A lot of people will jump to the defence of clubs who pay big dollars to bring in players to their clubs, sure it boosts the profile of the clubs and can bring the club promotion, club pride from winning etc which is good and all, but personally all I see it doing is destroying the smaller clubs who simply can not compete on a financial level with the Miramars, Rapas, Burbs etc who all have wealthy backers.
The small community orientated clubs like North Wellington, Brooklyn, Wainui, Marist, Wainui, Naenae etc etc struggle so much to draw players to their clubs because now they are financially unable to do so. When they do produce some local talent, a big club comes along waving $$ signs in the players face, which as said is always going to be hard to do when you're getting some pingers for something you love. I'm of the opinion that if clubs continue financially the way they are, then there'll be no choice but to make the process transparent and declare a salary cap in CL, to even out the playing field.
My ideas are obviously riddled with flaws, but I'm just not sure what else can be done to put the entire football community in Wellington on an even playing field across all grades.
While I do agree with some of what you say Chopper there are also a few problems that those "smaller clubs" create for themselves. Only Rappa really has someone who is pumping money into a team personally to win. The other clubs mentioned have a club structure that works for everything that it gets and has. They have people who regularly fill out forms to apply for funding, they have people working on fundraising initiatives and they have people working to improve their coaches and youth players. In my opinion and experience of those smaller clubs, they don't have those things in place and that is also a big reason they struggle to attract and retain players. I don't see those smaller clubs producing young talent at all, they may have some young players who have plenty of talent but I don't think that is any reflection of anything those clubs have done apart from having a team for them to play in. I would say that is actually the main reason those young players leave to clubs who do have more in place to aid their development. Although I would say I have seen North Well doing some good things for their young players so not entirely sure why they lose players.