Youth soccer club

[Honkv]

You want to go to Saint Louis and Des Moines over. Austin and Dallas? No thanks.

It’s not about what I want. I’m just thinking about scenarios.

 

[lawpoke87]

What does ECNL gain from giving another club NL?

Currently all the local major clubs play ECNL, ECNL-RL, ECNL Frontier. All those kids get dues paid to ECNL. If you risk taking NL from TSC and give it to ________. You risk TSC going MLS? and GA? (albeit those aren't great options but better than Frontier) and you get zero dollars from all those kids. You divide up the talent more. Puts whatever club you gave NL to in a tough position not knowing how many $70k-$90k a year coaches to hire. What % of those NL boys are on scholarship? How many of those NL boys like having MLS on their jerseys? ECNL will not go back to Mohawk on a regular basis. The lawsuit is settled and Barry has more $ than the other clubs. People make bad business decisions all the time and it could happen. maybe it works out. In my opinion the only thing that makes sense is FC Tulsa. Money is no issue. But on the other hand they can't win games with FC Tulsa and have had coaching turnover and front office shake up's as well. I see no good solutions outside a merger and I doubt that is happening.

I can’t disagree with any of this. The question has always been at what point does ECNL simply get tired of dealing with the people running TSC? There allegedly have been issues between the parties for awhile. Taking ECRL away from TSC was a result of that tension. Has ECNL now reached the end of their rope with TSC and prefer to deal with another club in this market? We should know in the next 30 days

 

[lawpoke87]

I could see a world where TX conf become their own conf and TSC goes to the Midwest conf or something.

I believe that was on the table a few years ago. My understanding is that is no longer an option re NL. It’s Texas Leage or bust. In part due to Energy being TSC’s travel partner. It would be very difficult to ask those Midwest teams to travel to Tulsa for a single game. Energy is 100% against moving out of Texas

 

[TU_BLA]

Hypothetically If WSA or Blitz was to get NL. Where do they practice? Games? Neither have facilities worthy of ECNL. Who coaches? Most coaches get hired in Dec-Jan and make more than coaches at RL clubs. Health insurance? Those clubs wouldn’t know how many kinds (NL, RL, OPL). So how many coaches do they hire? Almost as difficult as starting a new club. Both WSA and Blitz are “nonprofit” so they don’t keep much $ on hand. Not saying it can’t happen or won’t just saying it will be difficult and would ECNL think it’s worth the risk??

Blitz would train where they train now. As for game weekends, they would likely use Scheels (like they do now), KEAS in Bixby (they do host some games out there), or Indian Springs, who they partner with for their tournaments already. And all of the clubs could easily work with Mohawk. That facility is honestly wasted for how few games and weekends of soccer are played out there. The city has screwed up the management of that facility royally because they don't want to listen to people who know soccer.

That facility was the dream of a friend of mine (and former TU coworker and TU alum) who oversaw Green Country SA at the time. He's pretty pissed at how the city cut down the scope and the infrastructure part of the facility after the initial proposal received approval.

 

[TU_BLA]

Could WSA actually cut that check though? Are WSA parents going to be okay with the inevitable dues increase?

The girls side wouldn't be a problem. If WSA boys get NL, that might be a problem as the majority of their higher level kids pay hardly anything. It's how they get kids to switch clubs.

 

[Honkv]

To be clear: I’m rooting for TSC. I want it to be an awesome club again. We have a lot of great memories there.

 

[lawpoke87]

To be clear: I’m rooting for TSC. I want it to be an awesome club again. We have a lot of great memories there.

I get that. It would be a seismic shift in soccer for an area club to lose NL to a rival club. I do believe WSA has better leadership. Something which is attractive to ECNL imo

 

[TU_BLA]

Why do you have to increase dues for players on non ECNL teams? The only extra expense WSA incurs is the cost of renting fields for NL games.

No no no. The travel is more expensive for NL. Like a lot more. Coaches would assumedly get paid more at that level. Many of the boys on the upper teams at WSA, who have moved from other clubs, do so because they are incentivized to do so, as in they don't pay anything outside of the original registration fee and their own travel. They don't pay a monthly. I've heard this from parents whose kid was asked to move on from TSC/Blitz but didn't because they didn't feel the coach or situation were going to be right. Those costs get passed down to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th teams...and the girls side (at WSA anyway). TSC had kids on scholarship and navigating trying to get them to pay the monthly team fee (covered coach's travel costs, tournament fees, etc.) was a nightmare (this is before TSC went to an online all in one monthly fee that covered all the team's expenses for the year). Since I wasn't the manager at Blitz, I don't know about the inner workings of how they handled kids unable to pay the monthly stuff or scholarships.

 

[tudirk]

Why do you have to increase dues for players on non ECNL teams? The only extra expense WSA incurs is the cost of renting fields for NL games.

How about al

Blitz would train where they train now. As for game weekends, they would likely use Scheels (like they do now), KEAS in Bixby (they do host some games out there), or Indian Springs, who they partner with for their tournaments already. And all of the clubs could easily work with Mohawk. That facility is honestly wasted for how few games and weekends of soccer are played out there. The city has screwed up the management of that facility royally because they don't want to listen to people who know soccer.

That facility was the dream of a friend of mine (and former TU coworker and TU alum) who oversaw Green Country SA at the time. He's pretty pissed at how the city cut down the scope and the infrastructure part of the facility after the initial proposal received approval.

Blitz can't add 12 teams 3 times a week to Alsuma.

 

[lawpoke87]

No no no. The travel is more expensive for NL. Like a lot more. Coaches would assumedly get paid more at that level. Many of the boys on the upper teams at WSA, who have moved from other clubs, do so because they are incentivized to do so, as in they don't pay anything outside of the original registration fee and their own travel. They don't pay a monthly. I've heard this from parents whose kid was asked to move on from TSC/Blitz but didn't because they didn't feel the coach or situation were going to be right. Those costs get passed down to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th teams...and the girls side (at WSA anyway). TSC had kids on scholarship and navigating trying to get them to pay the monthly team fee (covered coach's travel costs, tournament fees, etc.) was a nightmare (this is before TSC went to an online all in one monthly fee that covered all the team's expenses for the year). Since I wasn't the manager at Blitz, I don't know about the inner workings of how they handled kids unable to pay the monthly stuff or scholarships.

I get that. The girls side at most clubs subsidizes the boys side. I had the figures at one time for a few of the boys teams at TSC and was shocked how many of those kids were on some type of scholarship. NL is a huge deal to WSA. I’m positive they would work something out to be able to field boys NL sides

I’m not sure the travel cost for U14 and above is that much different between ECNL and ECRL. The WSA 09 ECRL girls incurred every bit the travel cost as their 09 TSC NL counterparts last year.

 

[lawpoke87]

.

How about al

Blitz can't add 12 teams 3 times a week to Alsuma

What is al?

 

[TU_BLA]

How about al

Blitz can't add 12 teams 3 times a week to Alsuma.

I wouldn't dispute that. Some of the Blitz coaches have ins with facilities that aren't available to other teams in the area (or even other Blitz sides). Top boys Blitz teams do some training out at Rogers State because of their association with Derek Larkin. There's some other affiliations like that. I'm sure WSA has some of those connections too as does TSC.

Speaking of facilities...All Star is for sale. Anyone want to go in and buy it...and convert it to all soccer with me? (I'm kidding but only b/c I don't have that type of expendable capital right now...I think the concept could and would work. 4 Full sized fields, 2 turf, 2 7v7/9v9 fields, and one GK training area).

 

[tudirk]

What is al?

typo...