop system for baseball etc that doesn't cost an arm and a leg with more opportunities for exposure/advancement and sponsorships to help lower costs.

Youth soccer has lost 100s of thousands of players in just the last few years (down 14% for 6-12 year olds). Reasons? High cost, too much travel, too much pressure = it's not fun. We put too much on young kids instead of letting them just play for fun. A kid who isn't ready for the pressure at 10-11 might have turned into a great player if the pressure didn't ramp up until 15. The parents might have afforded club just for HS if they didn't have to start paying at 9.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5374fd2b994b
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/s...h-decline.html

[Unregistered]

Are all kids created equal in your opinion?

Participation in any sport is driven by family income. Soccer isn't alone in that regard. Even sports one thinks of having lower cost participation (the big 3) are going up in price dramatically. eg. basketball with AAU. But, I posit that the cost of soccer keeps more kids out the sport at an earlier age when skill development is critical. There still is a well develop system for baseball etc that doesn't cost an arm and a leg with more opportunities for exposure/advancement and sponsorships to help lower costs.

Youth soccer has lost 100s of thousands of players in just the last few years (down 14% for 6-12 year olds). Reasons? High cost, too much travel, too much pressure = it's not fun. We put too much on young kids instead of letting them just play for fun. A kid who isn't ready for the pressure at 10-11 might have turned into a great player if the pressure didn't ramp up until 15. The parents might have afforded club just for HS if they didn't have to start paying at 9.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.5374fd2b994b
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/s...h-decline.html

[Unregistered]

Maybe the kids just like playing fortnight more than actual sports?

[Unregistered]

Maybe the kids just like playing fortnight more than actual sports?

Kraft is dumping more money into his video game league than he spends with the Revs Academy. The star video game players make more than most of the Revs 1st team also.

[Unregistered]

Kraft is dumping more money into his video game league than he spends with the Revs Academy. The star video game players make more than most of the Revs 1st team also.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Kraft's ESports teams dominated in FIFA while the Revs wallowed in mediocrity in the MLS?

[Unregistered]

From a compensation standpoint, what should the ideal model be for a soccer coach?

Should they have a regular 9-5p job and then coach on the side for a small or should they be professional coaches?

Which model will service and advance the soccer community in the United States?

Wow! Sounds like all the “professional coaches” are getting defensive.

[Unregistered]

That's the rub... our system is fine for college and high school. If our goal is to win world cups and international competition and/or for MLS to be a destination league on par with the other top leagues in the world, we're woefully inadequate. It starts with better coaching, which means more educated and adequately licensed coaches (see Iceland) and ends with a smaller, more regional system of high level play. Somewhere in there, MLS and NWSL needs to play a bigger role in reducing fees and the pay-to-play model.

If all we care about is upper middle class families paying through the nose for a chance at a college acholarship, we deserve the system we have.

This post has it right. I do NOT care about World Cups nor the international competitiveness of MLS. I am not alone. I am a parent, and I pay for 3 things
1. My D to grow up healthy (active, socially connected, disciplined)
2 Ego and Experiences (Nationals!)
3. College Dreams (someone's getting a bump, and it ain't the poor)

Out system works perfectly for the customer that pays it

[Unregistered]

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...814-story.html

Why do parents feel they "need" to pay this kind of money for their kid to play soccer? The more they pay the better a player their kid will be. That's how it works, isn't it?


This should be an inexpensive game!

Vote for Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie and you can get everything for free!!!
It is a cheap sport. Get a ball and go outside and spend time with your child. I suspect that 1-2 hours of day between parent and child with a ball with improve his/her skills tremendously.
Or, tell your kid to play some pickup ball with his/her friends 1-2 each day.
To add to the inexpensiveness of it, tell your kid to go for 4-6 mile runs. Every other run they can mix it with some hill work or other speed work. Buy some bands.....let them do pushups and various core exercise that you kind find on the internet

Now your kid is playing soccer and exercising with a total cost of a ball, running shoes, and cleats. Total cost < 500 dollars.

[Unregistered]

Vote for Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie and you can get everything for free!!!
It is a cheap sport. Get a ball and go outside and spend time with your child. I suspect that 1-2 hours of day between parent and child with a ball with improve his/her skills tremendously.
Or, tell your kid to play some pickup ball with his/her friends 1-2 each day.
To add to the inexpensiveness of it, tell your kid to go for 4-6 mile runs. Every other run they can mix it with some hill work or other speed work. Buy some bands.....let them do pushups and various core exercise that you kind find on the internet

Now your kid is playing soccer and exercising with a total cost of a ball, running shoes, and cleats. Total cost < 500 dollars.

Yes! That would make so much more sense. Oh well. A soccer parent can dream.

[Unregistered]

I think that pay-to-play is a red herring. At the young ages kids start soccer the teams are never very expensive and there is wide access to the sport. It gets expensive later on but by that time the best kids in rec and town have emerged and will be offered scholarships to keep playing.

Where $$$ causes issues tome is when sanctioning/governing bodies get involved in turf wars, fragmenting leagues and teams and causing unnecessary travel and expense. We moved from NY and I'm still more familiar with what is going on there with the war between US Club and USYSA. This diluted the leagues and ultimately limited the pool of clubs to play against. Our D's team (top 10 in state) was consistently traveling 90+ minutes away to play other competitive teams, skipping past two of the top 10 teams in the state that were less than 20 minutes away, all because they played in a different league.

Then we'd go to tournaments hours away when we'd have been better off scrimmaging the better teams closer to home. Instead everyone is chasing gotsoccer points for marketing reasons.

So for me it is not necessarily the tuition that causes issues. The best kids ultimately don't even pay much of that. It is the unnecessary travel, the fragmenting of leagues based on governing bodies and the gotsoccer BS that ruins everything