It's putting the cart before the horse to try to understand if any entity can afford something before that entity decides what it wants to do...it's a semantic null. First, you have to decide what it is that you want to do...then you prioritize your goals...and then and only then do you start looking at how you afford to do it. As an example: I need both my legs. Wait a minute -- one of my children is in a fire and I'll have to sacrifice my leg to save the child? Take the leg -- no problem.
I can tell you that there is no magic bullet financially for youth soccer clubs or any other entity. As an example -- years ago I heard the theory that in youth soccer clubs recreation subsidized select. I even understand where this comes from...very simple financial models that don't take into account allocation models for large ticket items such as debt service, administrative costs, operational costs, etc. It may actually be true in some cases; however, more typically revenue (i.e., fees) are constrained by competition and the expenses when allocated on a per-player model don't allow "cash cows" in on-going operations.
In terms of the detailed inner workings of any club's financial model: that should be a source of competitive advantage for the club itself. Each club will be different -- some will have municipal land, others won't -- some will have large rec programs, other's won't -- and so on.
But, again, the bottom line is that first an entity must decide what it wants to be, and then go about trying to understand and work on being able to afford it. If you want to be a soccer club that can offer a wider range of services that is commonly available in your geographic area, the key is how much you can differentiate via intellectual property. And the most important intellectual property of any youth soccer club lies in the directors and the coaches.
