Yup. I have a coworker who is starting his own non-profit local soccer league (he's a former ref with pro experience). He showed me the numbers for his own kids and their travel soccer league (which is why he's starting the league). I used to coach AA travel ice hockey, so I know those numbers pretty well. It costs his kids more than it did us, with ice rentals and everything.
There is a stereotype of a US soccer "prospect" that has survived for quite a while. Rich, white, often goes through a college program, etc. That's because, for a long time, it was an accurate reflection of who made it through the US soccer pipeline. And expense is one of those obstacles that helped make that stereotype ring true.
Luckily, that is changing, in little bits and pieces. As the MLS grows and soccer opportunities expand, hopefully a lot of the financial barriers erected in the US will fall by the wayside. I truly believe that there are a lot of kids in the US who are overlooked as prospects, primarily because they never reach the high-level development camps because of the cost of getting that exposure in the travel soccer pipeline. All you need for soccer is a ball and a field, so the kinds of players that make it should be pretty representative of all socio-economic bands. But that's not the case in US soccer. We've priced a lot of our talent out...