Major League Soccer announced initiatives Tuesday to expand MLS Go, the league’s youth soccer program launched last year, as it continues to explore ways to make soccer more accessible to players. base.
The two new initiatives are: the MLS Go Playbook, a free online resource for youth coaches, and the MLS Go Play Fund, an annual grant that can offset seasonal costs for players wishing to join MLS Go teams. MLS Go is also associated with two long-established recreational soccer associations, Cal North Youth Soccer and New Jersey Youth Soccer.
“These three initiatives are another moment for us to continue to advance an agenda that we believe will be really important, from a youth perspective, for MLS,” said Kyle Albrecht, vice president of MLS Go. Athleticism.
MLS Go, launched last year, is aimed at players aged 4 to 14. The program offers the league a way to leverage football at the lowest level to increase participation and interest, while trying to solve a major problem with the lack of accessible grassroots clubs for young children.
We are very excited to be rolling out brand new initiatives for 2024, designed to increase participation and access to football!
MLS Playbook: Coaching Program and More.
MLS Play Fund: Grant initiative dedicated to leveling the playing field.
Learn more @MLSGO.com pic.twitter.com/2dVm2xQce7
– MLS GO (@MLSGO) April 30, 2024
“You could have a kid come into one of our programs now, at four or five years old, and theoretically not have to leave until they kick a ball in a team game first,” Albrecht said.
When it launched, MLS Go focused on groups that might be outside of the existing youth soccer ecosystem, Albrecht said, like YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs or other non-profit organizations. The league has since moved toward partnerships with more established soccer programs, like Cal North and New Jersey Youth Soccer.
The two associations collectively serve more than 100,000 young footballers and have hundreds of clubs established in their respective communities. Through this partnership, recreational clubs can apply to become MLS Go league operators to gain access to league programs and resources, such as branded uniforms. MLS Go teams also have strong ties to their local MLS teams, such as the New York Red Bulls or Philadelphia Union for New Jersey clubs, or the San Jose Earthquakes for those in Northern California.
MLS clubs also “played a critical role” in “aligning themselves with the state associations,” Albrecht said. “In addition to things like the Play Fund and the Playbook, access to our clubs, (via) things like a ticketing program that we have in place with these clubs, we think it adds another layer of value.”
The Play Fund and Playbook are new initiatives that the league hopes will help increase accessibility.
MLS said one of the goals of MLS Go was to reduce the cost of entry into soccer. Costs to join an MLS Go team can range from $50 to $150 per player per season, depending on the team’s location, Albrecht said. The cost, he added, can be linked to an area’s cost of living. A team in a big city, for example, may cost more.
Yet that price point remains out of reach for some families, says Sola Winley, MLS executive vice president and chief engagement and inclusion officer. That’s where the league’s Play Fund initiative comes in, an annual commitment to help offset the cost of entry through a partnership with RCX Sports.
“If there is an economic barrier to your participation in football, we try to do everything we can to reduce it and, in the case of the Go Play Fund, eliminate it completely,” Winley said.
The fund will be available to MLS Go leagues in all markets. There will be a link on the MLS Go website for those who want to apply online, and the league hopes to make the process “as smooth as possible,” Winley said. The league’s initial goal is to help at least 3 to 5 percent of MLS Go participants.
The broad model of paid soccer in the United States is quintessentially American, with families having to navigate complicated and expensive paths for their children to play. Costs increase significantly when you consider the cost of traveling across the country with a club for competitions.
“At the national level, it’s the opposite of everywhere in the world, where if you’re interested in playing football – world football – you play pick-up football in the streets. The academic systems don’t cost them anything, right? You don’t pay to travel,” Winley said. ” Here, this is not the case. There is a very high barrier to entry.
Winley estimates that on average, playing club soccer in the United States can cost between $2,000 and $3,000 a year, not including travel costs. The Aspen Institute estimated in its annual survey of parents that the average annual cost of having a child in football was about $1,188 in fall 2022. That’s why it’s important to keep costs down. a low level, Winley said.
“We tried to make (MLS) Go affordable for people,” Winley said. “We also want to make sure that if anyone outside of that price point can participate as well.”
With MLS Go, the league is trying to expand access to players as young as four years old, throughout their professional careers. It is intended to be more recreational, introducing players to the sport and the MLS brand from a young age.
Youth versions of soccer in the United States have long focused on identifying talent with the potential to turn professional. In 1999, the Super Y-League was founded for this purpose in affiliation with US Soccer and MLS. In 2007, the US Soccer Development Academy was founded, bringing together youth academies and clubs from leagues like MLS and the United Soccer League. That was until the DA shut down in 2020, following financial problems related to the pandemic.
In recent years, MLS has grown independently, founding MLS Next in 2020, what many call the successor to the DA. MLS Next includes teams from U-13 to U-19. In 2021, MLS founded MLS Next Pro, a new professional league that would serve as a pathway to the MLS Premier Division. And then last year, MLS Go launched to encompass the league’s reach across all levels of the sport.
The new initiatives announced Tuesday also give coaches access to the first MLS Go Playbook, a free coaching resource that will be available online on the MLS Go website. Initially, it will be available only on desktop, but the league is working on releasing a mobile app in a few months. Although currently the game is only available in English, the league plans to develop versions in French and Spanish.
“Our idea was to improve best practices at the grassroots level,” said Fred Lipka, MLS vice president of player and youth development. “We believe that what we do at the highest level and what we try to implement at the local level are completely interdependent. We wanted to create a free, accessible tool, but also linked to what we do in our (MLS) Next academies for beginner coaches.
The manual is like a beginner’s guide to the sport, while delving into the specifics of how each age group can best absorb the game.
“If we don’t raise the level of awareness about soccer in the United States, it will be difficult to convince people that this beautiful game is the best sport to play, because in fact, it is the easiest sport to play ” Lipka said. “and that’s the universality of football.”
For MLS, raising the lowest level of the game is good for business, especially as the league anticipates the attention the sport will receive from the Copa America this summer, the Club World Cup next year next year and the Men’s World Cup in 2026. The men’s tournament spurred the creation of MLS, and now the league is preparing for a new era of growth.
“This program, MLS Go, was built with a long-term perspective, with a growth perspective. We’re not necessarily rushing to experience this exponential growth tomorrow. So for us, it’s about setting up this program in the right way to capture the opportunity that we have around ’26 and beyond,” Albrecht said. “There is no reason why more than half a million children cannot take part in the program following the World Cup.”
(Photo: MLS Communications)