I can answer for some of the reasons that a parent would drive to Greenville to play for a team.
1. Looking for a club with organization and less politics about who makes and plays for teams.
2. Better training. There are a few good trainers in Columbia. The problem is that it is a side job or secondary job. Greenville has made the commitment to training. Ever wonder why Greenville trains every team 3 times a week and every team my sons have ever been on in Columbia only train twice a week. Anyone would be impressed by the organization of practices that occurs at the Ridge Rd fields in Greenville on Mon, Tue, Wed and Thurs every week. If you don't believe it, just go and look.
3. Exposure in big tournaments. Greenville is invited to tournaments that clubs in Columbia can't even get a team into but once every 5-6 years.
4. Commitment by players. It seems that maybe Columbia has too many distractions. Players can't seem to commit to a team/sport for even 4 months. None of the teams that we have been involved in can manage to get all of the kids to practices and games.
5. Commitment by parents. I don't know how many times over the last 8 years I have heard "I don't want to drive that far to practice". This wasn't to Greenville. This was from Lexington-Irmo, Irmo-Northeast or any combination of these. None of these are more than 30 minutes apart. For most (not all) of the parents, it is all about convenience. Can I get my son/daughter to practice in 5 minutes. Up until u17/u18, the kids can't get get themselves to practice.
Everyone is knocking the coaches, DOC's and boards, but don't you think that they all want the best players on their teams. Until the parents wake up, merging clubs/creating superclubs will never work. Club mergers and superteams in SC are not convenient. We do not even have enough players to have 2 great teams in one age group in SC. In Atlanta (which has a population greater that SC), a great team may be convenient. It may also be 1 to 1 1/5 hours away in Atlanta. I am not sure that we have enough committed & qualified (did everyone notice the combination of qualities) coaches in the area to handle these merged teams. A lot of the quality coaches are also the DOC's at these clubs and want the best players for themsleves. If that is the case, you just lost the commitment to the merger of teams.
Wake up parents, if you and your children want to play on a better team, then make the commitment (both of you). This does not necessarily mean go to Greenville, but make a few sacrifices in the short term for the long term gain. It may mean that you go to practice and actually STAY and watch, not drop them off and go do something else. Anything worth having is worth working for.
