SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP SC Club Soccer Monopoly Board Game

What is going on this spring with club mergers, name changes, affiliations or whatever you want to term it? I understand it is all about resources that the mega clubs can offer. I also understand youth soccer is a business (a huge one at that). I just feel like I am in the middle of a SC club soccer monopoly board game and Park Place and Boardwalk are being bought up. Personally, I just hope there will continue to be a niche for the smaller clubs like Sumter Soccer Club, Florence Soccer Assocation, Congaree Rapid Soccer Association and Clemson Soccer Academy.

This is starting to remind me of Walmart killing Main Street USA!

Can I get an Amen?!?!

Look at the sizes of the clubs with successful soccer teams across the country. Very few of those clubs, if any, come from the smaller niche clubs. In Charleston and Columbia there are still many "niche" clubs. The sky is not falling. Give it a chance before you worry or complain, and find out how they do soccer in other states. They may have it wrong, but then again, maybe the current state of soccer affairs in SC is wrong too.

CSA.......Charlotte Soccer Academy.

Charlotte Soccer Club + South Charlotte Soccer Association = Charlotte Soccer Academy.

The "Boardwalk" of Charlotte.

This is just where the landscape of soccer has taken us..My kids have been involved in soccer for ten years and I could name clubs that existed when we started that either folded or merged on two hands..I think in the past clubs merged to have a stronger player pool and raise the level of play within the club..I think the economy will play a larger role in mergers in the future..Clubs that go at it alone or what I call "local" clubs will still have a hand in the development of players but the choices they have to offer those players will be limited and if memberships are not growing but declining at local clubs..I don't know how they will stay afloat without charging more than what the larger clubs can do for less..Nothing wrong with being small or "local"..Just make sure we're doing it for the right reasons..

As in any business monopoly, and youth soccer is a business,
there is ego and money involved.

This is America. The free market will decide. Right now the larger clubs that can provide larger economies of scale is winning. Small clubs have a hard time competing unless it has county support, which a lot don't....