For the average parent, looking at the fall/winter competitive offerings of Richmond FC and Richmond United can be pretty polarizing. You have to figure out your age group, then figure out if your kid is an open development player or advanced player, then what division they’ll play in…
It’s, frankly, a mess. But here’s what it comes down to in our opinion:
At Richmond United, you’re going to pay less, but get less sessions ($600 at Metro level and $555 for div 1 and 2, for two sessions a week).
At Richmond FC, you’ll pay more, but receive more training sessions ($1075 at Metro level and $650 for div 1 and 2, but for three sessions a week at Metro, two at the lower levels).
If private academies are your thing, TSS offers a 12-month program that is more expensive than the community clubs, but more intensive and aimed at players looking for a pro player path.
At the time of writing, RUSC isn’t announcing any training times or days, as some of their teams may be short players and need to be combined. TSS doesn’t offer much detail on scheduling and requires a player evaluation to determine placement. RFC’s page does provide scheduling info for open teams (grassroots, young kids, and house) in both training and game play, which helps parents plan their week.
RUSC recently cut ties with their Technical Director, Martin Bittengl, after advertising his involvement extensively. Brent Branker currently runs their program with former RFC Technical Lead Jan Skoupil, though the Technical Director position remains unfilled. Skoupil is a quality coach with European and Canadian qualifications, and shares his time coaching Fusion FC. RFC by comparison has one of the country’s foremost TDs in David Thorburn, a former European player agent, national technical director, and national team and MLS coach.
Looking at the programs, obviously RUSC is using price cuts to try to make a dent in RFC’s legacy team depth dominance, but that’s a race to the bottom that will likely be a short term strategy.
RUSC doesn’t have teams at all ages and divisions, so their page warns some players may have to play up or down age groups and/or levels.
I’m not sure I’d want my child to have to play against older kids to help make up the numbers, but if that’s a good trade off to help you save some money and your child is physically gifted enough to manage, then by all means.
Going by the spring schedule, it appears RUSC had boys teams at U8/9 (combined), U10 (one), U11 (two), U13 (one) and both U14 and U16 had to scrimmage 8v8 due to lack of numbers. Fall registration numbers are unknown at the time of writing.
RFC has lost some teams to RUSC recently as a result of aggressive recruiting, which is frankly a shame for everyone as it splits age groups and lessens the player depth on both sides, which may come back to haunt the entire community as the season wears on.
It would obviously make the most sense for Richmond United to welcome Richmond FC’s overtures at a merger so parents could make an easy decision and families and friends could play under the same colours but, until that happens, your personal decision will likely be based on whether you want three days of training for your child, or two.
Best of luck!