Home Forums Long Island & Eastern New York Soccer Message Boards Roll Away The Stone Soccer News USSF Development Academy to Close

According to a breaking report by Paul Tenorio and Sam Stejskal of The Athletic, the rumors about U.S. Soccer shutting down the Development Academy have been confirmed as fact.

Late last week, speculation began spreading like wildfire about the possibility of the groundbreaking decision, and now the announcement is considered imminent, according to Tenorio and Stejskal’s sources. The Federation will be permanently closing both the Boys and Girls DA programs, with an official press release expected to come out as soon as Wednesday.

On the boys’ side, there has been widespread talk for several years that Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs were considering forming their own breakaway academy league outside of the DA. All 26 MLS clubs currently run academy programs in the DA, and will now have the perfect opportunity to form their own competitive platform.

Numerous United Soccer League (USL) clubs also have academy programs in the DA, as the pro league has ramped up its own youth platforms in recent years. A more comprehensive USL Academy league may now become a reality sooner rather than later.

For all of the Boys DA programs not linked to professional clubs, there’s no word on which ones will land where for the 2020-2021 season. They will have quite a few options when it comes to existing leagues, such as the Elite Clubs National League (Boys ECNL), US Youth Soccer National League, and various high-level regional leagues such as US Club Soccer’s National Premier Leagues (NPL) around the country.

On the girls’ side, the ECNL is the clear preeminent destination for the nation’s best clubs, now that the Girls DA is being disbanded. The biggest question moving forward will be, how many Girls DA clubs will be accepted into the ECNL for next season?

Of course, the same US Club Soccer and US Youth Soccer affiliated national and regional leagues that may attract many of the departing Boys DA clubs will also be available for Girls DA clubs that aren’t able to gain ECNL membership for Fall 2020.

In just the past few weeks, four very high profile Girls DA clubs officially jumped ship to the ECNL. The Dallas Texans and Real Colorado announced their return to the ECNL in early March. They were followed by the North Carolina Courage and Georgia’s United Futbol Academy later in the month.

The ECNL vs. DA battle was going to become irrelevant anyway, There will be a very limited market for elite, national travel leagues for the foreseeable future as colleges are already lobbying to change rules in order to eliminate non-revenue generating sports. There's not going to be a need for any league that professes a pathway to college sports if there's no programs and at the very least no scholarship money available. Lots of trouble for the youth sports industry once parents dont even have the slight dream of their kids playing college.

It will be interesting to see how the MLS handles the distance logistics of their own league. Travel is expensive and time consuming.

Shame is (like senior athletes) the season is done with no real ending for the players. Other leagues are at least trying to finish out their seasons (even through July) when/if they are allowed to return.

Hopefully the non-MLS DA's get in front of it ASAP. Not sure some of these teams will have the draw for the players who travel when they can find EDP and NPL teams they would be playing against much closer to home.....

Most college scholarships went to foreign players anyway.

Why can't we have kids play for the pure enjoyment,why is it that they have to play professional.why should coaches do it for free why is it always ,what is in it for me.Have fun

That may be true on the male side, but Title IX will mandate girls soccer scholarships thanks to American football.

The non-MLS teams better get in front of it quickly - not going to keep the players who travelled for DA with the dream of playing against their local EDP club.

Have the youth teams play the same exact schedule as the pro teams and play the games in the hours before the pro-teams. The consolidation of travel for coaches, equipment, chartered planes, etc would make it much more affordable. Still expensive but not as bad as it otherwise would have been.

Lets see how long it will take for the US Soccer to make a new league and claim thats where the best players will go now.

Then theyll tell us to “give it time” , and will fail in around 5-10 years , AGAIN.

that could work for 17, 18 but not likely for 13, 14...

WHAT AN IDIOT. You STILL dont get it?! If youre 17 and 18 and youre still playing in the Academy League you might as well be playing High School soccer

There is zero reason for 13 year olds to be in such a setting. Run two teams. A 14/15 and a 16/17. If you are worried about the travel of the 14/15's have them play only every other game.

NYSC e-mailed the following statement to all families early this afternoon:

The Former DA clubs that are none MLS teams will be absorbed by the EDP managed National League Conferences. That is the oldest well run league in the country and they already managed the 2004 DA teams in the fall. It makes sense and its a good move. The national league will become the best outlet for Boys soccer clubs in the country as for the girls the national league edp conferences will be an alternate to ECNL so ecnl will not be the only option for girl elite players anymore because the National league has the potential to become just as good. This should have been done years ago

What a bunch of garbage. Half of those clubs are off trying the beg their way into the ECNL program, and for some of those names they have been trying to get into ECNL for years and keep getting rejected. If you are a player at any of these clubs, get ready for EDP or NYCSL next season.

Notice the MLS clubs are not part this announcement.

Girls side got the same email just replace the partner Clubs listed with NEFC, South Shore MA, Oakwood, STA, LISC, & Seacoast

Why do we need this- let the girls play close to home rather than traveling for the entire weekend to play 2 games. Aren’t there enough good teams close by? How many are actually getting scholarships for college anyway?

First teams fly commercial. See Wayne Rooney’s comments, “Looking forward to a 12 hour travel day which could be done in 6 but hey this is mls.” https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/wayne-rooney-tweet-mls-travel-commercial-flights/

What ages would go with the first team? The players are all still students too - would parents have them do long flights every other weekend? Just doesn’t seem feasible, especially when they don’t expect more than one player per age group to make it to the first team. The MLS needed DA for somewhat meaningful play nearby and to keep
costs down.

There would be plenty of local competition if everybody didn't feel the need to splinter and play in whatever the next announced latest and greatest league is.

Assume you are talking about the girls side? Not convinced ECNL is the best choice for competition on the boys side.....

If you're a tri-State area non-MLS team this is good news. You won't have to travel 10 hours to play 90 minutes in New Hampshire and you won't have to get beat up by an NYCFC or NYRB team made up of players playing up 1 & 2 years. No more flights to NC for mini-tournaments. Travel time down/# of competitive games up.

Your kids who want to play HS can play HS and you'll probably save some $$ too.

If your kid is good enough to play in college, he or she will still play in college. If they are good enough to be cannon fodder for the tue MLS prospects on the MLS Academy teams, those guys will still find them.

Win/win all around.

It’s like a cartel, a fine group off clubs!!