Here is a great post on this subject by Eddie K on another forum that I frequent.
Can the US continue to compete (women) or hope to compete (men) for regional and World Cups with the current 'pay to play' model? Where access to higher level competition and coaching is limited to those that can afford it.
Clearly, if you like the current system, you may not want to support kids and families that can't pay their way. This seems to be what US Soccer is doing. Your dollars indirectly subsidizing elite youth soccer. Since there just isn't a professional club-based model broad enough in the US to be relied upon (also debatable perhaps for the men).
So, will those scholarships mentioned for the girls DA really be used for needy players?
Will clubs have to look for and recruit needy players to get those scholarship dollars?
Will those dollars keep coming throughout the career of a needy player?
Will clubs be limited in the revenue they can make from DA kids/families? At least be required to make the DA program revenue-neutral or even revenue-negative. That is, keep costs down for the DA with other revenue (from tournaments, sponsors, etc). This is what the boys are doing, or supposed to be doing.
It's an interesting dilemma. Will players be drawn to something that costs less than the ECNL or USYSA alternative team? When the revenue constraints may keep some very good coaches away from it. They want to make a living and if DA budgets are controlled, why do it for less money? Prestige doesn't pay the mortgage.
On the girls side, this is a special dilemma because the players themselves will not be a source of revenue. No one is selling these players to pro clubs for the benefit of the home club like they are, or can, on the boys side.
And for the players, even for the handful or so any given year that may make it to the USWNT pool, its still all about a college scholarship. I believe only one NT player (Horan) has bypassed college. Men are doing it all the time and making good money (Agudelo, Yedlin, Pulisic, etc) Even if you are a top women's pro player, the NWSL max is 40K unless you get the US Soccer money. Some make only 10K. That's crazy. Only 20 or so players are making 100K+ and a dozen great women's pro players "retire" every year at age 24/25 after a year or 2 in the league to get real jobs.
IMHO, this effort is to be applauded but I have lots of doubts about both the implementation and the outcome. I mean what is the goal anyway? If this team goes to Rio and wins gold, how much better do we get??