DA is Dead! Good Riddance.

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MLS today also announced a new elite competition platform whatever that means
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/...HORoK72IyQV3Gk

I think that the elite MLS will elitely improve the eliteness of these elite players with their new elitified league.

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Yes, MLS was ready on the boys side, and it's great if Reign has money to survive -- but there's no guarantee girls have a place to play. MLS is vaguing promising "future opportunties" for girls. ECNL has said it's near capacity. The kids are the ones getting jerked around, especially the girls. You're enjoying the drama of Bernie vs the PRemores that exists in your mind -- this sucks for the kids right now.

They have several choices of leagues to play in. I’m not going to speculate when that is in progress.

Also if you follow the MLS announcement:
“In addition, MLS is evaluating the potential to provide future competition opportunities for girls.”

There’s your answer right there.

[Unregistered]

Honest question, would your kid not qualify for financial aid?

It is not about money ... Why i need to go to Pac if i dont want ? I want to stay in our club where are like a family. Why? We are strong enough to play versus best team but the system ...

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If the Predmores have more money than other clubs, why have they not spent any of it up to now? It cost a boat load of money to play for what was the Reign DA program. In fact a Reign parent told me last night that they have still been paying for April and May travel when the team isn't even training.

The Reign may try to continue the youth program, but it won't happen. They are only 9 NWSL teams and at least one is already joining the ECNL. You think the Predmores are going to pay to have the Reign youth teams to travel all over the US to play for 7 other clubs? Not a chance. They didn't even want to remain as majority owners of the "Pro" team.

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It's funny that so many arm chair coaches are posting what they want to happen...and none of it will.

OL reign (former) DA teams are not going away. It's not being dissolved. It's a club, and a very well funded club. Guess what? The Predmores have a lot more money than Bernie as well.

There will be a new league, supported by pro teams. Arsenal and other teams are already swooping in to provide financial support for former DA teams. The boys DA know about this two months ago. You really think they didn't have the all planned out? There are also other leagues that are currently in California and the East coast. There may be a year long hiccup, but it will all be settled right after. Who knows, ECNL and College sports may be done till fall of 2021. Plenty of time to create a new system.

MLS supported DA teams will play each other in their own leagues. Non supported teams will soon have support as they are gobbled up by Teams in Europe who want a foot hold in the U.S.

It's already started.

I am not sure where you are getting your information but we have received nothing. I have a daughter in the Reign program and we are left standing with no answers. Just a generic email stating they were checking into the rumor. There has been no alternative plan or proposed option to us. We pay a lot of money as a customer so saying we have financial backing from from the top (Predmores) is false. At least my account hasn't seen it.
I need to do my responsibility and find my daughter a place to play the game she loves and I am not going to sit around until its too late. And matters are even worse since there is no soccer being played or no tryouts happening.

[Unregistered]

I am not sure where you are getting your information but we have received nothing. I have a daughter in the Reign program and we are left standing with no answers. Just a generic email stating they were checking into the rumor. There has been no alternative plan or proposed option to us. We pay a lot of money as a customer so saying we have financial backing from from the top (Predmores) is false. At least my account hasn't seen it.
I need to do my responsibility and find my daughter a place to play the game she loves and I am not going to sit around until its too late. And matters are even worse since there is no soccer being played or no tryouts happening.

You need to leave the Reign ASAP. That ship is going down.

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I know plenty of families who make too much toqualify for financial aid but are on a budget, so if the choice is between soccer and tutoring, or soccer and some other thing the family needs, soccer is cut. Middle class kids get left out.

That’s a choice. Again, not all rcl clubs cost $10k. Significant options are available.

[Unregistered]

You need to leave the Reign ASAP. That ship is going down.

I wouldn’t assume the ship is going down. If they have good teams they will find quality opponents. OL Group will find ways to open opportunities for these girls. This may have been the best thing to happen to Reign.

[Unregistered]

Do not let the Reign use your girls like Guinea Pigs unless they are going to foot the bill for the entire season. The years go by way too fast.

[Unregistered]

I am not sure where you are getting your information but we have received nothing. I have a daughter in the Reign program and we are left standing with no answers. Just a generic email stating they were checking into the rumor. There has been no alternative plan or proposed option to us. We pay a lot of money as a customer so saying we have financial backing from from the top (Predmores) is false. At least my account hasn't seen it.
I need to do my responsibility and find my daughter a place to play the game she loves and I am not going to sit around until its too late. And matters are even worse since there is no soccer being played or no tryouts happening.

Reign and every other DA club was blindsided by this over the past couple days. As they told you, they are working hard on a solution and will let you know when they find one. If the soccer community here would come together in the best interests of the kids, the families, and ultimately themselves that solution would be straightforward — with ECNL’s announcement that it plans a “substantial increase” in the number of teams, make Reign ECNL the sixth ECNL team in the area, play more games locally over the next year as travel is likely to be limited anyway, and save every family in each club significant money on travel costs. Rivalry games between all the local clubs with strong girls teams would be great, and everyone could compete on the merits within one league without any bs efforts to protect turf. Hopefully the other local clubs will have the maturity to help make that happen. In the meantime, there’s no reason for anyone to be in a rush while this plays out — there won’t be any soccer til late May/early June at the earliest, and perhaps not until 2022 if some of the experts are right.

[Unregistered]

Reign and every other DA club was blindsided by this over the past couple days. As they told you, they are working hard on a solution and will let you know when they find one. If the soccer community here would come together in the best interests of the kids, the families, and ultimately themselves that solution would be straightforward — with ECNL’s announcement that it plans a “substantial increase” in the number of teams, make Reign ECNL the sixth ECNL team in the area, play more games locally over the next year as travel is likely to be limited anyway, and save every family in each club significant money on travel costs. Rivalry games between all the local clubs with strong girls teams would be great, and everyone could compete on the merits within one league without any bs efforts to protect turf. Hopefully the other local clubs will have the maturity to help make that happen. In the meantime, there’s no reason for anyone to be in a rush while this plays out — there won’t be any soccer til late May/early June at the earliest, and perhaps not until 2022 if some of the experts are right.

You do realize that technically the Reign are not a club like their local counterparts.
1)They do not have youth system like all the other clubs and develop younger players
2)They rely on recruiting or pulling players from other clubs
3)They technically do not have an assigned geographical area like other clubs
4) They had an agreement with Seattle Utd and Eastside to grow and work to be an elite program. FAIL! Both clubs have pulled affiliation.
5) Look at how many coaches have come on gone.

Your club formed without the same guidelines and agreements as other clubs and you still operate that way. And you want to have all the local clubs salvage your program by supporting you to join the current ECNL division. And FYI Reign has no turf to protect or represent unless your playing in France with OL.
And it is about the girls! There is plenty of clubs for them to go play at and where most of them came from before falling for the Reign Kool-Aid.

[Unregistered]

You do realize that technically the Reign are not a club like their local counterparts.
1)They do not have youth system like all the other clubs and develop younger players
2)They rely on recruiting or pulling players from other clubs
3)They technically do not have an assigned geographical area like other clubs
4) They had an agreement with Seattle Utd and Eastside to grow and work to be an elite program. FAIL! Both clubs have pulled affiliation.
5) Look at how many coaches have come on gone.

Your club formed without the same guidelines and agreements as other clubs and you still operate that way. And you want to have all the local clubs salvage your program by supporting you to join the current ECNL division. And FYI Reign has no turf to protect or represent unless your playing in France with OL.
And it is about the girls! There is plenty of clubs for them to go play at and where most of them came from before falling for the Reign Kool-Aid.

1. They have rolled out younger ages and b teams over the past year.
2. All clubs recruit, and a Reign no more or less than others. ECNL expressly allows recruiting, as did DA. (A bunch of Reign players also came from SU or Eastside, who encouraged them to go there, and stayed after their old clubs bailed, and others chose to come over from XF without any recruiting).
3. Assigned geographic areas are a Washington thing, and a very bad one, and are unrelated to ECNL. Most states don’t have any such thing and instead have American style competition on the merits instead of the geographic franchise system the RCL prefers. RCL is an anticompetitive gimmick to keep the Celtics and Gunners of the world down.
4. Yes, SU and Eastside both decided to go bail on their agreements and ECNL (after initially being big proponents of DA, we was XF and as would Pac have been if they’d been accepted). Not sure how that reflects poorly on Reign, or really anyone.
5. Yes, they’ve had a lot of turnover in coaches and directors. MD and SL have been involved for a long time and have provided some stability, but you’re right.

All of these clubs are supposed to be working together to do what’s best for the local soccer ecosystem. In the current environment, it would be great of people could look past their petty grievances (and they truly are petty) and do what’s best for the long term. In my view that includes working the local NWSL club to build the best competitive platform you can in the area rather than hoping you can exploit the opportunity to drag them down.

[Unregistered]

75% of the Reign girls will end up at SU. The rest will end up at PAC or XF. All girls will find a place to play.

The 6th team should go to Spokane!

[Unregistered]

I am not sure where you are getting your information but we have received nothing. I have a daughter in the Reign program and we are left standing with no answers. Just a generic email stating they were checking into the rumor. There has been no alternative plan or proposed option to us. We pay a lot of money as a customer so saying we have financial backing from from the top (Predmores) is false. At least my account hasn't seen it.
I need to do my responsibility and find my daughter a place to play the game she loves and I am not going to sit around until its too late. And matters are even worse since there is no soccer being played or no tryouts happening.

Amy Griffin sent a team snap message to the whole reign players families prior to this post announcing the collapse of the DA, the Reigns short term plans, and their long term plans.

[Unregistered]

I was waiting for a snarky post like this...

It's fine if you think DA was bad for development etc but maybe take a moment to think about all the kids who play and enjoy DA who have had the rug pulled out from under them at a time when their worlds are already falling apart. US Soccer mishandled DA from start to finish, and as usual, it's the kids who suffer.

I have one kid who went through DA had a great experience before college, and another who started there and moved into ECNL for a better fit. DA is not perfect, but that's beside the point. This process has been hadled badly, with rumors leaking out and news reports before any official announcement, and the decision made by folks who've been running US Soccer for less than a month.

Laff. Attention dads: it is your ego-driven, chest puffing caused your butt hurt. You caused the kid's suffering by not paying attention what was going on. I will let you on a little secret. This was planned months ago in 2019. You do not have a new MLS DA like league pop up overnight. There was been whispers about this from reliable sources, if you had the connections. Duh. Noticed how some people left mid-season from the Reign and other clubs? Scrambling to find a good place before the SHTF pre the real SHTF COVID-19. Oh, the irony of it all. Haha. Sorry, I do feel bad for the kids who were mislead by their parents.

You still do not get what GDA was all about, do you? Christ, I love tech workers. Big brains, no fcking common sense. GDA was about IDing all potential YNT players. END OF STORY. Not about your little Mia playing in college or bragging about her shiny US Soccer badge. How do you even keep your job, if you still have one? Those kids will land anywhere they want to go. The rest need to scramble. Well, maybe you were one in the know and just virtue signaling your shock. Play nice, dad.