Ecnl

[Unregistered]

No one will need to promote this new league. It will stand on its own! Only the best will be in it. I'm all for a super league in pdx!

My kid isn't good enough to make the new super league so we ll just do ecnl. We can make that team easily and they ll probably be short players.

[Unregistered]

Ha! Why encourage them to do it?

1. It's not happening.

2. DA is 500.00 No one will promote a player to go play at a club charging 8k on something that someone else will be more successful without doing it.

3. The teams are going to be even worse than the Idaho and other terrible teams that are in ecnl now.

Hi Cony. This works around the country and there is no reason why it will not work here in Oregon.

[Unregistered]

New Super League : A team

Thorns Academy : B team

Ecnl : Select/Rec team

Sounds about right.

[Unregistered]

It depends on how you look at it. Most clubs believe they are successful if one of their players make the DA program. Yes, they lost a player but they were also successful in their primary objective of developing players.

The same should be for the coming ECNL programs. Clubs should encourage their top players to tryout and play if they can.

Nice dodge...my point is you are selling a program only your club will have, it will result in a concentration of players from other clubs at a very high expense. Then you are pointing fingers and acting appalled that the Thorns want Money and Control. You are guilty of exactly what you accuse others of.

To make it worse when anyone points this out you claim they are not interested in the good of soccer.

The key to selling successfully is to be honest, and sell your own product, quit trying to tear down others. Your approach shows how little respect you have for the intelligence of your potential customers.

[Unregistered]

We are still awaiting the ECNL announcement. Why do people just assume it's happening when nothing has been stated officially? What's everyone going to do when it's announced and PDX didn't get accepted?

[Unregistered]

The problem that I have is that the $8,000-$10,000 quoted doesn't include parent travel costs. That alone could add up to another $4,000. So you could be looking at up to $14,000??

Plus if you go to Vegas, is your club going to front your blackjack money? Probably not. They only have high stakes tables so you are looking at $50 min tables, so probably another $3,000 minimum, with a few $25 cocktails. There's lots of other crazy things down there to spend your money on so you are probably looking at bringing another $5,000 in pocket money. So you are looking at $22,000.

Probably need to upgrade the ride since the Cordoba isn't going to be too cool backfiring when dropping your daughter off. An Audi Q7 is about $800 a month for a lease all costs amortized in, so that's another $9,600 per year, not counting gas.

So we're probably looking at $31,600 per year. I need to upgrade the smile with some veneers and oh my that is probably $9,000. Plus the personal trainer, sonobello, and a couple Nordstrom personal shopper trips.

All said and done we're probably looking at $65,000 per year for ECNL. Is it worth it?

Who goes to vegas with only $3000? You can't sit at a cocktail lounge or by the pool for 2 hours with out running up a $400 tab.

[Marbull]

Is it their mission to "change soccer for the better"? Or is it their mission to provide a league and other miscellaneous services for their member clubs so that their member clubs can, in turn, better develop youth soccer players. We don't need an organisation like OYSA to "change soccer for the better". That suggests that the individual clubs are not capable of fulfilling their missions. If that is truly the case, adding another layer of government (OYSA) isn't going to change anything.

Maybe you werent around when it [OPC] was first born, but I went to that meeting and they said "we can do it better". Im still waiting for the "better" part.

If their intent was to generate funds, that would be funneled back to the founding clubs to help subsidize youth programs at the early ages, I havent seen that either.

If their intent was develop a "ODP" like program for the older kids to merge and compete at a higher level, I havent seen that either.

There was talk about how they could do "it" cheaper. Im sure they are, but none of the reduced costs were filtered down to the parents paying the tuition even at the founding 8 clubs.

[Marbull]

And what OYSA done? They have a lot of kids running around in white and red with MLS patches on their sleeves. Everyone in the OYSA, rec included, are subsidizing the timbers professional DA program but not subsidizing ODP. They split soccer reducing the quality for all top players in the state. They have taken a my way or the highway approach.

The Timbers have a pretty good racket going. They get kickbacks from their TA clubs via uniform sales. They take a couple dollars from registration fees to subsidize their academy, and they control youth soccer. You have to admit they pulled off a good one.

OYSA was the bench mark they they promised they would improve upon. If OYSA is so bad at managing soccer affairs in our state, it would stand that the OPC could easily improve on it.

[Marbull]

Got an idea. Let's scrap oysa and all go back to opl. Back to terrible development structure and money hording. This is all on the idea that they had all the teams and still did a terrible job. But let's do that anyway.

What development structure ?

[Unregistered]

What development structure ?

OPL is a league. Leagues don't develop players, clubs and coaches do. If players aren't developing, don't blame the league they play in.

[Unregistered]

Nice dodge...my point is you are selling a program only your club will have, it will result in a concentration of players from other clubs at a very high expense. Then you are pointing fingers and acting appalled that the Thorns want Money and Control. You are guilty of exactly what you accuse others of.

To make it worse when anyone points this out you claim they are not interested in the good of soccer.

The key to selling successfully is to be honest, and sell your own product, quit trying to tear down others. Your approach shows how little respect you have for the intelligence of your potential customers.

The thorns play is purely to counter the impending ECNL programs. Imagine the timbers reaction if another clubs decided to start their own DA program.

[Marbull]

The thorns play is purely to counter the impending ECNL programs. Imagine the timbers reaction if another clubs decided to start their own DA program.

Whats stopping them from doing so ?

[Unregistered]

"The anti-ECNL crowd are clearly TA and Timbers driven. They know that this is the first step in consolidating top talent in Oregon. While they have long talked up doing this, now that they can't control where top girls go, they attack the program. This anti-ECNL talk only proves that the Timbers are not looking out for the best interest in youth soccer."

Obvious, isn't it?
ECNL coming to Portland would not be in the Timbers interest, unless of course, they could horn in on the program.

I personally hope that ECNL comes to Oregon with no affiliation or connection to the Timbers organization. If that happens, the Thorns Academy "concept" will be a dead issue. Further
fragmentation and division of a limited talent pool would only bring greater mediocrity.

[Unregistered]

TA parents should not be opposed to ECNL. They should welcome it. We are! If our team doesn't step up and make changes to compete with another local ECNL than that will tell us something. It would let us know that it would be time to look for another team/club that is willing to change, grow and develop. If our TA team does make the changes needed and is able to continually grow and improve, then we'll be happy to not have to pay a significant amount. My DD is a u15 and has only had a couple colleges express interest, several of her teammates seem to have much more as there have always been coaches watching at the showcases that we've attended. We are not ECNL and have still be given great opportunities and great exposure to college coaches. We were not expecting to have any colleges interested in our DD a couple months into her u15 season. We are pleasantly surprised and happy.

ECNL brings more competition. That would be great. I'd welcome that. It only makes the rest of the teams around them better, if they do it right.

Thorns Academy could be a great option as well, I have no idea what it looks like, but I'd be very happy if they're able to bring talent together from all over and offer a competitive rate and stronger coaching than our current clubs in the area. It could easily be the exact opposite just as quickly, but I enjoy the options and opportunities that are being created for our girls in this community during these years

[Unregistered]

We are still awaiting the ECNL announcement. Why do people just assume it's happening when nothing has been stated officially? What's everyone going to do when it's announced and PDX didn't get accepted?

Sources tell me it's official. Announcement coming soon for the upcoming 2014-15 season.