Some good points here. But 1980 and 1990 soccer when you played was barely even played. Living in an isolated county you don’t see the vast number of fields and traveling teams in metro areas. Just look left going to Winston before you cross the Yadkin River. The local high school here has been state champions 3 or 4 times and to the semis others. While football once produce 60 varsity players, last year only 22 came out. Soccer traveling teams are everywhere now.
I grew up in Montgomery County MD and played travel soccer in MD, DC and VA. I played 3 seasons a year. Spring, Fall and Winter Indoor on full fields in a converted indoor tennis facility that a Brit Expat bought and converted. The leagues in the DMV in those days were some of the best in the country. I played in a 3 tiered system with relegation and promotion. I played in the top tier for years. It had huge support in the area. The league still exists. It is called the NCSL.
https://ncsl.demosphere-secure.com
National Capital Soccer League (NCSL) is the DC Metro area's premier promotion-relegation soccer league, serving approximately 30,000 travel soccer players every year representing many of the most successful clubs in the nation. It is a club-based league, which requires clubs to meet league standards in order be considered for entry and must be voted in by other member clubs, and schedules games at the team-to-team level in order provide the most appropriate and competitive game-day experience.
It offers appropriate soccer competition for boys and girls teams aged 7 through 19. With approximately 1,100 teams competing in eleven age groups, NCSL is one of the oldest, largest, and most well-known travel soccer leagues in the nation. It currently features 72 member clubs centered in Maryland, DC, Virginia, and West Virginia.
One of the reasons that the US Womens team excels is because the US development system for players is better than any other in the world. It is the highest level of play from youth to the pro level. Money flows into the womens game at the youth level at a higher rate then the mens because the mens side has to compete with the traditional US money sports. Baseball, Football and Basketball. On the womens side there isn't a huge desparity between what a professional womens soccer player will get paid vs a womens pro basketball player will make. Golf, Tennis & recently MMA are really the only big money opportunities in womens sports.
Until the Mens side can match the level of play in the rest of the world at the developmental level it will never catch up. I just don't see it. Lots of the same talk has been around for a long time was my point. It is not a new concept. I would love to see it but I just don't think it is going to happen in my lifetime. The money that pours into the football/soccer development world is mind blowing. Much of it these days is coming from the middle east. The deficit is to high IMHO. YMMV