ECNL still the best girls youth league in the country

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US Soccer is the foundation and heart and soul of the DA program, US Soccer will be around much longer than any club collection that forms a league. Change is hard, being marginalized is even tougher to swallow. Oregon and the Portland Thorns will introduce a subsidized GDA program for Girls that will have a place in the landscape. Regardless, Oregon's role in the GDA or ECNL is irrelevant from a competitive standpoint, but with the Thorns offering a GDA program that offers thousands of dollars in savings compared to the local club that doesn't makes the choice of where to play: Thorns GDA or the local club travel team is now much easier on the eyes and pocketbook.

Keep your head in the sand, TA lemming. GDA is dying before it's even born. And the Thorns Academy will die with it.

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Keep your head in the sand, TA lemming. GDA is dying before it's even born. And the Thorns Academy will die with it.

Hank P and his silly son Merritt P. have lived through the world's economic crash of 2008 and came out richer. Do you really want to position Oregon's soccer bums and clueless soccer parents vs them? Good Luck with that.

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US Soccer is the foundation and heart and soul of the DA program, US Soccer will be around much longer than any club collection that forms a league. Change is hard, being marginalized is even tougher to swallow. Oregon and the Portland Thorns will introduce a subsidized GDA program for Girls that will have a place in the landscape. Regardless, Oregon's role in the GDA or ECNL is irrelevant from a competitive standpoint, but with the Thorns offering a GDA program that offers thousands of dollars in savings compared to the local club that doesn't makes the choice of where to play: Thorns GDA or the local club travel team is now much easier on the eyes and pocketbook.

The only GDA that has mentioned subsidy for girls to minimize cost is the SoCal club, but that is easy to subsidize because all their games are local. Thorns will not be paying for airfare, lodging, meals, rental cars, and coaches expenses

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The only GDA that has mentioned subsidy for girls to minimize cost is the SoCal club, but that is easy to subsidize because all their games are local. Thorns will not be paying for airfare, lodging, meals, rental cars, and coaches expenses

GDA will be less than $20,000 per year.

The drawback to GDA is the loss of a lot of the things that make soccer fun. No high school sports. Banned. You'll miss dances. Attending football and basketball games is off the table. No tournaments (surf, Dallas, Disney, etc) which competitive kids love. No friends outside soccer. School work suffers with 5-6 days a week of soccer. Over training.

If you want to sack the rest of your life and be a soccer obsessed kid and have a lot of money to spend, GDA might be ok.

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GDA will be less than $20,000 per year.

The drawback to GDA is the loss of a lot of the things that make soccer fun. No high school sports. Banned. You'll miss dances. Attending football and basketball games is off the table. No tournaments (surf, Dallas, Disney, etc) which competitive kids love. No friends outside soccer. School work suffers with 5-6 days a week of soccer. Over training.

If you want to sack the rest of your life and be a soccer obsessed kid and have a lot of money to spend, GDA might be ok.

All false. Already announced letting girls play high school. $20k is for ECNL suckers. GDA will be less than ECNL.

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All false. Already announced letting girls play high school. $20k is for ECNL suckers. GDA will be less than ECNL.

While I agree the poster over exaggerated there are truths in his post

- Just because USSF has said it's permitted to play HS doesn't mean the clubs will permit it. It is up to their discretion to allow players to do it, and USSF has said no GDA activity if a player is doing HS Soccer. Clubs can't afford to have multiple players missing for 3-4 months so waivers will only be given to a handful of super studs across the entire club. Some top players are multi sport athletes which also isn't allowed. All of it matters to many but admittedly not all players.

- Travel for GDA, especially for anyone in our area, is just as bad if not worse than ECNL. There are still 2-3 national events like ECNL (usually FL and AZ) plus possibly playoffs. Few clubs are paying travel costs; some are trying to lower club fees by $1000 or so, but that won't matter to the average middle-upper income soccer family.

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With an 04 birth year no players will be in HS.. so won't matter. Same rules apply to DA. No outside competitive team sports.. not a fit for any multi-sport athlete.

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GDA will be less than $20,000 per year.

The drawback to GDA is the loss of a lot of the things that make soccer fun. No high school sports. Banned. You'll miss dances. Attending football and basketball games is off the table. No tournaments (surf, Dallas, Disney, etc) which competitive kids love. No friends outside soccer. School work suffers with 5-6 days a week of soccer. Over training.

If you want to sack the rest of your life and be a soccer obsessed kid and have a lot of money to spend, GDA might be ok.

If you want to do GDA you have to be ALL in. And it will be expensive but all soccer is

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With an 04 birth year no players will be in HS.. so won't matter. Same rules apply to DA. No outside competitive team sports.. not a fit for any multi-sport athlete.

USSF doesn't care about multi sport athletes, or HS soccer, or even really 99% of the players really. Always remember that. Look out for your own kids and find the best coach/team/club/league that best fits their skills and long term goals

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GDA will be less than $20,000 per year.

The drawback to GDA is the loss of a lot of the things that make soccer fun. No high school sports. Banned. You'll miss dances. Attending football and basketball games is off the table. No tournaments (surf, Dallas, Disney, etc) which competitive kids love. No friends outside soccer. School work suffers with 5-6 days a week of soccer. Over training.

If you want to sack the rest of your life and be a soccer obsessed kid and have a lot of money to spend, GDA might be ok.

Where is the $20,000 number coming from? That would be 15 or more travel trips.

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Where is the $20,000 number coming from? That would be 15 or more travel trips.

As an ECNL parent I can tell you I just added up what we've spent this year, and it's FAR under $20k, or even the $10k you normally see spouted here in association with ECNL. We've spent $3500, plus club fees of $2250, for a total of $5750. What isn't included in that is what we've spent to travel WITH her, which is on us and at our discretion. This has included travel to Seattle several times, San Diego, Sacramento, Houston, Phoenix, San Jose and Boise. It may be silly and futile to try to offer real information on this forum, but just in case there are a few out there genuinely seeking information as they consider if ECNL is a potential option.

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Where is the $20,000 number coming from? That would be 15 or more travel trips.

Ecnl hater keeps upping his totals. It ahold $50K by the end of the month

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Sounds like a scam considering nearly all the Oregon Ecnl teams are getting destroyed and are in last place with negative goal differentials. One crossfire team has a -30 goal differential.

On top of that you are also paying 1k a trip to play some really awful teams that also think they are best in the world.

Majority of Oregon Ecnl teams can't even beat teams 10 miles from them but are losing it because they have to fly 5 hours to play the above.

Overloaded rosters are killing development and the turnover is killing the clubs. Poor coaching is also hurting the teams.

Consider that these kids aren't even getting 3k a year to play at some local school when prior teams were getting that or better without spending 15k a year and killing their chances of actually getting good.

It's not hard to get exposure to college. What's hard is getting developed when all he Oregon Ecnl parents can list is the accomplishments of other teams that are affiliated with the league.

It's literally like the doormat of the league saying they are as good and getting everything that the top team is. Never been that way and you see it now that people aren't trying out for Ecnl in this state anymore.

Just check the 14s 15s and 16s, it's getting bad.

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Oregon Ecnl teams wouldn't even be top 10 in WA and not even close to top 20 in California.

Evidently if they get a patch regardless of the facts, they think they are as good.

It all pans out when their kid ends up getting 1k a year to play at a sub level local Oregon college after paying 10k a year.

In the meantime some random kid from a non Ecnl club gets a full ride to ASU...

Isn't it puzzling that all Oregon Ecnl parents and coaches have is facts that don't even relate you what your are getting?

Isn't t puzzling when it seems like your kid isn't playing or getting better while your team can't even get 4 goals in a season?

Isn't it weird how Ecnl is suppose to develop your kid but your coach isn't busy trying to find kids to replace yours?

Isn't it weird to think how there is always some random Oregon Ecnl parent that sells but is a crazy wreck at the same time?

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I know an Oregon Ecnl coach that said it was highway robbery and it isn't even needed considering the results that we are seeing. It's no better and worse considering the demand and terrible structure on the younger ages.

It's a joke but evidently if TA can say they are part of the Timbers, Oregon Ecnl parents can say they are parent of Ecnl even though both are getting hosed in the process.

My kid went D1 without doing that league. While the same kids on fc p Ecnl teams are struggling to even get looks even at a showcase with a lot of coaches.

Just not good.