I once did the math for one of the showcases for GDA. Our kids pay 1500 for 4 days, room and board, and vans (no food). Just out of curiosity, I checked flights, hotel, van and for the same time staying there. it would have been roughly 600 bucks per player. I know there's a registration fee and they have to pay for a 100 coaches to attend (which i think is BS) and their food. AS much as some of these coaches make, it's robbery to pay for them. split the cost of the reg and coaches and it's still about 900 bucks per player (traveling with 18 kids).
I addressed this with our travel coordinator and she really didn't have much other to say that this is what the coaches wanted. The kids went to 3 showcases that year so from just ONE team, they made 37.8k. Again, I don't have all the details for what went where, but I added everything that was given to us as "costs". There's a reason why soccer is a billion dollar industry and DOC's are buying fat houses in affluent areas. It's not all about the kids, sometimes.