ECNL-DA club jumping season is upon us

[Unregistered]

GDA has only been round for 2 complete years. So you can't grade them on it yet. The fact they started booting so early is admirable.

Or it’s a sign of there incompetence inviting clubs who did not belong in the first place.

[Unregistered]

Or it’s a sign of there incompetence inviting clubs who did not belong in the first place.

Either way, they correct the issue.

ECNL?

[Unregistered]

GDA has only been round for 2 complete years. So you can't grade them on it yet. The fact they started booting so early is admirable.

whoopie, they booted what, two clubs? Fury never should have been in it in the first place. The fact that GDA has lost well over a dozen top clubs (probably more, I've lost count) in that same amount of time tells you all you need to know about GDA's future. Compare losing NYCFC to adding Seacoast? You can't.

[Unregistered]

Or it’s a sign of there incompetence inviting clubs who did not belong in the first place.

And then adding more as other good clubs leave. Rather than work to improve quality they degrade it each year. At best they maintain overall mediocrity.

[Unregistered]

Aaahh...so we are back to the negativity thread again.

Carry on, les miserables

[Unregistered]

whoopie, they booted what, two clubs? Fury never should have been in it in the first place. The fact that GDA has lost well over a dozen top clubs (probably more, I've lost count) in that same amount of time tells you all you need to know about GDA's future. Compare losing NYCFC to adding Seacoast? You can't.

25 clubs have either left GDA or refused entry offer (Match Fit).

[Unregistered]

Wrong. For top level players ECNL provides unparalleled college exposure. NPL does not.

DA is obviously on same parallel.

[Unregistered]

A minus to this proposal is you either promo/relegate an entire club, or individual teams. Nothing perfect with this, as club's have teams who could be in a top league, but not the entire club. That then means that the clubs are in two different leagues/travel which may be hard to coordinate.

If this was done, every club in america would clamor to get a team in at any age group and very few clubs would have more than 2 teams. Rec, travel, NPL, ECNL, DA .... all put on equal footing and allowed to settle it on the field. You dont like the format or want to make it easy every weekend to coordinate matches, go play in the rec league. Easy to coordinate. The scheduler for this league schedules games for each weekend by putting in the opponents .... the teams involved coordinate the exact day and time. Here is the thing, if you worried about where your U14 Girls B and C teams are playing over this game, you dont deserve to be here .... very simple.

[Unregistered]

GDA has only been round for 2 complete years. So you can't grade them on it yet. The fact they started booting so early is admirable.

They dont boot anyone ... the top teams leave and the ones that they should have booted just become mid-table because they fill the bottom of the league with two new teams that just came from travel.

[Unregistered]

They dont boot anyone ... the top teams leave and the ones that they should have booted just become mid-table because they fill the bottom of the league with two new teams that just came from travel.

Huh? Empire was gone after two years. Albertson was gone after two, and likely Fury after their shanagans this year. Seacoast is on this ice, only saving grace for them is they are at least acceptable at the younger ages.

At least try to be truthful.

Who has ECNL booted? (I am legitimately asking as I do not know)

[Unregistered]

Yeah, kick out Seacoast & Fury and make the travel even worse. Great plan.

[Unregistered]

Yeah, kick out Seacoast & Fury and make the travel even worse. Great plan.

You ECNL-ers needs to get on the same page. Half the commentary is to kick them out because they are NPL level, now it's keep them to keep the travel down.

Figure yourselves out already, will you.

[Unregistered]

Before you do anything, you need a partner with NPL and ECNL. They are key to this.

Second, there HAS to be some pressure/coordination with high schools to allow for players to participate in both. If this goes nowhere, so does my post….

Next, vastly increase the size of ECNL. I see 8 conferences, make it 16 (call them Divisions) and put 8 teams in each. Some conferences have 9, some up to 12, so make them smaller and an even 8 per conference. That alone eliminates some travel.

You have 4 Conferences made up of 4 Divisions each: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest.

Northeast Conference: New England, Metro NY, Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley

You play a H/A with each team in your Division (14 games)
You play a H or A with your next closest Division (7 games) * Possibly you could rotate with other Divisions similar to how the NFL does it, open to discussion

Results from previous seasons are your seeding for the Open Competition (all teams are entered)

You play 3 “Showcases”/Open Competition (December, April, June) where you each play 3 games. These are all pooled games. These are all knock-out games, 3 games over 4 days. Once you lose, you go into a “Friendly/Losers’ Bracket” and play similar. The “Winners” get knocked down from 128 teams, to 64, to 32 after the December showcase. In April, you get knocked down to 16, then 8, then 4 teams. Your June showcase knocks you down to two teams after the first day. They play 2 games, on aggregate over the last two games to decide your winner. As you get knocked out, you play other knocked out teams as friendlies/play for pride, but results don’t affect any future seedings (again, open to discussion). You won’t know who your competition after the first game, but I’m sure you could at least align it so the times are known.

That gives you 29 games for everyone.

Top teach in each Division gets a top seed for the next Showcase. Maybe as an incentive, they get to pick the start time/day of their games.
Bottom team (or 2?) of each Division drops out after the season and is replaced by top NPL team(s) - not sure how that is determined, figure that out later.

Showcase seedings would look similar to an NCAA bracket, just that it’s not win and you go home.

Travel would be vastly decreased. Local competition/dlck measuring would be increased and would have a better method of comparing clubs vs TS bragging.

Give USSoccer oversight and the ability to pull in players for Regional camps as needed, but they are out of the league-running business.

-GDA Parent

Appreciate this response. We can squabble over some details but highlights for me
* USSF makes nice with ECNL/NPL. Collapses DA into those two leagues. They should welcome new members
* More clubs allows regional structure with less travel (still some travel x-conf)
* Rationalize showcases and tourneys into a big finale
(note: HS showcases are good for recruiting equal PT)
* Provide for Team-based Promo-Rele
* USSF collaborates and pulls players into regional ID pools

[Unregistered]

Appreciate this response. We can squabble over some details but highlights for me
* USSF makes nice with ECNL/NPL. Collapses DA into those two leagues. They should welcome new members
* More clubs allows regional structure with less travel (still some travel x-conf)
* Rationalize showcases and tourneys into a big finale
(note: HS showcases are good for recruiting equal PT)
* Provide for Team-based Promo-Rele
* USSF collaborates and pulls players into regional ID pools

Yeah, my plan was mostly off the cuff, but something I've thought about for a while now (mostly during the quiet time hauling up the Wilbur Cross Pkwy....).

It takes a lot of givens that are unlikely - i.e. USSoccer getting out of the GDA business, ECNL/NPL collaboration [maybe they purchase them outright with funds from USSoccer?] and the biggest: HS giving a little [there's little incentive for them].

I suppose you could try to cram it all after the HS season?

[Unregistered]

Yeah, my plan was mostly off the cuff, but something I've thought about for a while now (mostly during the quiet time hauling up the Wilbur Cross Pkwy....).

It takes a lot of givens that are unlikely - i.e. USSoccer getting out of the GDA business, ECNL/NPL collaboration [maybe they purchase them outright with funds from USSoccer?] and the biggest: HS giving a little [there's little incentive for them].

I suppose you could try to cram it all after the HS season?

The Leagues, Clubs, and associations may be able to work it out.
HSs can not be part of the solution. GDA is already tainted on HS and just needs to give that up.