Tim Leiweke and Alexi Lalas posed two questions to the Galaxy coaching staff to determine which big-name stars they could attract to Los Angeles:
1. Who is a player everyone can identify?
2. Who will win us soccer games?
Everyone answered David Beckham, the man who dazzled fans with free kicks and crosses on the English national team, Manchester United in the English Premier League and Real Madrid in La Liga and the man who dominated both the British sports pages and the tabloids thanks to his Hollywood looks and marriage with Victoria, aka Posh Spice.
Leiweke, the CEO of the Galaxy, and Lalas, the general manager, followed with a more difficult question.
“If David Beckham wasn’t David Beckham the celebrity, would we identify him as a player for the Galaxy?” Lalas asked.
Everyone still answered yes.
“Then the lawyers went to work,” Lalas said, laughing. “We knew we had to come in big and do something bold. I don’t think you can do anything bigger than sign David Beckham.”
Nothing could be bigger than Beckham’s responsibility, either.
Improving the Galaxy’s 3-5-4 record and switching from right wing (his position at Real Madrid) to center midfield are demanding enough, but that’s not the most arduous task at hand.
Beckham makes his debut tomorrow in a friendly against England’s Chelsea FC before a sold-out Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., the first of many appearances that Major League Soccer hopes will push the league more into the mainstream of a U.S. market that largely has resisted the sport.
American interest in soccer was mildly sparked by the World Cup held in the United States in 1994 and by the resurgence of the U.S. national team at the 2002 World Cup. Still, the game hasn’t really taken hold. The U.S. victory this summer in the Gold Cup, for example, barely made headlines.
Yet MLS officials hope Beckham’s arrival eventually will attract the same kind of audience that filled Giants Stadium to cheer the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League from the 1970s through the mid-1980s.
But even the presence of Pele could not provide enough of a boost for NASL, which eventually suspended operations after the 1984 season. MLS officials say their league’s future hinges on more than Beckham.
“The signing of David Beckham is a big step, but it’s not a defining step,” MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis said. “It’s one of a number of steps we’re taking with new stadiums and new ownership groups. But we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the NASL. It achieved something extraordinary for this country. It changed the entire landscape.”
At Beckham’s ceremonial press conference July 13 in Los Angeles before a reported 700 journalists, he said: “Soccer in America has a lot of potential, just maybe something is missing to take it to another level. I’m hoping I’m going to be part of that. There’ve been expectations all the way through my career. At the moment, this is a big one. Hopefully, I can handle it the right way.”
• • •
Former D.C. United coach Ray Hudson, who played for Newcastle United and the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the NASL, ran into Galaxy coach Frank Yallop on a flight in Miami on Jan. 11. Both Hudson, now a commentator for GolTV, and Yallop happened to be flying to Indianapolis for the MLS SuperDraft.
When they arrived at the Indianapolis airport, Hudson and Yallop watched on television as Beckham confirmed his five-year, $32.5 million agreement (as high as $250 million, including endorsements) with the Galaxy.
Hudson turned toward a speechless Yallop, who wore an expression that showed he understood the madness that was about to ensue.
What followed was a soap opera that makes great reality television (Victoria Beckham’s eponymous reality show that debuted this week on NBC aside). The European media concluded Beckham was a washed-up veteran going on vacation. Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello benched Beckham, and president Ramon Calderon accused him of aspiring to become a B-list Hollywood actor.
Beckham eventually earned back his starting position, helped lead Real Madrid from fourth place to the La Liga title and turned down pleas from Real Madrid’s front office — the same people who ridiculed him six months earlier — to stay.
The reaction was familiar to other players who left Europe for a new world of soccer in the United States.
“Everybody from Europe asked me why am I going to a bush league,” said Giorgio Chinaglia, who left Italy’s Serie A to join the Cosmos in 1976 and become the NASL’s leading scorer. “David’s had the same situation. He could’ve stayed in Europe and still be a great player.”
The reaction in the United States was both excited and amazed. D.C. United assistant coach Chad Ashton remembers his “jaw dropped” when he heard Beckham’s salary, which stands in stark contrast to the 27 percent of the league’s 364 players deemed as developmental who earn an average of $17,700 a year.
Real Salt Lake and former U.S. national defender Eddie Pope considered the news welcome but wondered about the league’s next step.
“The first reaction was excitement. But any time you hear about players coming here, you wonder the reasons,” Pope said. “Are they actually excited to play here? Is he just taking the money and running? You can usually gauge someone’s personality and determine whether or not they’re blowing smoke. I think he certainly gives off an honest quality and is interested in soccer in the U.S.”
That’s Beckham’s intention, make no mistake about it. Lalas and MLS coaches don’t foresee the new Designated Player Rule (aka the Beckham Rule) breaking the sustainability of a league that has survived for 12 years even though FC Dallas and the Galaxy are the only clubs to make a profit.
Beckham is the first of four players teams have attracted since MLS passed the Beckham Rule, which allows teams to sign two players outside the $2.4 million salary cap limit. For those players, $400,000 counts toward the cap.
Three clubs have taken advantage of the rule: the New York Red Bulls (Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel and U.S. midfielder Claudio Reyna), the Chicago Fire (Mexican forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco) and the Galaxy (Beckham).
“It gives us a mechanism to bring in players that we couldn’t bring in before,” Fire president John Guppy said. “Teams have decided if they want to take advantage of that asset or not. Three have, and others haven’t. As we evolve, more and more teams will seize that opportunity.”
• • •
Short-term, Beckham’s arrival is a success. Galaxy officials say his presence already has resulted in a net profit, citing the sold-out debut tomorrow and the 20,000 jerseys sold. D.C. United officials said they have sold all 42,000 individual tickets for their game against the Galaxy on Aug. 9, and the only other way to purchase seats is through five-game or corporate hospitality packages.
“This is seen as a great investment that will reap the returns,” said Paul Swangard, managing director of Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. “Whether it has an immense long-term impact in soccer, I go back to marketing. Unless they know your product exists, they won’t care. They know there’s a pro soccer league now that David has arrived. But that doesn’t mean they will necessarily watch it.”
Some of the ingredients already are set for long-term success. MLS plans to grow to 16 teams by 2010. ESPN and Univision will broadcast MLS games on Thursday and Sunday, respectively, through 2014.
Since 1999, six MLS teams have built their own stadiums in hopes to maintain profitability, and Toronto FC was the first team to have a soccer-specific stadium in its inaugural season this year.
Enzo Francescoli, a former Uruguayan forward and current CEO of GolTV, said the onus is on MLS to tap its well-resourced markets. That could depend on the success of Beckham and the Galaxy in holding the interest of an American audience with a short attention span.
“If you think on a five- to six-year cycle, the first step is to bring one to two players on each team [using the Beckham rule],” Francescoli said. “It’ll raise the level of the game. It’ll start developing local players better. Then it starts to create an environment where the best players in the world want to come to the U.S. Everybody sees the U.S. as a new frontier, and it’s a great potential market. But the best players don’t want to come here and play for the MLS.”
Brazilian star Ronaldinho is negotiating an extension with FC Barcelona on a contract that expires in 2010. But Francescoli said he talked with Ronaldinho recently and said he would be interested in joining MLS in three years if the league grows.
Nonetheless, most soccer players still see European club teams as the best option in both competitive and financial terms.
Peppe Pinton, who still holds the rights of the Cosmos brand, lauds MLS owners for sustaining the league for 12 years — something Pinton concedes the NASL couldn’t do because investors spent and sold their shares too quickly.
Though Pinton said Beckham’s arrival is a good step, he worries the focus on sustaining the league has hampered its ability to attract more stars. Even Beckham’s arrival to the league does not give MLS superstar status despite Beckham’s popularity and marketability.
• • •
Soccer fans know Beckham’s limitations with his left foot and goal-scoring as well as the laser-beam crosses and the free kicks that bend enough to warrant a movie title. But there’s some question whether non-soccer fans will be as forgiving, considering the media onslaught that has cast Beckham in a role he might not be able to fill.
“You wonder how many of the curious observers will look at David Beckham and think he’s supposed to be a dominating player,” Hudson said. “In American sports, people think of stars of this magnitude such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods or Joe Montana. They just dominate. That’s not what Beckham is about.”
Added Swangard: “One can argue he represents the Anna Kournikova of American sports culture. But [Beckham’s] obviously a more successful player.”
Fire midfielder Chris Armas rejects the skepticism.
“The spectators, fans and media who don’t understand soccer will wonder what’s the big deal,” Armas said. “He doesn’t score a goal every game. That’s fine. Those are the people who will never get it. The true soccer people will know he’s a guy that can help any club.”
That’s the paradox Beckham’s presence brings to the league. Is his role to convert the American fan who already has a year-round schedule packed with football, basketball and baseball? Or is he merely supposed to provide enough excitement so players of Pele’s caliber want to join MLS?
“With them bringing in Beckham, they’re following the exact same model we followed with getting Pele,” Pinton said.
But MLS is trying to avoid the NASL’s fate highlighted in the 2006 documentary “Once in a Lifetime.”
“Some view it as a complete cautionary tale, and others view it as a road map that needs some tweaking,” Lalas said. “From the time that we started this league, it was bashed into everybody’s heads: Let’s not make the same mistakes. But the [Cosmos] recognized there was an entertainment aspect to the game. That’s practical to American sports.”
MLS hopes, with Beckham, that includes soccer.
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