>>[Big Daddy] Twice the population perhaps.....why 4 times the players?<<
I don't view this from the tip of the pyramid; I always view our elite programs from the base.
The last time I looked, SC had a population of 4,147,152 (age 5-18: 771,370); NC had a population of 8,407,248 (age 5-18: 1,488,083). However, SC had 18,976 registered players with the SCYSA. NC had 54,391 players registered with the NCYSA. Thus the penetration rate of SC is 2.46% among those aged 5-18; NC's penetration rate is 3.66%. Thus NC had a 50% advantage on penetration rate even excluding population. Thus, you'd expect more than 2X players -- and in the case of soccer, I believe that there are critical mass issues in which once you get one kid to play the kid who is friends with that kid wants to play.
SC clubs as a whole are doing an abysmal job of developing and promoting the sport. We're not going to have as many great elite players as we could until we have a strong foundation of many, many more recreation players.
Is it all doom and gloom? Well, the CRSA/CESA announcement was a welcome step forward given that the partnership is about going after underserved markets. Until more SCYSA clubs get serious and begin spending money and more importantly effort on reaching underserved kids, we're not going to see a big step up with regard to any of this.
