Let’s consider the following hypothetical situation while keeping in mind the end goal of MTA is to raise the level of soccer in Minnesota.

XX is a solid C1 player on his community club team. The team has a thin roster as his community club also has an MRL team at his age level. XX along with 1 another player from his team and 1 from the MRL leave their community club in hopes of making a select MTA team the players are placed on MTA teams follow tryouts (lets say 1 at select, 2 at C1). Meanwhile, back at the community club a C1 player gets pulled up to fill in for the departing MRL player and the C1 team is all of a sudden has three fewer players and ends up not being formed as there is not enough players.

To me a situation like the one above (granted this hasn’t happened at every community club but I assure you it has happened) does not raise the level of soccer in MN. In my opinion it weakens the level of soccer in MN as it leaves 12 soccer players abandoned without a squad.

Perhaps MTA should have focused on building their select program first then expanding to a full fledged club…thus the exodus from the community clubs would not have been so drastic. Or perhaps they should have opened up the regional centers at the younger ages first thus minimizing the effects on community clubs.

Simply food for thought. I think its a good thing to provide top-level training/competition but wish this could be done without a negative impact on the community clubs.

However, despite that piece of information being incorrect the rest of my post is quite relevant. More and more players are leaving MTA to return to local clubs (i’d expect more players to do so if MTA reverts to Bangu/Wings) and in no way is this ‘beneficial’ to the local clubs for the reason outlined above.

I believe the MTA select teams are quality and providing a great opportunity for top-class MN soccer talent in the sense of training, regional competition, and college exposure. Which, I might add, was definately needed. I do, however, question whether there is any real advantage for a U14C2 player to play with MTA versus their local club…

” What no one talks about is the fact that players from the MTA went back to the local clubs better trained then before. It was a revolving door which benefited local clubs.”

Sure, in a way this makes sense. SOME of the players who went off to MTA did return to their local club with increased skills, however, many did not make significant improvement.

What the poster really misses, however, is that many local clubs were forced to replace departing players with those from lower squads and in many those players have been playing up for a year or two or have been told they will be on that same team next season. But, now that MTA is under there is the problem of the MTA kids coming back to the local club and either over-crowding a roster or forcing a player back down to a lower competition level. Certainly not beneficial to the local clubs who now have to manage rosters, angry parents, and frustrated players.

In all honesty, in a way I am glad MTA went under. The select teams were great and on those teams the promises made by MTA were followed through on. However, the lower level MTA teams were overlooked the the promises were never delievered on and I just never thought that was a fair scenario.

http://www.insidemnsoccer.com/2009/03/16/controversy-rises-again-between-mysa-and-nsc/

Direct quote from me in the above article:

“Of the 361,000 spectators roughly 40% come from outside Minnesota. This puts the out of state economic impact at about $30 million, just for the ten days of these two tournaments. The sales tax alone on this is a bit over $2 million. Has anyone been at the Mall of America during the USA Cup? During that week, MOA is packed with soccer players and their families. I’m sure if I delved into this further I could come up with figures of how the city of Blaine is impacted by not just these two tournaments but all of the NSC tournaments. In recent years there’s been tremendous growth of retail stores and restaurants in direct proximity to the National Sports Center. There is no doubt there is a direct correlation between the growth of attendance at NSC and the growth of retail in this area.”