Let me preface this by saying, I support Local Play with no interaction between parents. A lot of studies (real studies, not just the 5th grade level Surf study) has shown outdoor sports and transmission on the field of play is very rare and low risk overall. Prior to November, the state should have allowed local teams within 50 miles of each other to play games as long as the parents could be completely separated. CA state government did absolutely nothing to ease the pressure valve among rabid SoCal soccer parents and coaches, which has contributed to the current situation. I'll also throw some blame at the Federal government with both Congress and the White House. If they actually came together and passed a Covid Relief/Stimulus bill in the early fall like Wall-Street had expected, you wouldn't have big soccer clubs with large overheads feeling desperate to hold tournaments out of state on New Years in the height of a pandemic. So there's certainly enough blame to go around.
That said, Surf is making a huge mistake by trying to push forward. As others have mentioned, Surf will be needed with their credibility in tack to help get Local Play going in the spring. I know inside the soccer bubble Surf looks like a freedom fighter or Luke Skywalker trying to take the Empire down. But to the majority of outside observers, Surf just looks reckless, desperate and disrespectful to local communities which are battling a very real health crisis on their hands. Using "it's about the children!!" as a shield when it's really about the bottom line. Let's be real here.
Again, I agree rates of transmission and spread on the field are very low. But if you have anywhere from 30,000 - 60,000 people traveling to a local area from out of state for a tournament, you have to worry about how those 30-60k will interact with the local community. Do you think all those people will just stay quietly in their hotel quarantined and not interact with anyone? Remember these are the same people who are there in the first place because they're defying their own states restrictions, justified or not. It's probably a safe bet a percentage of those people will see the local AZ restrictions as government overreach as well. And Surf claims no responsibility for what Little Billy's pop pop does after the game gallivanting around town.
You can't conflate the proven safety of a soccer game with holding a multi-day large tournament event in height of the pandemic. The soccer is fine, it's the large event that's the problem. What's worse is that we're literally right around the corner from finally getting out of this mess with vaccines on the horizon Why risk the bad publicity and angering local AZ residents by forcing an unnecessary event? For the last several weeks covid has become the leading cause of death nationwide. And you better believe AZ politicians will use Surf as a scapegoat if cases continue to surge in January. I also wouldn't be surprised if a few local SoCal TV stations take note of thousands of CA residents going to a large out of state event in the midst of our most restrictive travel bans and issues of self-quarantining when they return come up. I think Surf needs to step outside the bubble and think this through a little more carefully. Focus on winning the war. The battle for Surf Cup 2020 is over. Stop beating a dead horse and give people their refund. We'll need Surf's credibility over the next 2-3 months. Surf Cup in the high desert always sounded absolutely ridiculous anyway. Take the "out" the AZ council gave you and move on.
As for the children, 2020 has been absolute nightmare for them. But if they've survived this long, they can go without a big soccer tournament for a couple more months. Also most clubs have been doing in-house scrimmages so there's ways to keep the kids active in the interim. When I was growing up, I usually only played 1-2 tournaments for the entire year and I didn't play in any tournaments under the age of 12, we did just fine. I think we tend to overstate the value of tournaments and turn our kids into snowflakes if they can't compete for meaningless medals in shortened poorly reffed games. Surf Cup is definitely one of the good tournaments, one of the best in normal circumstances. But these aren't normal circumstances so let's stop pretending they are.