Major League Soccer announced initiatives on 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 at the grassroots level.
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 to join MLS Go teams. MLS Go has also partnered 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 push forward a program that we think is going to be really important, from a youth perspective, for MLS,” Kyle Albrecht, vice president of MLS Go, told The Athletic.
MLS Go, which launched last year, is for players ages 4-14. The program offers the league a way to tap into soccer at the lowest level of the game to grow participation and interest, while also trying to solve a major issue: the lack of grassroots, accessible clubs for young kids.
We’re so excited to roll out brand new initiatives for 2024 designed to grow soccer participation & access!
MLS Playbook: Coaching curriculum 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
The youth program allows the league to have reach in every level of the game. “You could have a child come into one of our programs now, at four or five, and theoretically not need to leave until the time they kick a ball in a first team match,” Albrecht said.
When it first launched, MLS Go focused on groups that may have sat on the outside of the existing youth soccer ecosystem, Albrecht said, like YMCAs, Boys and Girls clubs or other nonprofit organizations. The league has since gravitated to partnering with more established soccer programs, like Cal North and the New Jersey Youth Soccer.
The two associations collectively service more than 100,000 youth soccer players and have hundreds of established clubs in their respective communities. Through this partnership, rec clubs can apply to be MLS Go league operators to gain access to league programming and resources, like branded uniforms. MLS Go teams also have close ties to their local MLS teams, like the New York Red Bulls or Philadelphia Union for clubs in New Jersey, or the San Jose Earthquakes for those in Northern California.
MLS clubs also “played a vital role” in “aligning with the state associations,” Albrecht said. “In addition to things like the Play Fund and the Playbook, access to our clubs, (through) things like a ticketing program we have in place with those clubs, we think adds another layer of value.”
The Play Fund and Playbook are new initiatives the league hopes will help grow accessibility.
The league has said one of the goals of MLS Go is to lower 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 location of a team, Albrecht said. The cost, he added, can be tied to an area’s cost of living. A team in a bigger city, for example, may be more expensive.
Still, 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. The fund is an annual commitment the league will make to help offset the cost of entry through a partnership with RCX Sports.
“If there is a economic barrier for you to participate in soccer, we’re trying to do everything we can to reduce that, and in the case of the Go Play Fund, eliminate it altogether,” Winley said.
The fund will be available for MLS Go leagues in every market. There will be a link on the MLS Go website for those who want to apply online, and the league is hoping to make the process “as frictionless as possible,” Winley said. The league’s initial target is to help at least 3 to 5 percent of MLS Go participants.
The vast pay-to-play model of soccer in the U.S. is uniquely American, with families having to navigate complicated and expensive pathways for their children to play. Costs rise significantly when considering the cost of traveling across the country with a club for competitions.
“Domestically here is the inverse of everywhere it is around the world, where, if you’re interested in playing football — global football — you’re playing pickup football in the streets. The academy systems, there’s no cost to them, right? You’re not paying to travel,” Winley said. “Here — that’s not the case. There’s a very high barrier to entry.”
Winley estimated that, on average, it can cost between $2,000 to $3,000 a year to play club soccer in the U.S., not including the cost of travel. The Aspen Institute estimated in its annual parent survey that the average annual cost for having a child in soccer was around $1,188 in the fall of 2022. That’s why keeping costs low is important, Winley said.
“We tried to make (MLS) Go an accessible price point for folks,” Winley said. “We also want to make sure that if there’s anyone outside of that price point that they can participate as well.”
With MLS Go, the league is trying to increase access for players as young as four years old, all the way through playing professionally. MLS Go is meant to be more recreational, introducing players to the sport and to the MLS brand at an early age.
Versions of youth soccer in the U.S. have long focused on identifying talent to go pro. In 1999, the Super Y-League was founded in affiliation with U.S. Soccer and MLS for that purpose. By 2007, the U.S. Soccer Development Academy was founded, featuring youth academies and clubs from leagues like MLS and the United Soccer League. That was until the DA folded in 2020, following financial issues from the pandemic.
(Photo by MLS Communications)
In recent years, MLS has branched off on its own, founding MLS Next in 2020, what many called 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 top division of MLS. And then last year, MLS Go was launched to encompass MLS’ reach across all levels of the sport.
The new initiatives also provide access for coaches with the first MLS Go Playbook, a free coaching resource that will be available online through the MLS Go website. It will be available only via desktop at first, but the league is working to release a mobile application in a couple of months. Though right now it’s only available in English, the league plans to develop versions in French and Spanish.
“Our idea was to improve the best practices at the grassroots level,” said Fred Lipka, MLS vice president of player and youth development. “We think it’s completely interdependent, what we’re doing at the highest level and what we try to implement at the grassroots level. We wanted to build a tool which is free, accessible, but also linked with what we are doing in our (MLS) Next academies for first-time coaches.”
The playbook guides coaches through effective ways to teach the sport to children through age-specific training sessions that foster development. The manual is like a beginner’s guide to the sport, while also delving into the specifics of how each age group can best absorb the game.
“If we don’t elevate the level of awareness of soccer in the U.S., it will be difficult to convince people that the beautiful game is the best sport to play, because in fact, that’s the easiest sport to play,” Lipka said, “and that’s the universality of soccer.”
For MLS, growing the lowest level of the game is good for business, especially as the league looks ahead to the attention the sport will receive from Copa America this summer, the Club World Cup next year and the men’s World Cup in 2026. The 1994 men’s tournament spurred the creation of MLS, and now the league is preparing for another era of growth.
“This program, MLS Go, was built with a long-term lens in mind, from a growth perspective. We’re not necessarily rushing to have that exponential growth tomorrow. So, for us, it’s about setting this program up in the right way to capture the opportunity that we have around ‘26 and beyond,” Albrecht said. “There’s no reason why half a million kids plus can’t be playing in the program on the back of the World Cup.”
(Photo: MLS Communications)
