The ECNL Sales Pitch - Fact or Fiction

[Unregistered]

OR the best coaching at the highest team level because they are not an ECNL club...like NEFC.

You're welcome BB.

[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.

Not sure how you feel there is a money grab by the ECNL clubs.

You want to debate travel expenses - fine, there is at least some debate there.
You want to say clubs are wasting money traveling - fine, you can debate how productive the travel is.
You want to debate the cost of youth sports in general - fine.

How can you however, say there is a money grab by ECNL clubs? There is absolutely no evidence put out there that ECNL clubs are charging more for training/coaching than anyone else.

[Unregistered]

Just a question other clubs travel outside of MA right? So why is it that people people never complain about that? Teams that do R1 travel a bit. Even if your on a non-ECNL team you have to travel to play against good teams. ECNL teams do travel a bit more but they also are getting to play against good teams from other states outside of the north east.

[Unregistered]

Just a question other clubs travel outside of MA right? So why is it that people people never complain about that? Teams that do R1 travel a bit. Even if your on a non-ECNL team you have to travel to play against good teams. ECNL teams do travel a bit more but they also are getting to play against good teams from other states outside of the north east.

The only club that has really pushed the travel envelope anywhere near as much as the ECNL clubs is MPS and if you look at their travel schedule on GotSoccer they only did 7 big trips over the course of their team history. According to GotSoccer the U18 Stars did 11 big trips and that appears to be in addition to the travel required by the ECNL. When you do the math the final cost of the Stars travel is still going to be higher than MPS's travel.

[Unregistered]

The only club that has really pushed the travel envelope anywhere near as much as the ECNL clubs is MPS and if you look at their travel schedule on GotSoccer they only did 7 big trips over the course of their team history. According to GotSoccer the U18 Stars did 11 big trips and that appears to be in addition to the travel required by the ECNL. When you do the math the final cost of the Stars travel is still going to be higher than MPS's travel.

NEFC travels more than MPS or Stars. For the last year, take a quick look at their top 2 U13 teams (lots of college scouts going to those tournaments!): one did 4 tournament trips south of New England in the last year (doesn't count league travel), and the other did 3. Same with the U14s and U15s. Look at MPS and you see local leagues and maybe 1 travel tournament. Stars ECNL has 2 tournament trips at U13 and U14.

Hard to see how MPS or Stars parents spend more in travel costs than NEFC.

[Unregistered]

I see this point above, and maybe others have made it as well, so sorry if this is really redundant. All of the angst and bashing, and the whole U14/U15 threads, are mostly an unnecessary waste of energy because so few kids could ever make a ECNL roster. This is an issue/problem for a very tiny percentage of youth, even elite youth, soccer players. Generally speaking, just like with DAP, the right folks end up with ECNL. Whether it is worth it, and/or whether they use it for something antithetical to the stated purpose, like for elite D3 admissions, is really their business. They probably know what they're doing.

[Unregistered]

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.

I didn't say the travel was sane. I said ECNL travel has been cheaper for our family than the previous Maple, Super Y, R1, Disney variation. We've had one parent and child travel on 3 Southwest or JetBlue flights booked months in advance. We bid rental cars on Priceline. We stay at the team hotel, which to the ECNL's credit averages at least $40 less than our previous club's booking.

You spent $1,500. We spent about 1/3 less for our 3 trips.

Disney flights alone, once we knew we were accepted with our previous club cost almost $1,000 per person. Hotel was $180+ per night. Rental cars...no deals at Christmas... $500. And then the kicker, Disney charged me $100 to watch my own kid play. Add food, and this was a $3,500+ 2 person trip easy.

And we played the majority of our games off site, 40-60 minutes away in brutal traffic with the only college coaches in sight the ones coaching teams.

None of this is sane. But to paint ECNL as the culprit, when many of their decisions have improved competition and lowered costs, is just not fair.

[Unregistered]

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.

What you say is not a surprise. Anybody can make a select team now. Select teams are often not so "select." Many teams are just glorified recreational teams. It's not always the clubs that are to blame for all of this. The parents want their children to play on select teams so that they can say "Little Johnny plays on the XYZ select team." There is such a dearth of talent in the lower wrung leagues that it's laughable. Trophies and juice boxes for everybody is nearly analagous to select teams for everybody!!!

Now.......back to bashing each other over the merits and deficiencies of the ECNL.

[Slim Whitman]

???. 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.

If clubs are not putting their best teams at each age group into the ECNL, then they should not be ECNL clubs and if they continue the practice, they will be ex-ECNL clubs.

So, if you say that the ECNL is not the best league in the country, what is the best league? Please.....tell us.

[Unregistered]

I didn't say the travel was sane. I said ECNL travel has been cheaper for our family than the previous Maple, Super Y, R1, Disney variation. We've had one parent and child travel on 3 Southwest or JetBlue flights booked months in advance. We bid rental cars on Priceline. We stay at the team hotel, which to the ECNL's credit averages at least $40 less than our previous club's booking.

You spent $1,500. We spent about 1/3 less for our 3 trips.

Disney flights alone, once we knew we were accepted with our previous club cost almost $1,000 per person. Hotel was $180+ per night. Rental cars...no deals at Christmas... $500. And then the kicker, Disney charged me $100 to watch my own kid play. Add food, and this was a $3,500+ 2 person trip easy.

And we played the majority of our games off site, 40-60 minutes away in brutal traffic with the only college coaches in sight the ones coaching teams.

None of this is sane. But to paint ECNL as the culprit, when many of their decisions have improved competition and lowered costs, is just not fair.

Bet with hindsight that you now feel rather silly for buying into the showcase hype that I am sure had you thinking you had to take your player to Disney to get discovered. Disney was Disney, back then it was sold as THE place to be to get exposure to college coaches. I see it as much the same sort of hype that now surrounds the ECNL. If you went then you should have expected the price tag that went with it. No one twisted your arm and you are more than a little disingenuous complaining about it now. We never bought into that hype and actually had very satisfactory results from a couple of well timed trips to CASL and PDA at a fraction of the cost. As the commercial goes, an educated consumer is the best customer.

[Unregistered]

If clubs are not putting their best teams at each age group into the ECNL, then they should not be ECNL clubs and if they continue the practice, they will be ex-ECNL clubs.

So, if you say that the ECNL is not the best league in the country, what is the best league? Please.....tell us.

There are many US Youth Soccer regional leagues (Not R1PL) that provide better competition because the teams get admitted based upon their resume not their club's. The notion that a national league that admits teams based upon their clubs perceived strength is better is laughable.

[Unregistered]

Bet with hindsight that you now feel rather silly for buying into the showcase hype that I am sure had you thinking you had to take your player to Disney to get discovered. Disney was Disney, back then it was sold as THE place to be to get exposure to college coaches. I see it as much the same sort of hype that now surrounds the ECNL. If you went then you should have expected the price tag that went with it. No one twisted your arm and you are more than a little disingenuous complaining about it now. We never bought into that hype and actually had very satisfactory results from a couple of well timed trips to CASL and PDA at a fraction of the cost. As the commercial goes, an educated consumer is the best customer.

I didn't buy "hype". My child committed to a team so we attended. I'm also not complaining, but rather thankful that a cheaper option with better competition and a schedule set half a year in advance exists.....ECNL.

[Unregistered]

There are many US Youth Soccer regional leagues (Not R1PL) that provide better competition because the teams get admitted based upon their resume not their club's. The notion that a national league that admits teams based upon their clubs perceived strength is better is laughable.

Great. Which in our area, say within a hour drive of Boston, provide better, more consistent competition than ECNL?

[Unregistered]

I didn't buy "hype". My child committed to a team so we attended. I'm also not complaining, but rather thankful that a cheaper option with better competition and a schedule set half a year in advance exists.....ECNL.

So how much HAVE you spent chasing the dream. So far you have admitted to $8K. Would bet the number is actually much higher. How can you talk about something being a cheaper option when the whole premise your logic is based upon is insane.

[Unregistered]

Great. Which in our area, say within a hour drive of Boston, provide better, more consistent competition than ECNL?

You can't honestly believe that the NE Conference represents the highest level of youth soccer can you? Not when you have teams that can't win any games and routinely get blown out by 5-6 goals.