The ECNL Sales Pitch - Fact or Fiction

[Unregistered]

Great for those girls on the ecnl teams, but I hope your not trying to suggest that they all received scholarships to play. The money just aint there like they are trying to suggest. So recognizing this, the families had to pay what $8,000 to $10,000/year to play to begin with and are now also footing a hefty tuition bill.

Our family, all in, spent just over $5,000 for 3 flights, rental cars, hotels, club fees, and gas to travel back and forth to practice. I'm sure, because we had to tally this info for tax return and financial aid purposes. A couple years back it cost over $3,000 to attend Disney alone. From personal experience I can only conclude all this ECNL is expensive stuff is politically motivated.

[Unregistered]

Our family, all in, spent just over $5,000 for 3 flights, rental cars, hotels, club fees, and gas to travel back and forth to practice. I'm sure, because we had to tally this info for tax return and financial aid purposes. A couple years back it cost over $3,000 to attend Disney alone. From personal experience I can only conclude all this ECNL is expensive stuff is politically motivated.

It's a money grab for clubs and the environment is down right nasty. We are headed back to our former club. We realize that some extra sessions and a phone call puts her on the same path.

[Unregistered]

3 of 4 last years National Champions (u15-18) are now in ECNL
16 of 20 Regional Champions (u14-18) are now in ECNL

Seems like the highest level to me.

How many national champions will the ECNL boast this year? Are you so sure that after the U18's graduate and the U17's next year that the upcoming crop of U14 and U13 ECNL teams are equally as powerful? The crux of the matter is that the league was formed by a couple of super clubs with some great older and established teams. Now those very same clubs are struggling to replicate that same feat with their younger teams in this divided youth soccer world and they have watered the league down by admitting weak sisters like SoccerPlus and Scorpions. The net, net is any league that is based on club credentials versus team credentials will never be able to claim they are the highest level of soccer. It is impossible for every club to recruit the very best team in their respective area at every level but we can be sure that the ECNL will claim they can.

[Unregistered]

Our family, all in, spent just over $5,000 for 3 flights, rental cars, hotels, club fees, and gas to travel back and forth to practice. I'm sure, because we had to tally this info for tax return and financial aid purposes. A couple years back it cost over $3,000 to attend Disney alone. From personal experience I can only conclude all this ECNL is expensive stuff is politically motivated.

You had better go back through your records again, cause this just isn't true. It's already been exposed on other threads by ecnl families that the total cost of participation was $8,000 - $10,000.

[Unregistered]

Non ECNL parent here....It is hard to argue with the data. 46 D1 recruits, 6 D2 and 3 D3? Pretty impressive. I think some of this is chicken/egg. You have some very driven, very talented young women playing for this club. Many of them were drawn by the ECNL and the success of the Scorps. The fact that Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Brown are mentioned as schools these kids are going to proves that they have talents outside of soccer (soccer surely did not hurt). This is definitely a sales pitch. Not untrue but it is not intended to show the other side of the argument. I don't think one can reasonably disagree with anything that was presented. ECNL is the top level of competition, one may argue that there are other avenues that rival it but it is certainly a plausible statement.

ECNL is not for everyone. It is great for some, undesirable for some and honestly unattainable for most (either talent or money).

Your last sentence pretty much sums it up quite well.


Beyond some people's opinion of what " level " the ECNL is I would offer the following.
Of course there are those people here, parents and coaches,and even players, that don't regard the opinions of Referees to hold that much weight. However, there are Referees that have played the game, coached,have licenses, and had children play. Some of them have been Referees for over a decade , or even longer. They actively may do ALL levels of Youth soccer, even adult games. They Refere ECNL, DAP, ODP, Premier, even Travel. They see plenty of soccer, in all ages and " levels".So what do some of those Referees think about the label of " elite' being applied to specific competitions for children. Their opnions may surprise you.

Beyond that concept, is the area of full development of the child, mental and physical. Does the added stress of these " elite" levels become truly beneficial to children in the long run? Having to compete for positions on teams at younger and younger ages, being possibly forced into " specialization " in order to keep up with the adult enforced rising tide of the latest and greatest answer to development, where is it all going?

Is it the chase for College that is driving the price , and the commitment level up? Just who is benefiting from these trends in the big picture ? Sure, there are numbers of players moving on to D1 and other College levels, but we really don't know what packages they are really receiving, do we?It is all speculative.What about the numbers that are in it, pay the price in more ways than one, and then leave the game when they turn 19 or 20. What about the physical stress. I am absolutley blown away by the numbers of young female soccer players playing with huge braces on , getting injury after injury.I had several children play soccer over the course of over two decades, and none of them where ever loaded up with braces on their knees. As a matter of fact, in the past, hardly ANY child wore any kind of brace on the field. Seems to me that therecent addition of these " elite" levels may be actually contributing to a number of these injuries.

Is the idea that the current Youth soccer market is building a base of children that will have a life long love of the game, or is it currently diminishing the capacity for children to stay in it as young adults, and even as mature adults ? These are questions that Clubs and the Organizations that profit really care not to address , or never address. The majority of children that play Youth soccer in America will never even play in College, 99 % or more is not a bad estimate. Then why are parents allowing the market to be driven by such a low percentage of return for their children? Are they so enamored with the ego boost that they are blinded by the truth? Are they truly comfortable with a systenm that grinds childen up and spits them out when a higher skilled, or more affluent child arrives on the scene? Parenst by nature want the very best for their children, but as adults meddle more and more in the activities of children, the water gets even more and more muddy.

[Unregistered]

It's a money grab for clubs and the environment is down right nasty. We are headed back to our former club. We realize that some extra sessions and a phone call puts her on the same path.

This is actually right on the money. If your kids work had and develop their talent they will get were they are destined to go without all of this crap. You can't buy it simply by belonging to the right country club.

[Unregistered]

Your last sentence pretty much sums it up quite well.


Beyond some people's opinion of what " level " the ECNL is I would offer the following.
Of course there are those people here, parents and coaches,and even players, that don't regard the opinions of Referees to hold that much weight. However, there are Referees that have played the game, coached,have licenses, and had children play. Some of them have been Referees for over a decade , or even longer. They actively may do ALL levels of Youth soccer, even adult games. They Refere ECNL, DAP, ODP, Premier, even Travel. They see plenty of soccer, in all ages and " levels".So what do some of those Referees think about the label of " elite' being applied to specific competitions for children. Their opnions may surprise you.

Beyond that concept, is the area of full development of the child, mental and physical. Does the added stress of these " elite" levels become truly beneficial to children in the long run? Having to compete for positions on teams at younger and younger ages, being possibly forced into " specialization " in order to keep up with the adult enforced rising tide of the latest and greatest answer to development, where is it all going?

Is it the chase for College that is driving the price , and the commitment level up? Just who is benefiting from these trends in the big picture ? Sure, there are numbers of players moving on to D1 and other College levels, but we really don't know what packages they are really receiving, do we?It is all speculative.What about the numbers that are in it, pay the price in more ways than one, and then leave the game when they turn 19 or 20. What about the physical stress. I am absolutley blown away by the numbers of young female soccer players playing with huge braces on , getting injury after injury.I had several children play soccer over the course of over two decades, and none of them where ever loaded up with braces on their knees. As a matter of fact, in the past, hardly ANY child wore any kind of brace on the field. Seems to me that therecent addition of these " elite" levels may be actually contributing to a number of these injuries.

Is the idea that the current Youth soccer market is building a base of children that will have a life long love of the game, or is it currently diminishing the capacity for children to stay in it as young adults, and even as mature adults ? These are questions that Clubs and the Organizations that profit really care not to address , or never address. The majority of children that play Youth soccer in America will never even play in College, 99 % or more is not a bad estimate. Then why are parents allowing the market to be driven by such a low percentage of return for their children? Are they so enamored with the ego boost that they are blinded by the truth? Are they truly comfortable with a systenm that grinds childen up and spits them out when a higher skilled, or more affluent child arrives on the scene? Parenst by nature want the very best for their children, but as adults meddle more and more in the activities of children, the water gets even more and more muddy.

Awsome post! Thank you!

[Unregistered]

More biased crap....

You had better go back through your records again, cause this just isn't true. It's already been exposed on other threads by ecnl families that the total cost of participation was $8,000 - $10,000.

Horse crap - it's no more than playing at a club and on a team that participates in a USYSA regional league and attends showcases (PDA, Disney, etc) would pay. In some instances, those players playing in the regional leagues may even be paying more.

I don't care what the "alphabet soup" acronym is; it's all expensive.

[Unregistered]

Our family, all in, spent just over $5,000 for 3 flights, rental cars, hotels, club fees, and gas to travel back and forth to practice. I'm sure, because we had to tally this info for tax return and financial aid purposes. A couple years back it cost over $3,000 to attend Disney alone. From personal experience I can only conclude all this ECNL is expensive stuff is politically motivated.

My neighbors daughter is on one of these teams here in Mass and he said it was pretty close to 7000 as him and the wife typically go to the events. It did depend on the tournaments and the cost for other items like food.

Another incidental that they mentioned is the travel added challenges for their daughter to get good grades and the homework done. They are right now deciding what is more important and are they really getting anything "special" out of this team prior to teams in the past. He is 90% certain they will not be returning and is planning to tell the daughter she will get the 4k they save towards a car.

[Unregistered]

Stop right there, the ECNL most certainly is not the highest level of competition in the country. Way too many weak teams and blow outs to be the highest level.

Then why do clubs that have more than one team at an age group put their top team in the ECNL and their 2nd and/or 3rd teams into the regional leagues? Overall, when you look at the club across the country that are in the ECNL, they are a pretty solid group. I'm not saying that there are not non-ECNL that would be able to compete in the league. What I am saying is that the level competition, overall, is pretty high. Blowouts occur in all leagues.

[Unregistered]

Our family, all in, spent just over $5,000 for 3 flights, rental cars, hotels, club fees, and gas to travel back and forth to practice. I'm sure, because we had to tally this info for tax return and financial aid purposes. A couple years back it cost over $3,000 to attend Disney alone. From personal experience I can only conclude all this ECNL is expensive stuff is politically motivated.

My bet is you are using an apples with oranges comparison to make an intentionally misleading point. My bet is if we looked at your numbers we would see something like your child went alone to the later trips or something like that. Disney certainly is expensive but not that expensive. My bet is you did what a lot of people did and mixed a family vacation in with the soccer trip and that acccounts for some portion of your cost. Disney was always a luxury trip anyways and more than a few clubs recognized that the outcomes didn't justify the cost and stopped sending their teams. For what it is worth we used to budget $1,500 per showcase. That would balance something like a Disney trip (in our case Orange) with the PDA and NEWSS trips. We didn't start travelling until the U15 year and were largely done with travelling by the middle of the U17 year. In total we did something like 6 showcases over about a 30 month period. What is going on now is insane and totally unecessary.

[Unregistered]

Then why do clubs that have more than one team at an age group put their top team in the ECNL and their 2nd and/or 3rd teams into the regional leagues? Overall, when you look at the club across the country that are in the ECNL, they are a pretty solid group. I'm not saying that there are not non-ECNL that would be able to compete in the league. What I am saying is that the level competition, overall, is pretty high. Blowouts occur in all leagues.

???. What on earth is your point? The stars and Scorpions put their best teams in the ECNL but other ECNL do not. CFC had several non ECNL teams that were better than their ECNL counterparts. You actually have more dog clubs than super clubs at this point and all you have to do is look at the teams from clubs like SoccerPlus or Scorpions to realize the league pretty far away from being the highest level of youth soccer in the country.

[Unregistered]

From the recruiting spreadsheet
Stanford: 16/19 from ECNL teams
Duke: 11/16 from ECNL teams
Wake Forest: 5/12 from ECNL teams

They will ban you on TS for using facts to back up your argument! Let's return to the bashing now.

[Unregistered]

The majority of children that play Youth soccer in America will never even play in College, 99 % or more is not a bad estimate. Then why are parents allowing the market to be driven by such a low percentage of return for their children? Are they so enamored with the ego boost that they are blinded by the truth? Are they truly comfortable with a systenm that grinds childen up and spits them out when a higher skilled, or more affluent child arrives on the scene?
<quote>

What are the corresponding percentages for Little League baseball, Youth Hockey, AAU Basketball, Travel Softball, etc.? Are you going to make your kid quit club soccer because the probability of the investment paying off isn't there? If so, then many of these other sports aren't any better bets. Sure, they may not cost as much as a full ECNL season might, but most of the kids playing ECNL are among the top players in the area at their respective age groups.

Have you been to some of these softball tournaments or AAU hoop tournaments? There are kids playing in them who look like they just took up the game for the first time that morning. It's not just soccer --- it's all youth sports.

[Unregistered]

It's funny that so many people are willing to debate this topic when so few (percentage-wise) actually make the ECNL rosters. Either that or it's the same people going round and round in this fight.

If your child is destined for greatness in soccer (meaning she has the talent, drive, and love of the game), and you are supporting her efforts, giving her the opportunities she needs to excel, ECNL or no ECNL, she will be successful.

If she is not successful in soccer it wasn't meant to be. 26 spots exist for ECNL in each age group for Stars and Scorpions. Highly unlikely that more than a handful are even open at tryouts as the rosters don't change that much.

Investing in ECNL is not always a best-case ROI scenario, but it can be. Your daughter has to be there for the love of the game, the level of competition, and a true interest in seeing what the rest of the soccer world looks like in this country. It may or may not be the best investment for some. Which is why, in my book, the clubs that offer excellent coaching at both their ECNL AND second team levels, are the ones people should be flocking to.