Where MLS Next should expand to find more talent

April 2026

It was another sunny and soccer-filled week in Bradenton, Florida for one of the premier youth soccer tournaments in North America — Generation adidas Cup. I spent six days watching soccer from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., bouncing around from field to field talking to parents, coaches, agents, players, academy directors, academy scouts and scouts from Europe. I absolutely loved every minute of it. There isn't a better way to really have your pulse on what is going on at the highest levels of youth soccer in this country. Here are the trends I saw and discussed, the insights I took away and the players that impressed.

There is a fast, but impractical solution

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.

Here are my suggestions by region:

Northwest
‍Marin, California
Oakland / Berkeley, California
Greater Portland, Oregon
Central Oregon
Greater Seattle, Washington
Central Washington
Boise, Idaho
Hawaii (thought travel would be very difficult, so a small Hawaiian conference makes the most sense)

‍Southwest
‍Central California (Fresno / Bakersfield)
South Central LA
Long Beach, California
East LA

‍Frontier
‍Arlington, Texas (one of the most diverse suburbs in the U.S.)
More representation in Houston, Texas
El Paso, Texas
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Wichita, Kansas

‍Mid-America
‍Aurora, Illinois (one of the most diverse suburbs in the U.S.)
South Chicago, Illinois
Des Moines, Iowa
Minneapolis, Minnesota
St. Paul, Minnesota
Omaha, Nebraska
Lexington, Kentucky

‍Mid-Atlantic
‍Richmond, Virginia
Virginia Beach, Virginia

‍Southeast
‍New Orleans, Louisiana
Jackson, Mississippi
Little Rock, Arkansas
Charleston, South Carolina
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Memphis, Tennessee

‍Florida
‍Tallahassee, Florida

‍Northeast
‍Buffalo, New York
Hartford, Connecticut
Worcester, Massachusetts
Springfield, Massachusetts
Burlington, Vermont
Manchester, New Hampshire
Portland, Maine

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