Over the past 18 months, the soccer landscape at the professional level in North Carolina has altered dramatically.

It was around that time that local entrepreneur Steve Malik purchased the Carolina Railhawks, an event whose impact has now reached the elite youth soccer circuit and development.

Last week, North Carolina Football Club (the re-branded iteration of the Railhawks) announced a merger and partnership with the Capital Area Soccer League and Triangle Futbol Club Alliance, two of the region’s preeminent soccer clubs.

“No one else has a pyramid like this that goes from youth to professional,” Malik told reporters in a conference call last week. “We’re excited with the potential for player identification and development, we’re excited about field development, increasing field access and creating more opportunities for youth to play soccer in the region.”

While a big incentive for the move was to shore up Malik’s bid to bring Major League Soccer to the region, it’s an agreement that will reverberate significantly for aspiring college and professional players in the area. When the Western New York Flash were purchased and moved to the region earlier this year by Malik – now the North Carolina Courage – the organization now provides unparalleled access to professional soccer for elite boys and girls.

And that’s part of the end goal for the organizations involved. An agreement with the local professional team is nothing new for CASL. The boys Development Academy has enjoyed a collaborative relationship with the Railhawks over the past few seasons, as amateur deals offered high school standouts early exposure to pro soccer without sacrificing NCAA eligibility.

While little is expected to change on the men’s side of things, the opportunities with the Courage in town could prove beneficial down the road for CASL and TFCA players.

“We’re super excited about the women’s team being here,” CASL CEO Gary Buete said. “We feel like we have one of the best women’s programs in the whole country as we do with the men. We just had four of our former CASL players that were just drafted in the NWSL draft. We fully hope and anticipate that the coaching staff of the Courage are looking at the players and bringing them in or those that are available. In the end, the goal here is to hopefully create pro players. We want to create that pathway, we look forward to working with those groups with our elite players for those opportunities.”

Overnight, the NCFC imprint now dips into a combined youth player pool of 20,000 people. The Boys elite sides will continue to compete under the NCFC youth banner in the Development Academy, while the girls will be branded as the courage in the soon-to-launch Girls Dev. Academy league.

Part of the overall goal of the venture, along with offering the path to a higher level of soccer, is easing the financial burden of the player.

“Right now with our Development Academy, we fund it to about 55% of all expenses, which across the country, is in the top half to what is being spent on Development Academy programs,” Buete said. “In addition, we are one of the few clubs who support our girls program to the same level. Do we want to get rid of the pay-to-play at the highest level? Absolutely. So what we hope is, by doing this, by coming together combining the resources, the scalability associated with it, we will continue to work towards that model of having it fully funded.”

There’s also the inventive for the club to eventually demonstrate it can produce pro talent. The region has always managed to send along players of high-level potential to the next level. It could even prove to be beneficial for the NWSL side; on the conference call, Club President and General Manager Curt Johnson hinted that an NWSL homegrown rule is “certainly coming down the road.”

And on the MLS side, as the men’s pro teams looks to make its case for a top flight expansion bid in the future, it only ads to the portfolio and would help the team compete.

“To be successful in a market like ours, it’s critical that we develop talent and I think the league knows that, and everyone that is close to football knows that,” Malik said. “I don’t see us being the Galaxy or the Red Bulls, signing players that are a fit for New York or LA. We want to grow players from an excellent talent pool that we have.