State of the league and why an academy is important to the future

Every year before the MLS Final Don Garber, the commissioner of MLS, gives what he calls a “State of the League” address. There were a number of interesting points made this year.

One important one was growing the league by making more attractive locally and making matchups a bigger deal

He said ”We’re very focused on local rivalries being a key driver of growing our club’s relevance… The phenomenon in the Pacific Northwest is something that we never could have dreamed of.”

So in a couple of short years he’s gone from being against teams using their local roots and history to embracing this as one of the ways to grow the league. Clearly this is down to the intensity of the Portland-Seattle-Vancouver games. The demand from traveling supporters for tickets is by far outstripping the league mandated 150 away tickets. The three support groups are working together and putting pressure on the front offices to accommodate larger numbers. 5% of the crowd is one number that seems to have be thrown around a lot recently as part of the debate, this is the percentage FIFA uses when I comes to away ticket allocation at internationals. This story has some distance to run and I’m sure will be resolved before the season kicks off.

Another point that got my attention was the incentive given to teams to open academies, scout and grow talent internally. This may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but after talking it over last night I think this is a significant announcement for a number of reasons.

Today a US domestic youth player has no real alternative to playing football in College. I think that’s a poor step to a professional career for a number of reasons. To be clear this argument is not about someone who sees playing football as a way to get a college education, it’s someone who has ambitions of being a professional player and the potential to back it up.

First, and sorry to harp on about Europe again but there kids are full time in the academy at 16 years old. By the time a player is 21 he’s got five years of full time coaching and five full seasons of competitive football behind him.

Secondly, not every kid fits in college. Look at some of the American Football players that colleges recruit that end up doing basket weaving in summer school because they need credits or will loose eligibility.

Comparing like-for-like, the college graduate at 21 or 22 years old has not had full time coaching and plays in the short three-month college season. The college player is way further behind on his football development curve than the academy player.

In the academy system players make (and arguably bigger) step between 16 year old with talent and professional over maybe four or five years rather than all at once when being selected in the draft. There are exceptions, players that step directly into the first team, Steve Zakuani is one, but again these are the exceptions rather than the rule.

I think if done correctly by the sides an MLS academy system give the elite kids with potential to make a living in the game a better alternative to college.

The top development league is probably Premier Development League (PDL) with around 60 teams split into eight conferences. There are a couple of other options at this level (FIFA recognize this as “Level 4” on a traditional football pyramid) in the National Premier Soccer League and the mostly Canadian based Pacific Coast Soccer League, but PDL is the one I’m most familiar with. There are a number of local teams include Kitsap Pumas, Washington Crossfire and the junior teams of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers.

To add a little more credibility to the elite players not playing in college football system (or the “S” word if you prefer) is Brigham Young University. BYU does not play in the NCAA alongside every other college in the country they play in the PDL. The university feels the competition is better and believe it will produce better players at the end of it. The old cliché of competition improving the breed has a lot of truth to it.

To go back to my original point and why the academy is going to be important to the MLS and the Sounders. To go along with the academy is a reserve league, next year it’s only 10 games plus playoffs. More games would be a good, but it’s a promising start.

Additionally the clubs to develop talent is the ability to sign younger players (under 24 years old) without them counting against the salary cap. There is no restriction on the number of academy players a side can sign. There are lots of incentives for a side to develop it’s own talent, it takes owners with a slightly longer term view. It may be 4 or 5 years before the effort shows, but it only takes one or two players for it to be worthwhile financially, along with increasing the sense of community that is so important to a club.