#414 – Why MLS Academies Exist: Power, Control & Cheap Labor (Not Player Development)

We dive deep into the structure and incentives behind Major League Soccer in this episode.

We explain why MLS academies exist primarily to maintain monopoly control over the elite youth pipeline rather than to develop first-team talent, how homegrown rules provide cheap labor while designated players serve as the real attraction for casual fans, and why the entire system is built on optics and brand preservation instead of open competition.

Matt Crocker’s “pathway” comments, the myth that “the cream rises to the top” in a closed system, the price tag placed on academy players’ heads from age 12, and real-world examples of players bypassing MLS through USL to reach Europe is also discussed.

Our goal is simple: help parents and coaches see the environment they’re actually operating in with eyes wide open so they can make informed decisions. If you want the unfiltered truth about American soccer’s top-down structure, this episode is for you.

00:00 Intro
05:09 Addressing Comments that “Gary Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About”
06:28 Sub: Credentialism
10:01 Sub: The Race to Programming/Brainwashing/Indoctrinating Humans
11:36 Matt Crocker Programming The Minds of People
13:27 Sub: How Parents are Getting Screwed
15:08 Sub: There’s Always a “New Sucker” is the American Soccer Business Model
17:48 Is There a Way to Change the Path to the Youth NTs?
22:21 The Ignorant Notion of “The Cream Rises to the Top”
23:28 Sub: What Happens When You Acquire Deep Subject Matter Expertise?
25:31 Sub: How and Why Soccer is Different than the Other Sports
27:59 Sub: The Natural Funnel to MLS Academies
30:25 Sub: The Incentive Behind MLS Having “Academies”
31:30 Sub: The MLS Business Model
35:49 Sub: The Primary Incentive Behind MLS Decisions Is Optics/Perception
39:00 Sub: Homegrowns Are for Cheap Labor
40:12 Designated Players and the Target MLS Demographic
44:23 Discovery Rights
46:56 The Fundamental Axiom: MLS Teams are Geographically Separate Offices of MLS
49:54 Slavery?
54:05 The Deandre Yedlin Case and the Mass Exodus
55:42 Sub: Why TC and SD Make Sense Overseas
01:01:13 Why MLS Started Playing Their Homegrowns in 2020, 2021, 2022
01:05:55 Josh Sargent and The Real Reason MLS Brings Americans Back Before the World Cup
01:09:20 How MLS Can Do Whatever They Want
01:13:39 Sub: One Single Club Has Won MLS Every Year
01:18:56 How Long Does it Take to Open Your Eyes?

Premium Education for either Coaches or Parents

If you are a coach or a parent of a player, we’ve also codified and made available the remarkable work of a coach who trained and shepherded many, many players from the age of 9 all the way to graduating them to being professionals.

The products that show you how this was done, is what sponsors this episode.

Get aboard a proven path, a legitimately proven path, not something copied or synthesized from elsewhere, or worse. No, but rather a first hand account and curriculum directly from the source, from the practitioners themselves, whose work is unprecedented in the American soccer environment.

For Coaches

Learn the methodology at 343coaching.com.
If you’re coaching 7v7, we’ve got you covered at 7v7coaching.com.

For Parents

You don’t have to be lost and confused.
Learn to properly guide and develop your kid through the maze and pitfalls that is American soccer (from the folks who have actually done it).
Gain access at 343masterclass.com.

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