So my first question: Does anyone know of an actual kid who was priced out of youth soccer? Like do you know a kid who was very talented and the parents couldn't swing the cost so he dropped soccer? I know a TON of talented kids with no money and they are all playing Flight 1 or DA for free or reduced. Who are these talented kids that are being priced out? Cuz I know a few coaches who will go talk to them tonight. lol.
Sure, stud players who can make an immediate impact for the team can usually get a scholarship if they can manage the travel.
But where they get priced out is when they're 10-11 years old where they may show some real potential but maybe they're too small or rough around the edges. With proper training these kids have the potential to be one of the very talented players at 14-15 years old. But at 10-11 years-old they're not "impact" players yet or too small, so Flight 1 or 2 club teams won't waste a scholarship on them. These kids are affectively priced out before they've gotten the proper training to reach their potential. Pay to Play prices out the most in the younger ages, particularly for the late-bloomers.
Anyway, the problem with the MLS academies is that the MLS clubs themselves treat their DAs like a mandatory emissions compliance electric car. In the last several years the major automakers had to make "Compliance Cars". Basically California mandated that automakers which sell over 60,000 vehicles in the state, had to also offer a low emissions (or electric) vehicles. As a result you had cars like Fiat 500e, Honda Fit EV, Toyota RAV4 EV, and etc, cars only available in California (or maybe a couple of states). There was no real marketing plan or comprehensive strategy behind those cars, they were designed to essentially just check a box so the automakers could keep selling other cars in the state.
A very similar situation has happened with the MLS. The MLS mandated that teams had to establish youth academies and invest a certain amount. It was a decent first step, but they've done very little beyond that. As a result, you have a lot of "Compliance Academies" from MLS teams that just use them to check a box for the league. Most of them see their academies as a form of community outreach not as machinery to produce professional players on a yearly basis.
The MLS has recently made some very minor changes to the Homegrown player rules to encourage more signings but they have to be way more aggressive. They basically freed up more salary space for MLS teams to sign Homegrown players but it's still optional and the clubs could easily just sign more Central American/Caribbean players instead. I'd entertain the idea of being more forceful such as requiring MLS teams to sign-on at least 2 homegrown players a year and if those homegrown players meet certain performance metrics, then the MLS team could be awarded with additional salary cap space or allocation money. Have some aggressive measures for the next 7-8 years or so or at least until our youth development pipeline is no longer crap.
