Yeah I think for 70% of the elite player pool, they'll still get identified and play for whatever is considered the elite gaming circuit and top-level teams. These players are usually the early bloomers (physical and mental early bloomers). It's the other 30% of the elite pool who will probably have it tougher. The players who show enormous potential but might be under-sized or have a slower development curve. These players will be scattered across a half-dozen other leagues and circuits in varying competition levels.
The league dilution won't affect 70% of elite players who were identified early because they'll be inside the DA gated community. But the late bloomers will not have a clear pathway to get on the elite track because they'll be spread thin across SCDSL Flight 1, ENCL, SDDA Flight 1, CSL and Premier/Gold. It'll be harder for these 30% to actually play together. There's also almost zero cross-play between DA teams and any club teams in the above leagues. So if Lil' Larry the Late Bloomer is playing in SCDSL on CDA Slammers Exit 79, he'll rarely (or if ever) be able to test his metal against Big Ervin the Early Bloomer who plays on a DA team at [insert superclub]. Most DA coaches are unlikely to recruit from SCDSL, SDDA, CSL, and etc for new talent. They'll just attempt to recruit from other DA clubs as they've always done in the past.
Even at the current super clubs with DA teams and club teams, the DA teams have almost zero interaction with the club's own Flight 1 teams in terms of training and scrimmages. Having even more leagues, each with their own unique rules and restrictions for player passes/transfers, means it'll make it even easier for coaches to just compartmentalize players into their own little box, so there's going to be even less mobility.
My son played high school this year (I wanted my son to play at least one year of HS before DA blocked it out) and one great thing about our HS team is that our coaches moved the players all over the place from Freshman, JV, to Varsity even during midseason. JV players who showed promise got a chance to train and maybe even play for Varsity. Two JV players made the full transition and are now full-time Varsity players. Conversely, some Varsity players weren't getting enough game time, dropped down to JV for a couple of games. The varsity coach involves himself with the JV and freshmen teams and knows most of their names. The coach has been trying to strike a balance between winning games right now but also grooming the freshman and sophomores for the upcoming years.
I was amazed frankly. For all the derision high school soccer gets, this particular high school was putting into practice the holistic approach that myself and many on this forum have been clamoring for club teams to do. It felt like everyone was under the same umbrella rather than 3 isolated teams. To bring my point home from my long tangent, the league dilution and DA gated community further destroys the bottom up approach or pathway with club soccer, which basically prevents the above HS scenario from happening. Even recently in the younger age groups at least, CRL and National Cup provided a checks and balance system on the elite teams and an up and coming team could make a Cinderella run and give some exposure to previously undiscovered talent. We now have a situation where theoretically a kid enters the DA system at 10 years-old and plays the same 6-8 teams repeatedly for the next 7-8 years. All the other players will be outside the gates bouncing around various super-club affiliates and "B" teams in a half dozen leagues hoping to get noticed. But after a certain point, coaches/directors are just trying to fill slots not develop and identify players. If you have a 25 person roster on both a DA and ECNL team, 18 player rosters on Flight 1 "C" and "D" teams, then why make waves and potentially upset parents by moving players around to a more appropriate level? DOCs love league dilution because it makes it easier for them to do the shell game where every parent gets to have their kid in a top flight. But late bloomers will suffer from this the most.
