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Post being replied to

need to funnel the fees to lower levels by turtle17

I agree with everything except the parents being more sophisticated. I think it should have happened, but with my youngest, the lowest common denominator among the parental understanding of the game seemed to win out.

The question is whether the MLS and anyone else can really make a grassroots model work for them financially and administratively. Can they help local leagues, have networks of effectively scouts, keep youngish soccer more local, to make it more feasible to cover costs? I always figured a lot of the travel at young ages was a bad feedback mechanism with pay to play - more travel made it seem like more pay was justified. As said above, you need the money from selling players to have a chance to make it work. One worry I have is I think you might be able to compete in MLS just by utilizing all the other talent in Central and South America, etc. I would like to see a really good USMNT in my lifetime.