The State investing in CESA is money in the bank for SC. Giving CESA $100k is a drop in the bucket for what CESA will replenish the tax base back in tax money. SC should be falling all over itself to give money to all the well established and organized clubs in SC. The growth of youth sports in SC is a great way to raise tax money from people that you would normally never be able to get money from in the first place. I am not saying that you give money to just any club but the ones that are well established and organized such as CESA should be given money to help grow their program, which then benefits SC. The main reason for the fracturing in the midlands has been the county recreational groups that have no reason to grow their sports but just want the tax money. When was the last time you saw a county recreational group put on a soccer tournament to raise money. And we all know that the money raise by the club is a little percentage of what the local businesses make off that tournament.
I remember fighting with the local rec group because they told I was not allowed to use their fields because the rec teams had them and since my daughter played club I don't qualify to use them. I tried to explain that I pay the same taxes as the rec parents but it didn't seem to phase him. This is the reason CSC owns it's fields.
SCYSA offers zero seed money to the clubs. And they have only talked about getting fields in Columbia, not to benefit any Columbia teams but for the Greenville, Charleston matches that always seem to have problems scheduling on very busy Columbia fields. Again Columbia teams would continue to use their fields and receive zero benefit from this plan. But this is just talk and will probably never happen because of the cost of purchasing land in the midlands big enough for fields is just to expensive.
