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Dog, How much is all of this commitment costing you a month? Or should I say how much did they tell you at the meeting last month, and what's the price tag up to today.


Lost track right about the time I went into the red, but I figure the remainder of the Fall will run around $300-$375 total per month including hotels. Fortunately, I have relatives in Jacksonville and lots of hotel points. Are the club costs this year significantly higher than last year? Absolutely, especially considering we didn't have to pay training fees last year if we played ECNL, and this year we do. And uniforms, etc. But, I'm not flying to Houston or New Jersey.

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Also, now it's 3 leagues, CAP and HS. And who on that team was committed to CAP???? CESA was pulling teeth last year to get the current u18 girls to attend CAP. Honestly can't think of any current u-18's that participated in CAP last year.


At least a couple I know of from the Premier team did participate. They were also training for ODP at that time as well. My older daughter participated in CAP one Spring, and we realized the scheduling nightmare trying to honor conflicting "commitments" to CAP, HS, ODP and Club demands. So, my younger daughter participated in the combines and skipped CAP. However, on it's own, HS will usually represent 20 games plus playoffs, which is probably about the number of games the players playing in both Premier and Challenge leagues will end up playing.

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CESA is also the club that told you that your daughter wouldn't have to play ECNL at u18, did you forget?


That was a very, very late change made by ECNL dictated to the member clubs. My personal belief is it was a change made by ECNL to ensure the U-17 teams would have to make the the trip to Seattle or the club get kicked out of ECNL. My opinion. Even so, the ECNL committment for the U-18's this year is really not that different than not playing ECNL and going to the CASL and Disney tournaments anyway... no airline tickets. Did I like the seeming "bait and switch" roping the U-18's into another season of ECNL? No, but as I said, the result isn't going to change the impact on my wallet that much, because we'd be going to those tournaments anyway (note: the December ECNL event will not actually be Disney). The real future impact of ECNL will be on the younger teams.

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CESA's also the club that was trying to chase down an extra $3000 from the team at the end of this past year,$200 per player (didn't see that in the budget). There also the club that was trying to chase down coaches fees for regionals( didn't see that in the budget).


The coaches fees for regionals are normal and were known a few weeks before regionals (I know because my older daughter had already been to 4 previous regionals, and her team manager had already sent that team's request for a check), but I think the U-17's were of the understanding that as an ECNL team that wasn't required to pay training fees last year they would not have to pay coaches fees for regionals. Because the clarification came unexpectedly after regionals, it got bundled in with a team budget shortfall to cover ground transportation expenses for the team in New Jersey and Seattle. Also, because it was the team's first trip to regionals, the team costs associated with that event may have gotten slightly lost in all of the planning associated with coordinating flights, hotels, ground transportation, etc. associated with the two ECNL events before and after regionals. A lot of hectic work was done by team volunteers to get that team where it needed to be this summer. The $3000 included the coaches fees for regionals.

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Dog, do you see a trend here? How many of these commitments do you want to keep paying for.


Personally, here's the trend I see. My older daughter just finished U-18, and I'm now not paying club fees for her this year. My younger daughter is beginning her U-18 season, and...

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Dog, How much can you take?


Already past that point. Just trying to survive.