AP and Contract dates

So with the AP change would it make more sense to align signing with beginning of year? Not sure if the July 1 date had anything to do with calendar year previously. Either way it always seemed odd that some of the bigger tournaments(State Cup, Surf Cup, blah blah blah) were between the May thru August time frame, which is when players are contemplating leaving/signing with team.

Changing the signing date would be semantics for the most part. By moving to Jan 1, you would only bring the craziness of Open Sessions & Tryouts into the already hectic holiday season. Then state cup would get pushed back to November-February so you didn't fix that problem.

The big tournaments come and go regardless of team transition. Most of the teams that play these larger tournaments have very little player movement. Heck Surf Cup registration closed June 3 for a August 3 tournament and they had 820 teams register.

The next thing you will tell us is there is a "Relative Age Effect" for kids born in January-May that are being provided better training and playing opportunities due to being the oldest in the group. Then a whole new plan will be announced to move to a new technique that the "Germans/French/Portuguese/Welsh" use that is taking over the soccer community. It's age groups based on "School Year".

I'm kidding of course. As with most things, people don't like change but a year or two from now you won't know the difference. Everyone will be settled in with the new system and all will be right with the world again.

The timing of signing right after Regionals always brought about a few "interesting" or awkward situations.