SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP BridgeFA Tryouts vs. MPSC Tryouts

Does anyone, who has been to at least one of each club’s tryouts, have any comments (for comparison purposes) ?

Great topic!

There were MANY new faces at the Bridge tryouts Monday. Not as many new faces at the MPSC tryouts on Tuesday - looked like business as usual there, except that a few faces were missing (not as graphic as that may sound).

It appears that some people are testing the waters at BFA, and some people are just fed up with MPSC in general (mostly with their lack of vision towards the future, from what I have gathered). Large, solid group of coaches in attendance at the Bridge tryouts.

There will definitely be some very strong teams at the Bridge in the Fall.

Hey! way to answer your own question. It must be awesome to be in 2 places at once!!! There was quite a showing at the BFA tryouts last night. You are correct that there will be some strong teams at the BFA in the fall. It's just a shame that all the clubs in the area can't seem to see the big picture and force kids and parents to make a tough choice to stay or go to BFA and end up being the bad guy's for leaving a club not affiliated with BFA.

Politics aside, I think most folks do their homework and play where they feel they will get the best coaches, trainers and facilites. BFA has done an outstanding job marketing their club and I am confident we will see some awesome soccer coming out of this new alliance. It's truly an exciting time for the Lowcountry.

Vapor, I figured that it was such an awesome topic, SOMEbody needed to respond. But, no...although I have been able to trick my kids into believing I have those powers, the truth is that I can really only be in one place at a time. So, I drive to Summerville one day and Mt. Pleasant the next.

The stench of bureaucracy East of the Cooper will probably keep me over towards James Island tonight. For Saturday, I guess I'll have to decide if Daniel Island is far enough away from the source that I will be able to breathe safely.

The big temptation on any message board is to 'throw grenades'. Pleae only speak to your own knowledge and the facts. Do not speak for others and their motives.
Don't cast me as a naysayer either. If you do your research, you'll see I have been a proponent of a premier level merger for several years. The devil is in the details.

Swimmer1, in all seriousness, I think I'm missing something with your post...nobody on this thread said anything about you. No one called you a naysayer, and no one said you were not a proponent of a merger.

The FACT is that the MPSC has rejected a plan to make Charleston area soccer competitive with the rest of the state. I read Christi Arnold's letter, and it was all hot air. She gives absolutely NO reasoning for not joining the Bridge, other than that Mt. Pleasant Soccer Club is "the most well-rounded and successful club in the Lowcountry."

I can see it now - next year, when CESA takes home all the state championships again, the Mt. Pleasant administration will be saying "that's okay, we STILL have the most well-rounded and successful club in the Lowcountry."

"The devil is in the details." Let's check with Arnold again..."MPSC...not a part or supportive of this alliance in any way to include PHILOSOPHY..." That is an awfully HUGE detail.

Which part of winning state championships and becoming the most-successful club in the STATE does she not agree with?

Apparently, grenades won't do the trick - we need something much louder to make them WAKE UP!!!

>> [Vapor7] It's just a shame that all the clubs in the area can't seem to see the big picture and force kids and parents to make a tough choice to stay or go to BFA and end up being the bad guy's for leaving a club not affiliated with BFA.<<

Okay...for another perspective on this...

Let's imagine the following scenario: CRSA and Lexington decide to form Dam FA. Dam FA is set up like Bridge FA, Dam FA plays premier/challenge and alliance clubs play classic/recreation. Dam FA tries to enlist CSC and NECSA, who says "no thank you." People begin berating CSC and NECSA for not seeing the "big picture."

In that situation, if I'm on the board of CSC or NECSA, I'm going to ask myself "What is the benefit to joining Dam FC?" Most parents aren't clamoring for it, and it's not clear that it gives us a competitive advantage since the core of the best players are already here. In theory it sounds really nice, but asking CSC or NECSA to go onto the same footing as these other clubs isn't really a win/win for this organization CSC or NECSA has built here, is it? You're asking them to sacrifice what they've built for the "greater good"; but while they'll put in more highly ambitious players their return will be the same as any other member of the alliance.

Before you say "...it's not the same..." -- of course it's not the same, it's an analogy. But I think realizing and empathizing with the MPSC position might be more constructive in the long-term in terms of building an attractive package for MPSC to participate than simply evincing hostility toward the club because of their position.

Look...I think that Bridge FA is a neat idea...and I hope it works. But the constant shots at MPSC [note: I guess you guys don't care about CUSC] miss the point. I'm sure you worked hard to get MPSC involved in Bridge before the announcement. They've now told you that they're not interested. At this point, the only way to get them interested is to hit them where they live -- execute successfully. I know it's harder to walk than talk, but in this case that's about all you're left with -- "walking the talk." or, to put this in corporate M&A speak, you need to go straight to the investors [i.e., the parents] and convince them to support this directly by moving players.

And any parent that would hesitate to have their highly ambitious child go to a better club for fear of being "...a bad guy..." isn't the kind of parent that I think you want in Bridge FA, from what I gather reading your web site.

[Preface: Thanks for the great post; I've been reading this stuff for months now and this wonderful post encapsulated the issues very well.]

>>[Belligerant] The FACT is that the MPSC has rejected a plan to make Charleston area soccer competitive with the rest of the state.<<

The fact is that MPSC has rejected the Bridge FA plan to make Charleston area soccer more competitive. The fact is that MPSC believes that it can do it on its own. Can it? That's arguable; MPSC has the past on its side in terms of its last few years improvement; Bridge has the argument that organic growth alone won't beat the non-organic growth of CESA with its merger. Reasonable people can disagree on this.

>>I read Christi Arnold's letter, and it was all hot air. She gives absolutely NO reasoning for not joining the Bridge, other than that Mt. Pleasant Soccer Club is "the most well-rounded and successful club in the Lowcountry."

But from the MPSC perspective, this is a pretty powerful reason, to wit, MPSC is the most successful club and why would we want to join with these less successful clubs when we've been the ones to show the most success in the last two years with our plans and execution.

>>I can see it now - next year, when CESA takes home all the state championships again, the Mt. Pleasant administration will be saying "that's okay, we STILL have the most well-rounded and successful club in the Lowcountry."

The really scary part of all of this from the highly ambitious Charleston player perspective is that MPSC might just do that. Municipal supported soccer is wonderful in terms of keeping fees down [although taxes seem to rise -- TANSTAAFL], but municipal supported soccer caters to quantity, not quality. I've been impressed that MPSC has been able to achieve what they have with so much municipal funding.

>>"The devil is in the details." Let's check with Arnold again..."MPSC...not a part or supportive of this alliance in any way to include PHILOSOPHY..." That is an awfully HUGE detail.<<

Bottom line to any M&A activity; what can you offer to a target company to make it more attractive to come into your fold than to go it on their own? With normal companies, you offer the investors more money. With soccer clubs you have to come up and sell them on a plan where they get something that they really want and they get it with less risk/cost than they would in doing it on their own.

>>Which part of winning state championships and becoming the most-successful club in the STATE does she not agree with?<<

Bridge FA does not offer MPSC the chance to "become the most successful club in the state"; Bridge FA offers MPSC the chance to be an equal partner with arguably weaker clubs to be an alliance member of what could possibly be "the most successful club in the state." MPSC doesn't see that as attractive. Yelling at them, telling them over and over again that they are stupid -- none of that is going to make them think it's more attractive.

>>Apparently, grenades won't do the trick - we need something much louder to make them WAKE UP!!!<<

The most likely thing that's going to work is Bridge to execute and undoubtably replace MPSC as the strongest club in Charleston in terms of services and teams such that MPSC players move en masse to Bridge FA.

Other than that, you have to show them how to achieve their goals with less risk/cost than on their current course and speed, which may or may not include being the most successful club in the state.

I am going to try real hard to live up to my original premise - keep it clean.
Thanks Chico for reasoned discussion.
I just can't find it in myself to be belligerent.