STA - MLS Next?

[Guest]

Will STA ever be given MLS next status? Heard rumors about this coming - anyone in the know??

[Guest]

Please no. For the love of God the Northeast already has a saturation of MLS Next clubs. It’s easier for kids to make an MLS Next club in this area than it is for kids to even make a top tier state league team in other areas of the country.

MLS next needs to start expanding into more of the major cities on other parts of the country first. It’s insane that hugely athletic cities like Memphis or even OKC don’t have an MLS Next club within 200 miles of them. But there ate what 3O in the Northeast Corridor alone.

[Guest]

Please no. For the love of God the Northeast already has a saturation of MLS Next clubs. It’s easier for kids to make an MLS Next club in this area than it is for kids to even make a top tier state league team in other areas of the country.

MLS next needs to start expanding into more of the major cities on other parts of the country first. It’s insane that hugely athletic cities like Memphis or even OKC don’t have an MLS Next club within 200 miles of them. But there ate what 3O in the Northeast Corridor alone.

I guess you love driving 3 hours for one game lol

[Guest]

Will STA ever be given MLS next status? Heard rumors about this coming - anyone in the know??

The rumor last year was they turned it down for 2 age groups because they would lose ECNL status and the financial impact of losing 6 already committed ecnl teams would have hurt them too much. Guess it’s all about development in NJ! So after turning it down, I wouldn’t imagine they will get another shot at it.

[Guest]

The rumor last year was they turned it down for 2 age groups because they would lose ECNL status and the financial impact of losing 6 already committed ecnl teams would have hurt them too much. Guess it’s all about development in NJ! So after turning it down, I wouldn’t imagine they will get another shot at it.

interesting

[Guest]

interesting enough STA claim just like any other academy in the area to have good relationship with MLS next teams in the area to further enhance the development of a player

[Guest]

Why doesn't sta have girls ecnl. Weird

[Guest]

I guess you love driving 3 hours for one game lol

Jumping in on this.

As someone who has actually lived in other areas of the country before, I can tell you that you would likely be amazed by the fact that a 3 hour drive for a game doesn't sound very odd nor especially long.

It wasn't unusual to see players/parents traveling 1.5 hours, each way, three or four times a week just to be at team practice. Let's take Nashville for example, they have players/parents driving 2.5+ hours each way for their academy team practices. That's because they are the best team in a very large geographic area. So no, driving 3 hours for a game is child's play for other areas of the country, lol.

MLS needs to look at these other geographic areas before adding more clubs to an area that is already oversaturated. Because the best kids in this area of the country (Northeast) have more than easy access to a top flight team as it stands right now. I just took at look and there are actually 29 MLS Next clubs within a 200 mile radius of New York City (Northeast Corridor). These 29 clubs serve an 18 and under male youth population of 5,267,750. So there is one MLS Next Club per 181,637 boys 18 and under in the area.

Now lets look at one of the Metro areas that was mentioned by the OP - Memphis:

Memphis
- There is no other MLS Next Club within 200 miles of Memphis. (Nashville's academy in Brentwood is the closest at about 220 miles away.)
- Within 200 miles of Memphis the population of boys age 18 and under is 1,118,880. So yeah, I think that area may be a little underserved in comparison?
- But, you may say that there is some overlap between Memphis, Nashville and the other closest MLS Next club Hoover/Vestavia (over 250 miles away) and we should count that. Okay, so let's overlap all three of those areas together and see the 18 and under boys population within 125 miles of these three metros combined. There are 1,618,735 boys age 18 and under currently served by only 2 MLS Next clubs in the Nash/Mem/Bham area. So there are approximately 4.5X more boys per MLS Next club in those areas as it currently stands.
- IF you added an MLS Next club in Memphis then there would still be only one MLS club per 539,578 boys. That means there would STILL be 3X the number of boys served per MLS Next club in the Nash/Mem/Bham areas!


So, add STA and all the new clubs you want here to the MLS Next Roster. But the fact is there are other areas that are majorly underserved by MLS Next, and which deserve some attention. (And if you really want to see places that are even more over served by MLS Next when looking at population then check out Florida.)

[Guest]

Following up on this. Put it another way. If the Northeast Corridor had the same number of MLS Next Clubs per capita of boys 18 and under as the Nash/Mem/Bham area then there would only be 6.5 MLS Next clubs in the Northeast.

[Guest]

Why doesn't sta have girls ecnl. Weird

Because they are one of the founders of Girls Academy. They decided to try and compete against Ecnl and keep more of the money.

[Guest]

Because they are one of the founders of Girls Academy. They decided to try and compete against Ecnl and keep more of the money.

Thanks. Didn't know that.

[Guest]

Jumping in on this.

As someone who has actually lived in other areas of the country before, I can tell you that you would likely be amazed by the fact that a 3 hour drive for a game doesn't sound very odd nor especially long.

It wasn't unusual to see players/parents traveling 1.5 hours, each way, three or four times a week just to be at team practice. Let's take Nashville for example, they have players/parents driving 2.5+ hours each way for their academy team practices. That's because they are the best team in a very large geographic area. So no, driving 3 hours for a game is child's play for other areas of the country, lol.

MLS needs to look at these other geographic areas before adding more clubs to an area that is already oversaturated. Because the best kids in this area of the country (Northeast) have more than easy access to a top flight team as it stands right now. I just took at look and there are actually 29 MLS Next clubs within a 200 mile radius of New York City (Northeast Corridor). These 29 clubs serve an 18 and under male youth population of 5,267,750. So there is one MLS Next Club per 181,637 boys 18 and under in the area.

Now lets look at one of the Metro areas that was mentioned by the OP - Memphis:

Memphis
- There is no other MLS Next Club within 200 miles of Memphis. (Nashville's academy in Brentwood is the closest at about 220 miles away.)
- Within 200 miles of Memphis the population of boys age 18 and under is 1,118,880. So yeah, I think that area may be a little underserved in comparison?
- But, you may say that there is some overlap between Memphis, Nashville and the other closest MLS Next club Hoover/Vestavia (over 250 miles away) and we should count that. Okay, so let's overlap all three of those areas together and see the 18 and under boys population within 125 miles of these three metros combined. There are 1,618,735 boys age 18 and under currently served by only 2 MLS Next clubs in the Nash/Mem/Bham area. So there are approximately 4.5X more boys per MLS Next club in those areas as it currently stands.
- IF you added an MLS Next club in Memphis then there would still be only one MLS club per 539,578 boys. That means there would STILL be 3X the number of boys served per MLS Next club in the Nash/Mem/Bham areas!


So, add STA and all the new clubs you want here to the MLS Next Roster. But the fact is there are other areas that are majorly underserved by MLS Next, and which deserve some attention. (And if you really want to see places that are even more over served by MLS Next when looking at population then check out Florida.)

Difference is we have plenty competitive clubs in the tri state area. So I'd rather not drive 3 hours one way to one game. It's absolutely pointless ! think about the ammount of playing time vs the actual time to get there.

[Guest]

Why doesn't sta have girls ecnl. Weird

Because they are less than 5 minutes from MFA.

[Guest]

Because they are less than 5 minutes from MFA.

Yea MFA would never allow that to happen. STA is the much better club and should have the ECNL badge.