It's great to see two clubs came to their senses and allied to create The United Soccer Alliance in Jacksonville, Florida. Two Girls DAs in Jacksonville would have watered down. Too bad WFF and IMG and TBU did not align , or Boca and Weston. They'll learn the hard way.

It's a death knell because they made a map?

Like the Native American map with the hundreds of tribes and cultures and languages.. to be reduced to 76??

Maybe not the death knell. But certainly the beginning of the end for ECNL. This is so well organized and funded. Its just a matter of time.

Looking at the map there are some big cities with no girls DA....Cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St. Louis, Milwaukee , etc... will continue to have good ECNL teams...If you take away Cal South , the US west of the Mississippi River, looks empty...wonder what those players are doing to get into college?

From the press release:
CHICAGO (Via U.S. Soccer) – Four additional clubs have made a commitment to join the Girls’ Development Academy, along with the initial group of clubs that were announced on June 30, July 8, and August 17. Three clubs will be added in the West market: Albion SC (San Diego, Calif.), LA Galaxy (Carson, Calif.), and San Jose Earthquakes (San Jose, Calif.). In addition, United Futbol Academy (Cumming, Ga.) will join in the Southeast market.

That's great how they identify the "West market" and the "Southeast market" - oops! We meant Divisions. It's all about the "markets" and the $$$$.

They're getting good grades.

Poor South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia
No Girls DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No Equality!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Travel for some groupings is TERRIBLE as well. So much for it being less expensive than ECNL. In some areas ECNL will do just fine because of the travel issue alone. Saving a grand on club fees won't sway the average middle-to-upper income soccer family. They'll chose based on what works best for them and it won't always be GDA.

Not at all. If anything it reinforces the belief that in some areas GDA will be strong but in others it will not be. The program is anything but inclusive for all areas of the country, nor is it going to be any less expensive (and thus won't do much to improve socio-economic diversity). ECNL will weaken but it won't go away by any means. The leagues will just end up being watered down. Bravo USSF!

The two biggest voids, in my opinion, are St. Louis and Cleveland/Pittsburgh. St. Louis has a very big pool of soccer talent as does the Cleveland and Pittsburgh areas. I'm grouping Cleveland and Pittsburgh together because, realistically, if there was a DA in one of those cities it would draw players from the other city given the proximity of the metro areas (around 2 hours in the middle of Cleveland to 1 hour 20-30 minutes from the southern suburbs around Akron, etc). I personally wouldn't want my kid travelling that far for training but it goes on all of the time in the boys DA and the ECNL. Columbus, Ohio is also a void and an area with a lot of soccer talent. Again, those in Columbus could travel north to Columbus or they could go to Cincinnati, an area that will have a DA. Pittsburgh would be a bit far.

While Baltimore has a lot of talent, there are areas not too far away that will have clubs. Fairfax, VA, Boyds, MD, etc. Those areas are closer in proximity than the above scenario but you've got all of the traffic congestion to deal with. The same scenario will follow for Milwaukee and Chicago. A good reason that there probably is nothing in Milwaukee is because that is where the ECNL president, Christian Lavers, is.

As a parent, I think it would be a pain and I wouldn't have my kid do it no matter how good she is. My kids are in college and I'm glad this model wasn't available when they were playing though, honestly, they were not the best of the best and maybe if they were I would have a different perspective on all of this. They are solid players but not DI power conference or NT solid and those are the players that I feel that the DA is geared toward. One plays mid-major DI and the other is a DIII player.

Overall I think that this league will serve those upper-echelon players. Think about it: each tea is composed of 2 age groups and US Soccer has said that they would like each age group to be pretty evenly represented. Let's say that there are 10 players for each age group. That is a lot of players that won't get the chance to play in the DA. There will be plenty of opportunities for them to play elsewhere. I can't say that I would be all broken up if the ECNL went away but if it does, a USYSA league will fill the void. Perhaps there will be a National League expansion?

Word is LA Galaxy girls DA is going to be fully funded and others are to follow. So, the cost argument goes out the window. If the DA's are fully funded it will surely be the death blow to ECNL. Was nice to have known you....

word is... lol what a silly person

I guess that's why it was the last club to be added. So much money by that club! Our DA players in Florida won't see soccer fully paid in their youth soccer lives.