OK, Becks to LA
I know I should write something about Beckham going to LA. It makes LA a better team, even though we all saw how well Beckham dealt with the heat of summer. It'll probably bump attendence at Galaxy road games. Yet the thing is... I just don't feel much at all. It's sort of like Dice-K signing with the Red Sox. It's a big deal for some, especially Boston fans, but I don't feel like it significantly impacts the team I support. I'm sure AEG will make its money back on this. I think Beckham makes them better. I'm sure this brings all sorts of attention to MLS... and yet I just don't care. What's wrong with me?
UPDATES: Here's your DCU angle: Kevin Payne comments. As for me, I think the problem is that I'm somewhat emotionally numb right now. The ownership, the stadium... I've been all worked up over those so there's little left for this.
Labels: David Beckham, Kevin Payne, LA Galaxy
posted by D @ 12:44 PM
11 Comments:
I don't feel that Beckham as a player is very important to DC United fans at the moment. It is his name that seems important for MLS. It shows that the MLS is a serious league in the word. Now that we can compete when it comes to $$$, we will be able to sign quality players. This is all part of the evolution of the MLS as a whole.
Will the Galaxy become the Yankees of MLS, perhaps mimic the Cosmos?
maybe he'll bring a few more newbies out to RFK, where they'll fall in love with our charismatic boys in black?
Just think how much more fun it will be to heckle the Galaxy with Becks AND Landycakes.
Plus, there is the pipe dream of LA vs. DC for the MLS Cup at RFK next fall.
I'd like to suggest that Beckham and Donovan's names be combined, similar to how Damani Ralph and Ante Razov made Damante Razolph, I'd like to suggest Dandon Donoham.
...Huh. That doesn't look nearly as cool in print. How about just adding a B for Beckham to Landycakes and make them Blandycakes?
And seriously, I'm not even sure how much this impacts the Galaxy (on the field). I mean, Beckham is good for a few set pieces and he can cross the ball, but who's going to finish? Jaqua and who else?
At least you made the post. I saw the news, thought about posting and just said eh. The funny thing is that we might not even get to invite all our non-soccer friends to see him in person. All the hype, and if the schedule has LA @ DC before July we won't even get the attendance bump.
Doesn't it seem like they're paying too much? I don't know how much of that $250M is in endorsements, but how on Earth could he be worth this much? Baseball stars are worth this much, and baseball is a bigger sport here and they play 5x the games.
MLS will probably sell enough memorabilia, merchandise, and tickets worldwide to recoup all of that money. I'm sure the Galaxy will go on a "Winter Mexico tour" and take in heavy royalties for their appearance. They might sell enough jerseys in China, Japan, and South East Asia alone if it's marketed correctly. I'm not sure why the malaise from DC fans, though. When Becks comes here RFK will be sold out weeks in advance without a doubt. Talk about a perfect platform to market our players and our fans to the rest of the city and the country that doesn't know what we're about yet but will be curious enough to check it out and see for themselves. This does have big implications, not just for LA...
Becks arrives in August...
League schedule "adjusted" to provide the Gals with plenty of home matches after that date.
X-Games and "other events" work their usual magic on the HDC pitch.
Beck's first match, a little rusty, slightly out of game shape, a stumble in the sand and furrows that comprise the playing surface and...
*snap*
same metatarsal.
2 Things:
league needs, requires, more than one major DP. having all the media hype and marketing potential riding on one player who might get injured leaves MLS wide open to ridicule and subsequent media dismissal should something happen to Becks.
maybe AEG will pull the collective thumb out and lay a new pitch when he arrives. seems like a sound investment.
So the MLS just got paid $33 million for the sale of DC United and then less than a week later they buy a fading Euro star for $250 million... I'm no financial analyst but that seems a bit risky for a league that can only get 22,000 people to come see the Championship Game.
I don't mean to sound negative, but being a DCU fan (or a fan of any MLS team for that matter) means you have an emotional investment in the league as well... and the league is making me more than a little nervous right now.
I very much hope that I'll be able to look back on today and laugh at how I overreacted, but I just don't see how this deal will work out for the benifit of the league.
Okay, for all of the non-MLS people out there. Real Madrid owned half of Beckham's sponser rights. It was one of the main reasons they were reluctant to let him go. MLS is not going to own any bit of them.
All of his sponserships and about 10 million a year for five years come out to about 250 million a year. Basically because it is money that he didn't have under Real Madrid they are adding it to how much he is going to make, but it is not how much AEG is going to pay him. All the figures I have heard have his salary at about 9 to 10 million a year.
For that matter the whole point of the "Beckham Rule" is to put the onus on the owner/investor, in this case AEG, and not MLS. It is AEG that will be paying him all but 400K of his salary.
kinney- thank you for clearing some of that up. I read something similar about 15 minutes after I wrote my panic comment and have since calmed down... I'm still not sure Beckham is the right kind of guy to captivate the average American sporting audience- but as long as the risk is on AEG and not the MLS it doesn't matter to me nearly as much.
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