If youth soccer/sports is broken, then how can it be fixed?

[Guest]

The negativity across the board about youth soccer/sports is insane. Everyone is at fault from parents to clubs to leagues.

What would the landscape look like if things were positive and good?

[Guest]

Meh, miserable people will find something to be miserable about, no matter what is in place. Some wake up in the mornings and just look for things to get upset about. Lack of knowledge of the game, too much concentration on results, and costs make soccer an easy target. But, you could give a parent a 100% guarantee of a full ROI through a scholarship and have their kid on a local team in league their own backyard who goes undefeated, and posters would complain about the kit color.

[Guest]

Eliminate anonymous message boards

[Guest]

Have an independent evaluator(s) come in to these big clubs that has no social political ties to any of the coaches, parents, or players and have them evaluate the entire age group. Guarantee they would have some changes to who belongs on the A, B, C team rosters. Also, don’t have the head coach choose who goes to the USNT ID camps/sessions. Have an independent evaluator choose. We gotta stop playing the favoritism/social politics games. So many great players not being given a chance.

[Guest]

Also, don’t have the head coach choose who goes to the USNT ID camps/sessions. Have an independent evaluator choose. We gotta stop playing the favoritism/social politics games. So many great players not being given a chance.

Tried and failed already.

[Guest]

Tried and failed already.

Who n where

[Guest]

Who n where

The GDA model had independent from Club evaluators bringing players in vs. sent in by the coach.

(Not defending GDA, just saying that was in place)

[Guest]

Wipe out the corrupt USSF and start over. Build a multi-tiered relegation/promotion league structure

[Guest]

Build a multi-tiered relegation/promotion league structure

That just drives teams toward playing for results vs. improvement.

[Guest]

The negativity across the board about youth soccer/sports is insane. Everyone is at fault from parents to clubs to leagues.

What would the landscape look like if things were positive and good?

As long as we continue to run things from top to bottom the way we do we will never see positive changes. Also, remember this forum is a small percentage of the soccer community. Like someone said, people are miserable, its well know coaches come on here to stir the pot and create issues. But speak to the soccer community half the people dont know this is even a thing.

Need to be an investment into the youth game from the pro level, MLS does nothing to help, nor does USSF. There needs to be no more franchise model, this sport is loved enough that the majority of these clubs could be fan-run like in a Germany style model with major investors coming in at 49% of each club. There needs to be pro-rel to get integrity into the competition and make it worthwhile on these guys investing in the USL set up. They should bang their heads so the woman and guys share stadiums to generate more revenue for everyone and like everywhere else in the world maybe have them under one club banner. The fact we always try and do things the American way is showing no matter how hard we try it's never good enough, nor will it be. The moment the English woman's league goes under the PL banner the NWSL will be a graveyard like our mens league.

We have so much potential in this country, but we are sometimes to proud we become blind. For example, ECNL spends well over $2 million a year in advertising to tell everyone they are the best league...WHY? Why is a youth league spending that much on advertising? Why not put that 2 million to the kids who are more than good enough for your league but cant afford the travel to play in your league? Why not put that money into the league so clubs don't need to pay $3-5k to play in your league and then charge the players that fee? Why is your league locked off which means there will never be the best competition available to play within the set up. Why are people not bringing these items to the forefront. This is not a hit at ECNL just a well know bit of information used as an example. But the reason these don't come to the front because mum and dad want to be first in the rate race so little Stevie and Susie get the badge first. The issues start in the mirror in this country, we have a lot of power to change things as parents because like any business you impact consumer behavior, you see changes. If teams of players started to refuse to attend 5 events a year unless some were paid for by the league, watch the league make big changes and quickly I am sure they can spare some of the $5million in revenue they made in 2022 and with nearly doubling their size, I am sure their revenue will also double.

[Guest]

Simple for me. Go to state-run leagues with USSF as the main organization overseeing everything. No need to travel across the country when NJ has enough talent within 30-60 minutes of each other. It eases parents traveling across the state to practice to play for an ECNL or GA team when there will be more opportunities to play at the "top" level with more teams playing in that league. IMO There are enough kids with potential in NJ to form 10 competitive teams in each age group throughout the state with a promotion/relegation style. Want to see the best against the best in the US? Do a Champions League-style tournament where the top 2 teams can travel to play the other 2 teams from other states 2-3 weekends out of the year. So much of youth soccer is marketing/advertising. Keep things simple for parents, players, and clubs by letting the play against local teams dictate how "elite" you are without the high cost of travel/tournaments.

[Guest]

Simple for me. Go to state-run leagues with USSF as the main organization overseeing everything. No need to travel across the country when NJ has enough talent within 30-60 minutes of each other. It eases parents traveling across the state to practice to play for an ECNL or GA team when there will be more opportunities to play at the "top" level with more teams playing in that league. IMO There are enough kids with potential in NJ to form 10 competitive teams in each age group throughout the state with a promotion/relegation style. Want to see the best against the best in the US? Do a Champions League-style tournament where the top 2 teams can travel to play the other 2 teams from other states 2-3 weekends out of the year. So much of youth soccer is marketing/advertising. Keep things simple for parents, players, and clubs by letting the play against local teams dictate how "elite" you are without the high cost of travel/tournaments.

ECNL lol did you some of the scores in Florida how elite has this league become lol

[Guest]

Have an independent evaluator(s) come in to these big clubs that has no social political ties to any of the coaches, parents, or players and have them evaluate the entire age group. Guarantee they would have some changes to who belongs on the A, B, C team rosters. Also, don’t have the head coach choose who goes to the USNT ID camps/sessions. Have an independent evaluator choose. We gotta stop playing the favoritism/social politics games. So many great players not being given a chance.

That for a small portion of players. The issue of US soccer is far broader than just that

[Guest]

ECNL lol did you some of the scores in Florida how elite has this league become lol

My point exactly. You're traveling thousands of miles in some instances to win or lose 5-0 when you could get a similar game 15-30 minutes from your home field. I also think this system could benefit the boy's MLS Next by allowing a professional club like Red Bulls an opportunity to see 9 other local clubs that they can sign local players from (just like Europe). If MLS wants to do a side league where their academies can play the other MLS teams IN ADDITION to the state league, I think that'd be a great idea too. Rather than the marketing/advertising we have now, let the play on the field dictate which clubs are successful or not. Unfortunately, that'd take too much $$ out of people's pockets that are profiting from youth sports.

[Guest]

The GDA model had independent from Club evaluators bringing players in vs. sent in by the coach.

(Not defending GDA, just saying that was in place)

if you think those people were independent, then you really drank the kool aid