Restructuring Oregon Soccer

[SodiumFan[2]]

These are posts imported from another thread that I (and others) felt deserved its own thread.

Originally Posted by Unregistered
I said it earlier, too many clubs. The resources are spread too thinly. Also, many soccer clubs charge $2,500 + per year in fees. If you look at the ECNL clubs, they have coaches who coach full time, they don't have outside jobs. It's a competition between coaches to move up the ranks. They begin recruiting players and forming teams at the U6-U8 level that they then stay with till U-14 or even beyond.

I'm not rooting against ECNL, I'm just saying that they need to fix the club system here first for ECNL to be successful. Get rid of the po-dunk clubs that serve small, local geographies. You see, each club then feels that they have to have a DOC, which dilutes resources, along with paying for playing fields, which dilutes resources. If you add up all of the little soccer clubs here in Portland, I suspect that you will have more clubs than there are in Seattle, Denver, Dallas, ....Certainly we have fewer major clubs than they have.

Personally, I agree. I believe OSSA is on the right track when they brought in Southside. I also think the Tualatin/Sherwood deal is a good thing. If we combined the clubs geographically we could form 4 or 5 major clubs to service Oregon. Granted, the highest populous is in the pdx metro so accommodations would need to be made. It would create great competitive teams at nearly every age group, bolster both the girls and boys side of the clubs and it would make ODP/id2/DA selection easier because you wouldn't have 100 clubs sending players. I really like the point that the coaches compete to move up in the ranks. It's what we do on the team, the player who works the hardest and has the best results starts. When you travel within the state you could lump it together so every club would get their opportunity to 'host' a weekend. Give the clubs an option to play OYSA or OPL. NWCL, FWRL or ECNL. All clubs would play in a 'State Sponsored' round robin tournament to see who would represent Oregon at Regional or National Tournaments.

I realize this is far fetched and off-the-cuff but I believe something needs to be done. It's too scattered and diluted IMHO. My 2 cents worth.

Anyone have any thoughts they want to add? Maybe a better breakdown than geographically? How would you divide or merge the clubs if you were given full access to do so? Thanks.

[Unregistered]

Thanks for doing this SodiumFan! It will be interesting to see the thoughts and ideas of those that live this day to day.
The only thing I would ask is lets be civil. This thread is not about a club / a team etc.

[SodiumFan[2]]

You are exactly right. This thread will be more about big picture solutions.

Example; If you were put in charge, what would YOU do? Who would you merge? How would you divide the new teams to make things even/fair? What leagues would you recommend these teams play in? Would you recommend OPL? OYSA? Neither? Would it matter? What about state cup?

Let's concentrate on how to fix it.

[Unregistered]

These are posts imported from another thread that I (and others) felt deserved its own thread.


Personally, I agree. I believe OSSA is on the right track when they brought in Southside. I also think the Tualatin/Sherwood deal is a good thing. If we combined the clubs geographically we could form 4 or 5 major clubs to service Oregon. Granted, the highest populous is in the pdx metro so accommodations would need to be made. It would create great competitive teams at nearly every age group, bolster both the girls and boys side of the clubs and it would make ODP/id2/DA selection easier because you wouldn't have 100 clubs sending players. I really like the point that the coaches compete to move up in the ranks. It's what we do on the team, the player who works the hardest and has the best results starts. When you travel within the state you could lump it together so every club would get their opportunity to 'host' a weekend. Give the clubs an option to play OYSA or OPL. NWCL, FWRL or ECNL. All clubs would play in a 'State Sponsored' round robin tournament to see who would represent Oregon at Regional or National Tournaments.

I realize this is far fetched and off-the-cuff but I believe something needs to be done. It's too scattered and diluted IMHO. My 2 cents worth.

Anyone have any thoughts they want to add? Maybe a better breakdown than geographically? How would you divide or merge the clubs if you were given full access to do so? Thanks.

I made the post that you quoted and I failed mention the OSSA and Sherwood/Tualitan merger. Glad you made those points. I agree with those clubs being on the right track. However I don't think they need to do it geographically. Take for example OSSA. You could have a OSSA East U15 team (that practices in Clackamas for example) as well as an OSSA U15 team (that practices in Tigard. That doesn't mean that girls in the east will just play for the Clackamas team, although they may prefer to due to proximity.

Have four major clubs (and just making these up): Porland Slammers, Portland Rush, FC Portland and PDX FC. And then have coaches put together teams, some of which play at the main facility, other's which might play in other areas of the city. That doesn't mean there might be a handful of smaller clubs around the area, but the major clubs will be where the top players go.

[Unregistered]

without a doubt this would be the way to go; consolidating clubs and making very competitive teams.

Here is the issue that I see; ego's. There are too many DOC's that want to have their say and not give up control. OSSA was created out of necessity (originally LO and SSC; and now OSA and WUSC) for these clubs to not only have competitive teams in HS; but really to have any teams at all. Unless it is made to feel like a necessity I don't really see consolidations of major clubs occurring.

I think it would be interesting if you could OSSA to consolidate at the U11-U14 level; that basically rolls up 4-clubs right there.

Then if you get get THUSC and Westside to roll together I think they could help each other out.

Get NEU to roll into Eastside

And now you are basically left with 4 major clubs; of FC Portland, Westside, Eastside and OSSA

[Unregistered]

Personally I don't see having numerous Rec level clubs an issue. Keep soccer local and more families/kids will participate.
The problem comes when each of these Rec level clubs want their own advanced competition teams (Classic).
An idea would be to divide the Metro area into 4 disticnt areas. Each of the 4 areas would have only one Classic / advanced competition club. All the Rec clubs in that geography would feed their upper level kids to "their" club. If a player wished to play at one of the other 3 clubs that would be their choice.

These 4 Classic / Premier clubs would have a vested interest in training both players and coaches at the Rec Level as it would benefit them in the long run.

Not sure how you would regulate this.

[Unregistered]

No matter the model that are chosen it is probably not wise to forget about other clubs throughout the state. It is important to keep Oregon soccer together instead of this OPL/OYSA split.

Good luck to THUSC on gaining the ECNL bid!!

[Unregistered]

Personally I don't see having numerous Rec level clubs an issue. Keep soccer local and more families/kids will participate.
The problem comes when each of these Rec level clubs want their own advanced competition teams (Classic).
An idea would be to divide the Metro area into 4 disticnt areas. Each of the 4 areas would have only one Classic / advanced competition club. All the Rec clubs in that geography would feed their upper level kids to "their" club. If a player wished to play at one of the other 3 clubs that would be their choice.

These 4 Classic / Premier clubs would have a vested interest in training both players and coaches at the Rec Level as it would benefit them in the long run.

Not sure how you would regulate this.

These are all great ideas. But one thing, and it's big, is how do we as a community convince our DOC to get involved? Pretty common knowledge they all despise each other.

[Unregistered]

Can't Get too Concentrated

One of the biggest problems with soccer at the uppers is the best players tend to congregate to one or two teams by U-17. The result is that they then have very few opportunities for competitive games without extensive travel and expense. Fine for those who can afford, not so great for those that can't.

I'd rather see one "superclub" (e.g., the Timbers Academy) that takes the best players and then at least 4 but preferably 6 (Portland/Salem/Vancouver) clubs with a more even distribution of talent. We always hear about Xfire and WPFC up in Seattle, but there are lots of other clubs in the greater Seattle metro area like Eastside, NWN, Issaquah, GRFC, Seattle United, Tynecastle just to name a few. They aren't as consistently strong as Xfire but they have great teams here and there. For example, Eastside had a national champion last year. Not every player can be on the best team and I see far too many kids who migrate to the "best" team who shouldn't really be there. They rarely play in competitive circumstances and it doesn't do them a whole lot of good.

[Unregistered]

Southeast Portland

without a doubt this would be the way to go; consolidating clubs and making very competitive teams.

Here is the issue that I see; ego's. There are too many DOC's that want to have their say and not give up control. OSSA was created out of necessity (originally LO and SSC; and now OSA and WUSC) for these clubs to not only have competitive teams in HS; but really to have any teams at all. Unless it is made to feel like a necessity I don't really see consolidations of major clubs occurring.

I think it would be interesting if you could OSSA to consolidate at the U11-U14 level; that basically rolls up 4-clubs right there.

Then if you get get THUSC and Westside to roll together I think they could help each other out.

Get NEU to roll into Eastside

And now you are basically left with 4 major clubs; of FC Portland, Westside, Eastside and OSSA

The biggest forgotten area in the city is SE Portland. There are tons of kids there who play rec soccer and then it completely falls apart. It's horribly under served at the competitive level. NEU is just getting started but a more logical combination would be NEU and PCU which now has the only decent training space on the eastside of Portland. Eastside is Gresham, not the eastside of Portland. Don't forget Vancouver.

[Unregistered]

No matter the model that are chosen it is probably not wise to forget about other clubs throughout the state. It is important to keep Oregon soccer together instead of this OPL/OYSA split.

Good luck to THUSC on gaining the ECNL bid!!

I don't think we are forgetting about rest of the state. I think the rest of the state has already more or less done this in certain areas.

RVSC is the main; biggest club in southern oregon
Oregon Rush is the main; biggest club in Bend area
EMFC is the main club in Eugene

The only place that could possibly use some condensing is Salem/Kaizer and Woodburn

Other than that each area has more or less already consolidated.
Just leave PDX/metro area to do the same.

[Unregistered]

without a doubt this would be the way to go; consolidating clubs and making very competitive teams.

Here is the issue that I see; ego's. There are too many DOC's that want to have their say and not give up control. OSSA was created out of necessity (originally LO and SSC; and now OSA and WUSC) for these clubs to not only have competitive teams in HS; but really to have any teams at all. Unless it is made to feel like a necessity I don't really see consolidations of major clubs occurring.

I think it would be interesting if you could OSSA to consolidate at the U11-U14 level; that basically rolls up 4-clubs right there.

Then if you get get THUSC and Westside to roll together I think they could help each other out.

Get NEU to roll into Eastside


And now you are basically left with 4 major clubs; of FC Portland, Westside, Eastside and OSSA

Difficult to see tis happening considering the sponsorship obstacle. Adidas vs. Nike

[Unregistered]

What is our goal?

A question every soccer parent/Player/club needs to ask themselves is what is their goal.

As a Soccer Community is our goal to have a system that produces one super team that can go outside the state and compete with others. Is the end goal to as a soccer community be able to stack up our pile of championships that State teams won?

Or is our goal developing players/kids at all levels? My child is on a team that is widely considered one of the best in their age group. The coaches focus however is on developing each of his players. We haven't won less games because of this focus on development, I would argue we have won more.

My reason for asking is that if our goal as a community is to raise a whole state of soccer players (as opposed to one team) then consolidation is the wrong way to go.

This is the age-old problem of funneling all the best players into one team, and then they have no-one to compete against so they actually grow less.

I am along for the ride here, i am curious where this conversation will go, and I am not planting a stake for either direction.

I just have been intrigued to see many examples over the years of people arguing consolidation will make things better, and then finding that in fact that was not the case.

[Unregistered]

Difficult to see tis happening considering the sponsorship obstacle. Adidas vs. Nike

Good point i really didn't take that into consideration.
OSSA makes it work cause they created their own club; and just send their HS players to there. Doesn't hurt that SSC, LO and WUSC are Nike Clubs.

[Unregistered]

A little off topic but what about Vancouver?
Vancouver has some darn good teams and coaches yet the Portland based players rarely travel across the bridge? It's as if we've erected a wall or something.
Is it because Vancouverites cross the bridge more frequesntly to shop / dine / be entertained, thus the thought of traveling across the bridge to get what you want is more of an every day occurance?
With the majority of Vancouver based clubs/teams heading south to play in the OPL (and PML) I would think that Oregonians might consider it more?
I'm hearing that other than the boys side all Vancouver clubs will be bringing all their girls teams to the OPL (PML)
Will this whole Timbers affiliation thing make VUSA more attractive to north end Portlanders?

Regardless of the above blather Vancouver needs to be considered in this discussion of how to restructure "Oregon" soccer as it appears they will be an even greater active participant in Oregon based leagues