Some/many of these (plus Total Futbol Academy on the Boys side) are franchise/affiliation arrangements where the clubs largely remain separate. They wear the same uniform and get access to coaching "curriculum" and technical assistance, but otherwise they still have their own fields, their own local governing structure etc and often they have locational name add-ons that retain their tie to a particular community. In some cases, the lure is that they get access to a Development Academy team as both a recruiting device and a pathway for their players. LA Galaxy, for example, agreed to give "priority/exclusive" tryouts to their affiliated teams (which also include Conejo Valley and Bakersfield in addition to the ones you named) before opening them up to the public. In other cases, a merger is to avoid fighting over field space, which is at a premium in Southern California. There are smaller communities, for example, that prioritize field space allocations based on the number of players you have in your program and AYSO typically always wins in those calculations. After mergers, though, the combined club can better negotiate for field space and it can use their current aggregate field space allocation more efficiently. Alternatively, it is to avoid fighting over players. When Coast Soccer League removed the three team per age group in the same club rule (which was one factor cited in the SCDSL break-off), it made sense in some communities to combine. The top team is more competitive and the post-merger club can just have 5-6 teams in an age group rather than 3 teams in two clubs with neither club's top teams really ever able to get enough of the best players in the community to rise to the top. Most affiliations, though, make little sense and are for perceived brand-name value in player recruiting only. TFA reportedly was charging $5000/per team/year and offering virtually nothing in return. Even there, though, the one value TFA provides, which is some administrative organizational assistance, is probably valuable for some of the inner-city, parent-run, clubs that have affiliated with them after struggling with difficulties even setting up a club website.