Expansion MLS clubs and their academies. Uncomfortable bedfellows.

When NYCFC opted to crank up its first MLS season in 2015, it didn’t include an entry into the Development Academy. The decision instead? Affiliates. Lots of them. Eleven, in fact, based in and around the boroughs to seed the future, presumably, for a dedicated academy of its own down the line.

NYCFC was (and is) a top-down operation. It has never made qualms about its more-than-notional tie to Manchester City, which has made a mockery of its unreal English development arsenal by throwing planetary amounts of cash at first team players every transfer window. If you thought that was slowing down with financial fair play regulations, think again. City spent £120 million in the last transfer window.

NYCFC is hamstrung by the MLS salary cap, but it has still jammed overpriced geriatrics like Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo down the chute instead of playing moneyball. As a result, NYCFC isn’t all that good right now. Whether or not Jason Kreis will be allowed to build like he did at RSL, just with more resources, is unclear.

NYCFC finally entered the Development Academy nigh on a month ago when its U14 team started play. It will presumably use that age group to progress into fledgling U16 and U18 age ranges before establishing a foothold in the USL. Why it didn’t have this baked into its entry into MLS, and why the academy didn’t come first, is puzzling. The affiliate program is fine, but it’s a patch job. Academies are the easiest way to connect with the community, and in a club-choked arena like NYC, you need a running start at this thing. NYCFC is working from behind developmentally. Whether they even care is unclear.

LAFC, that shell of an organization slated to begin play in 2017 (no wait, 2018 – wait…. 2019?) is in deeper, murkier waters. LAFC had the opportunity (or at least, had the opportunity to see if they had the opportunity) to absorb Chivas USA’s well-established academy when the club folded after the 2014 season. The LA Galaxy had been poaching Chivas USA coaches and players for years, but LAFC had an opportunity to fold in the remaining talent (and there was talent there) into its embrace as it kick-started its own academy system. At the very least, it’s a head start.

It failed in that arena, publicly distancing itself from the Chivas USA name by pushing back the academy option without anything else in place. This is LAFC managing partner Henry Nguyen.

“And when we looked at their academy system, looked at their young players, we said, ‘Well, there are great assets there.’ But even just us trying to maintain whatever infrastructure was there, keeps that Chivas legacy on us. And we’re a clean break. People always ask me, ‘Oh, you guys are replacing Chivas?’ No, we’re not replacing anybody. We’re a brand new club. Chivas had its own history — it didn’t work out.”

This is insular nonsense, of course, but it’s LAFC’s nonsense, so we take it in stride and see what they do next. LAFC has been remarkably quiet since it ignited a firestorm of criticism (some, you’ll note, from this author) this spring, so we don’t know much about their academy plans. As with everything involved in this club’s foundation, wait and see.

Atlanta United, though, is taking a different tack. Before the club enters MLS in 2017, it’s planning to engage the Development Academy on every age front. Next year, it’ll have teams at every age level of the DA. Contrast this Arthur Blank quote from the aforementioned story with Nguyen’s.

“We’re bringing in everybody earlier than we have to based on the MLS timetable because you want to get them comfortable with the market, and understanding what’s going on here,” Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank told SBIsoccer.com on Monday. “Listening to everybody and getting a good sense of the soccer fabric in Atlanta. We’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure [the academy is] first-class and world-class,” he continued. “We’re equally excited about the youth part of this as we are excited about playing professionally.”

This is not molecular biology. It’s common sense mixed with opportunism, and it is 100 percent how to root a new franchise in a community. Forget for a moment that Atlanta United FC is the team’s name, and its boring logo is from a stock team builder in FIFA 16. The guts are what matters, and this is how you care for them.

Clubs like Orlando City had DA engagement before entering MLS, but remember that Orlando City was playing soccer then, albeit in a lower tier. Atlanta will be the first fully new expansion team in MLS history to play DA soccer before first team soccer. And this is significant. Atlanta is the seat of a Southeast region (excluding Florida, which is its own weird developmental universe) that’s begun to finally build itself into a self-sustaining youth soccer landscape. The girls club game in the Deep South has been progressing fast over the past half decade. The boys game (as recent Man City trialist and Mississippi native Koray Easterling can attest) is catching up. Call it the Delayed Clint Mathis Effect.

In any case, this doesn’t assure Atlanta United success. There’s still backbreaking work to be done, both in engendering a top-down playing ideal and in finding and cultivating local talent that’s never had a pro soccer outlet within 500 miles. This, though, is the way to start.