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Unintended consequences of mega-orgs

What's on your mind?

by PDad » Mon Oct 09, 2017 11:20 am

Usual complaints about mega-orgs (e.g. Firecrackers) are it's a money grab and diminishes franchise value of org name. I suspect there are other unintended consequences and would like to hear what others think.

I suspect it has weakened marquee teams in org since players have more options to play for a "big name" org, which:
- Reduces competition among players for spots and playing time, which in turn reduces motivation to improve.
- Makes it harder to keep players down in 14U/16U age groups since they have more options to play up.

Marquee teams still have advantage in drawing top talent by their reputation and monetary support, I just think it isn't as overwhelming as before. What do you think?

Any other unintended consequences?
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by orange socks » Mon Oct 09, 2017 12:02 pm

If your kid does not have a direct path to play for the Real 18U Gold team in your big name organization, you are wasting your money. I have heard this story more than once. College coach shows up to a tourney looking to scout a player. Out of the 8 teams that are playing on a quadplex 5 are from the same organization. Coach couldn't figure out where the kid was. I guess she could have gone to each field and asked. All these satellite teams in these organizations only exist to feed the Gold team.

How many times have you walked up to the field and you see Xyz team playing that is known name org, but you pause and ask but which team is it? It happened several times this weekend.

There is no perfect way to structure an organization. IMO I would like to see no more than 2 teams for each age group within one organization. Teams come and go from organizations every year. I guess that's what makes it fun to see in August. What player is hopping, which teams are splitting up, which teams left an org or started a new one.
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by PDad » Mon Oct 09, 2017 3:49 pm

orange socks wrote:If your kid does not have a direct path to play for the Real 18U Gold team in your big name organization, you are wasting your money. I have heard this story more than once. College coach shows up to a tourney looking to scout a player. Out of the 8 teams that are playing on a quadplex 5 are from the same organization. Coach couldn't figure out where the kid was. I guess she could have gone to each field and asked. All these satellite teams in these organizations only exist to feed the Gold team.

How many times have you walked up to the field and you see Xyz team playing that is known name org, but you pause and ask but which team is it? It happened several times this weekend.

(sounds like the usual complaint of diminished franchise value of org name that I mentioned up front)

There is no perfect way to structure an organization. IMO I would like to see no more than 2 teams for each age group within one organization. Teams come and go from organizations every year. I guess that's what makes it fun to see in August. What player is hopping, which teams are splitting up, which teams left an org or started a new one.

I agree within a given area (e.g. SoCal, AZ, NorCal).
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by PDad » Mon Oct 09, 2017 7:02 pm

Spazsdad wrote:The top players still wind up on top teams with some exceptions.
One thing that has changed was in the past you knew who the big dog was in each organization and each age group. Now, not so obvious as some coaches have changed organizations or they have lost their standing as the "top team" for whatever reason.

Well-known coaches have switched orgs and they're fairly easy to track. There was a lot of movement after Stith formed Team Mizuno and later when TM merged into OCBB. The success of some newer coaches expanded the ranks of well-known coaches and challenge the standing of older ones in the same org.

As discussed in another thread, we're now seeing orgs within "big name" orgs (e.g. FC Brashear, SCA Mercado). Seems like marquee teams used to draw the top players from all over SoCal - from Simi to San Diego, Is that still largely true or are the marquee teams losing players to sub-orgs that provide attractive alternatives closer to home?
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by Pale Rider » Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:02 pm

Spazsdad wrote:
I'm hoping he will post about his Shim sighting last Saturday. Only Arto



His memories...Misty, water colored memories? ;)
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by Freddybnb » Wed Dec 20, 2017 2:19 pm

orange socks wrote:If your kid does not have a direct path to play for the Real 18U Gold team in your big name organization, you are wasting your money. I have heard this story more than once. College coach shows up to a tourney looking to scout a player. Out of the 8 teams that are playing on a quadplex 5 are from the same organization. Coach couldn't figure out where the kid was. I guess she could have gone to each field and asked. All these satellite teams in these organizations only exist to feed the Gold team.

How many times have you walked up to the field and you see Xyz team playing that is known name org, but you pause and ask but which team is it? It happened several times this weekend.

There is no perfect way to structure an organization. IMO I would like to see no more than 2 teams for each age group within one organization. Teams come and go from organizations every year. I guess that's what makes it fun to see in August. What player is hopping, which teams are splitting up, which teams left an org or started a new one.


Yes!!!
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