The professional academies in MLS do important work, but their geographic footprint leaves enormous blind spots. There are entire metro areas and regions where high-level competition simply doesn't exist nearby. One of the most practical ways to shrink those blind spots is for MLS Next, the top youth competition in the country for boys soccer, to bring clubs into talent-rich areas that are currently underserved. And one of the fastest ways to make that possible is by consolidating the top youth leagues, which would mean finding a way to fold ECNL into MLS Next. A unified structure would expand the competitive footprint overnight, reduce redundancy, and give more players across the country access to a single, high-level pathway.
The reality is that this consolidation isn't likely to happen soon. There are a lot of people making a lot of money running ECNL and ECNL clubs, and whenever money is involved, decisions are slow and complicated. I do think it happens eventually. I'm just not sure when. In the meantime, MLS Next will continue trying to persuade clubs to switch their registration, and new clubs will need to get created in the right places.
I've given serious thought to where that needs to happen. The population diversity of this country is one of its greatest strengths, and that diversity fuels both the soccer culture and the talent pipeline. When I looked at where MLS Next should expand, I leaned on two factors: population diversity and population density. The goal is to identify areas where more players could get identified sooner. To be clear, I'm not strictly talking about professional academies. These are areas where an MLS Next club presence could make a real difference.
