One Mans Blog
Specialization is for Insects.
Posted on Aug 20, 2007 - 1:25am by John P. in Sports, Videos
After paying a record $38 million - per year - plus endorsements and other crap that adds up to $250 million, David Beckham has been sitting out games due to injury. This caused massive disappointment all over the country as stadiums were sold out to watch him play, and then he didn’t. This happened here in my home town of Frisco, TX where we have literally the nicest Major League Soccer stadium in the country.
But finally Beckham stepped up to play in a Superliga match on August 14 against D.C. United and scored his first goal in the MLS. It was a very nice free kick, I’ll give him that. But in my opinion bringing Beckham over here was still a horrible move.
Here is Beckham’s first goal in the US:
To put it all in perspective, here is a 10 minute compilation of notable Beckham goals:
Now then, getting back to the problem at hand.
I’ve been to watch several MLS games here at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, and I must say that the level of play is just barely a notch above watching college games. The main reason is that these players don’t make hardly any money. I’m guessing $40-50k on average. So, all the best American players leave the country to go get the big bucks elsewhere, and we can’t attract real overseas talent to the US.
Since the level of play isn’t exactly breathtaking you don’t get huge numbers of fans turning out for the games. And of course, this is exactly why the Galaxy wanted to try to bring in a superstar. But let’s examine this decision a little more closely.
Generally speaking, I’m not very enthusiastic about Beckham’s entry into the US soccer market. Let’s not forget that the MLS is not the first American soccer league.
For nearly 20 years we had the North American Soccer League (NASL) which struggled with introducing soccer to the US market because it was so new at the time, and eventually went bankrupt because they spread talent too thinly and overspent on foreign players.
Gee, sound familiar?
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Time will tell but it seems to be like a chicken or the egg type situation. The issue with several cheaper players is soccer needs more people attending and Beckham has all the qualities that will draw people to games that a bunch very talented lesser players won’t have. His first start seems to prove that out http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8R3QD581&show_article=1
66,237 in attendance in NJ was over 5 times their average attendance of just over 11,573. Not saying it will work but it is getting the sport attention and that brings more $$ which can be used for better players.
The other issue is finding 19 good players to come to the US for $2mil.
Terry,
I agree that the league needs some starpower. But there are plenty of great players that would kill to come to America. You could get them from all over the world. If you have to pay a little more than $2million, then fine. But the point is that $250 million for one guy is not going to do it.
Also, there is far too much risk inherent in this sort of “investment”. You put all your eggs in one basket, and look what happens - he gets injured. My neighbors and other people were asking me to get them tickets to the sold out FC Dallas game against LA just so they could see Beckham. Then when he didn’t play they were pissed. These same people have never been to another MLS game, and won’t go again.
Even the link that you provided sums it up perfectly:
If the league had put a couple of great players on each team, they would have increased attendance at every game. Plus they’d have had something to advertise in every single city rather than just the spectacle of Beckham. He’s like carnival boy. Everyone comes out to see him when he’s in town, then they go away till he comes back.
You watch, I’ll be right. He’s going to do very little for the sport in the US, and the opportunity cost is extremely high.
John
I don’t disagree that he is overpaid and long term it may be better to spread the money around. I think a few things to remember are:
1) He is paid by LA not the MSL so the MSL spreading the wealth isn’t going to happen. His salary is reported to be $6.5 million this season which leads me to believe this is back loaded and he may never earn the entire amount.
2) LA is only intersted in their own success and putting fans in the stands and even more importantly selling ad rights and tv rights. Most European clubs earn 60% of their revenue from tv rights and this signing definatly makes LA’s rights vastly more valuable.
3) LA likely has an insurance policy that will cover the costs of his salary if he is injured.
4) You will not get a ton of talented players to come to the US for $2 mil. Bottom line is that players that want to advance their career play in Europe to become $4 mil or $9 mil or higher. No one get’s noticed in the US and then makes a killing. How is a young player going to grow playing US Soccer.
5) Salaries are higher in Europe than you think. Bayern Munich for example, has a team salary of over 50 mil Euros. That isn’t even the highest salaried team and they have had some key losses over the past year because other teams have out paid them. The average EPL salary before bonuses was over 900k Pound Sterling.
So maybe you get a hand full of slightly above average players to come to the US (you will have to pay them above market to come here) and then what happens. What kind of coverage does the MSL get for signing 19 people that no one in the US has heard of? Who is going to start watching soccer because the the average talent level has been upgraded by 1 or 2 players per team?
I think ideally your idea is good if you could evenly spread the the talent across the league and find excellent players that are willing to take a pay cut and build US Soccer but I don’t think that will happen. Hopefully, another team like DC United will step up and sign some talent to counter and gain some additional attention for the sport.
Of course, everybody in the US is still forgetting that Beckham is a horrible player.
As a Man Utd fan, I should love Golden Balls as much as I love my own balls, but no, he’s the worlds most overrated sports figure whose claim to fame is a Spice Girl, a couple of goals at crucial moments, a red card in England’s most important game of a recent World cup, and his agent(s), who have the great ability to work the world so Beckham appears all over our screens pushing the next fragrance for men, or lotion to turn your balls golden.
It took the English a long time to realise that he is nothing special. As soon as we realised, we got rid of him for three far better players who play soccer for the love of the sport, as opposed to the love of the money. Oh, and we also stripped him of his England captaincy. He should never have had it in the first place.
Overrated. Greedy. No love for the sport. The US move is yet another PR stunt from both him and his Spice Girl (Coincidence how the Spice Girls decided to do a reunion tour at the same time as the move to the US? I think not!).
Remember folks. The English, who actually know something about football, all agree he is a very overrated individual.
Now, we also have to remember that Soccer is no longer a great sport, at least in Europe. It’s quickly becoming boring, with foreign talents from the Continent who love to cheat and the English Football Association who seem to stand by and let it happen. Rugby League here we come. It’s the only sport that matters!
The man is a show pony, and as some ESPN commentator pointed out, Beckham needs to return to Europe where people actually care about who he is and what he does.
Oh, we really don’t care who he is or what he does, Peter. In fact, the US is making a far bigger deal out of Beckham than we ever did. Please, feel free to have him. We don’t want an overrated urchin on our continent.
I have played soccer my entire life and it’s always sad that it’s popularity lags here in the US versus everywhere else in the world. But I’m not sure Beckham is someone who can single handedly turn the sport around and make it popular. Around here, it’s football, nascar, and baseball and I don’t watch or participate in any of those.
Hahaha, it is about time!
I’ll have to watch those videos when I get home from work because YouTube videos don’t seem to work on this system.
P.S. I went to school with David Beckham
I’m all for seeing soccer become more popular in America. I think that it can definitely be an interesting sport to watch. I also agree that it’s a shame that America hasn’t tried to access more talented people. Look at how introducing European players has totally changed the face of the NBA. I think that it would similarly benefit the MLS to try that (with many many more players than just a single one).
I, in my limited knowledge, have come to think that Beckham is a bit overrated as well. I’ve seen some pretty great plays from him, but it doesn’t seem to happen often enough to warrant the type of superstar treatment that he’s been getting. I especially don’t appreciate all of the press that he gets for every single little thing. The press in the U.S. is pretty responsible for how stupid everything seems. I live in the L.A. area so maybe the Beckham and Hollywood news are more amplified, but it still seems pretty outrageous to me that they would care that Beckham got up and started stretching one game. Is that really worth the ink to put in the paper?
Beckham seems to be having a good affect on the Galaxy. They have been struggling so if he can facilitate he can easily make Donovan and the others much better. A 5-4 loss before 60,000 in New York the other day is good for the game. Nil-nil doesn’t sell to well in the States.
Beckham is a great addition to any team. Don’t look for him to score lots of highlight footage goals, because that’s not his strength. In case you didn’t see the England vs Germany friendly, he repeatedly showed why he’s worth the money. He consistently centered the ball from wing to the box, giving his teammates opportunities to put it into the net.
When you saw what happened when other players tried to do the same, you realise why he’s so good (they put the ball anywhere from the cheap-seats to midfield, coming closer to killing children in the fans than creating goal-scoring opportunities).
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Beckham isn’t worth this much money. I’m just saying he isn’t worth this much money in the USA. We don’t have the fan base or the same general level of play as the rest of the world, so he’s out of place here with this pay package.
And when I say “out of place” I mean he earns like 120 times more than the other players on his team.
John
No offense to US soccer, but I find that having soccer in the US is like playing baseball in Europe… Bekham is a great player, he’s also a show pony who can easily cover the money he is being payed. I’m sure he can make soccer more popular in the US, but then again, i doubt he can improve the other players. Just my 2 cents.
Yeah…my wife loves Posh…so she’s hoping he stays in the US for many years, so she can read about Posh and her fashion sense.