4DL & 5DL Merging?

I havent. Have you?

 

I haven't.

The girls are basically merged already aren't they? Merging the boys would be ridiculous if it also meant that say Abbotsford had to play Vancouver United. I say this because Abbotsford and Vancouver Utd can easily find similarly skilled opponents who reside much nearer, thus no need for long travel at the Division 1 and below levels.

 

4 and 5 District Leagues are merging, at U13+. From what I understand, Div 1 will not have geographic boundaries, but Div 2 and lower will be tiered geographically. I believe that 4 District league structure will be followed. There seems to be a ton of moving parts still.

Girls and possibly Metro are supposedly merging as well, in fall 2018 so all youth soccer below PL is one league.

That's the limit on my scuttlebutt knowledge...

 

Div 1 should absolutely be geographically restricted. Again, it makes no sense whatsoever for Chilliwack-Richmond to be in the same division at this level, they can find opponents in much nearer geographic areas of equal ability (as things currently are). This would be a huge mistake.

MSL is a separate league from Div 1 and below, so how would a 5d and 4d merger mean everything below BCSPL is one league? Frankly, this is back assward - BCSPL should be 2-3 tiers, and then the remaining tiers 4-6 should be separate.

 

This potential merger has me intrigued. I personally don't see it happening for the reasons stated in the above post regarding geographic concerns, but on the other hand, I do believe 4d & 5d teams don't meet enough threw out the year outside of tournaments & CC play.

Although it would be cool to see it play out based out on last years standings for example go to the U13 gold, top 5 teams in 4d & top 5 teams in 5d combine for a group of 10 for the U14 top division this season. I don't see it happening though either way.

 

It just doesn't make sense. There are ways both d4 and d5 can make their own leagues much better without merging and creating ridiculous travel times.

 

Anything more than an hour is too much. Think about it this way. u13 game. Drive 1 hour (each way) - even if a kid plays half the game, that's 2 hours driving for about 35 minutes of game time. Some kids will play less (some more). Even that's too far, but unless you live in Surrey and nearer Vancouver having such drive time for the Valley teams is inevitable. Div 3-4 and house should never have more than 45 minutes (Chilliwack-Surrey basically).

 

Something is definitely up, so I asked my TD this morning (thus no response). But, yes the 5 district site is now called 2 district, and does say it's only u10-12 from those few communities. But if you go to the club list you see all the normal clubs etc, including Coquitlam/Tri Cities.

Maybe with the Delta-Surrey merger this year, that has created it's own district (as I actually advocated for - if I lived in that district with all those quality teams I'd argue why would we play Abbotsford, Maple Ridge etc too).

Chilliwack-Langley-Aldergrove-Abbotsford-Mission-Maple Ridge does make sense to be a district, while Surrey-Delta is another, and possibly then yes Coquitlam joining 4 district (and they can regionalize as they see fit of course).

For too long Maple Ridge-Mission has been an odd district with very few clubs, and often getting a free pass to Coastal Cup (much like Richmond!).

 

^ so many Richmond teams & West Coast gold teams playdown with silver teams to qualify for coastal cup. Neither club takes advantage of that opportunity & rarely go on a deep run.

 

that they play silver teams in playdowns has little to nothing to do with coastal cup success or not - both play in leagues against teams from the other districts all year.

 

I'm referring to that "free pass" you say which might no longer be with stronger districts.

 

OK, but you were discussing the lack of strength in their district leading to poor performances in Coastal Cup.

 

Fair enough. But generally these teams don't do well anyways. Had there been better competition in there district, they probably wouldn't even make it out. A team is bottom half of the league playing against "strong" opposition all year in the league then are lucky with a weak district in playing silver teams to advance its kind of false hope.

This year in coastals from 13-18, only 1 RCH & 1 WCA made it past first Rd. Ironically both in the u18 div.

 

I don't disagree. It makes no sense to have small districts with just a couple clubs. Maple Ridge should join Fraser Valley (Langley-Chilliwack), and Richmond should join the nearest Vancouver d4 sub-district (previously I would have said Delta but they joined Surrey) I suppose the district Vancouver United is in.

 

With talk on this board of there now being a 2 District (looks like Fraser Valley u10-12) and a merger of District 4 and 5 it seems there's yet another piece to the puzzle...?

I was wondering who a coach was for a certain MSL team. So I went to the MSL web site, clicked on schedule, and noticed this: Metro Select League Schedules

District 5 Division 1 and 2 teams now have their schedules etc listed on the MSL schedules/standings web site. Are the District 4 Division 1 and 2 teams soon to follow thus creating a pyramid under 1 umbrella below BCSPL? If so, I think a merger makes perfect sense. Division 1-2-MSL under one path. BCSPL at the top of the pyramid although a separate league (it shouldn't be a separate league IMO). But this is a great start, if this is what's happening. Would still need to ensure regionalized divisions for each tier at Division 1-2 (ie, still have a Fraser Valley Division 1 and a Vancouver Division 1 so you reduce drive times).

 

I guess I could have clicked some of the leagues to see that. but i saw Division 1 and Divison 2, but also saw "A" and "B" thus assumed the A and B were the MSL tiers and the div 1 and 2 were the traditional div 1 and 2.

OK thanks for clarifying!