Not neccesarily, the very best players who go there are on 'scholarship' and don't pay a cent. Though are a lot of kids outside that top 1% that will go there and pay the cash, but I guess that's down to their family.
I agree that Mainland should have an equivalent but the resource is just not there. They would have to pair up with a school for starters, work together with UC or some other organisation with access to high performance knowledge/facilities and above all, have the right coaches in place for the right money, i.e. a proper competitive full time wage.. (and believe it or not there is barely a handful of coaches here that justify that type of role).
If people don't like the idea of some club coaches getting $10k or $20k a year then what will they think of someone on $40k??
In principal i think we both agree there should be something.... but until then I would still believe that the footballing pathway here would place Mainlaind behind APFA, they cannot be considered direct competition.