****Official Beckham Mania Thread****

[JaredL]

My thoughts:

I think Beckham has planned this for some time. He is a guy that has for a long time cashed in on his image and popularity off the pitch. This was the case when he played for Manchester United with his random tabloid stuff as well as stuff like flying his hairdresser to Madrid to shave his head before a Champions League match. When he moved to Real Madrid he went from the most popular and probably richest club in the world to the most successful club in the world. This also further enhanced his celebrity. In addition he was in a much larger market in terms of the immediate area.

When he went to Madrid they already had an established #7 in Raul. Beckham chose the number 23 as his new number. When this happened it was pretty clear that it would be a matter of time before he moved on to the MLS or at the very least pushed to market himself here. With our obsession with celebrities it should be a good fit.


He has always managed to get a lot more attention than his play warrants. He is slow and absolutely horrible at tackling. What he does well he does extremely well. When successful these things often make yearly highlight reels and get a lot of attention. Obviously scoring goals on a free kick or sending in excellent crosses is valuable but he will get only limited opportunities.

This isn't to say he's bad. In the right system there are few players you would take over him. I wouldn't want him to play for Sevilla but that's mainly because his pace wouldn't work with their style of play. Not sure if he's retired from international football, but if he hasn't I think he would still be a good choice or at least backup for England. However, he is certainly not one of the best players in the world. Not even one of the 100 best. None the less there are probably only 4 or 5 players that make more in endorsements than him and he still gets more attention from non fans than any player. Hell he might get more attention from non fans than any player ever. Fortunately for him and the Galaxy, I think he'll age well as he doesn't rely much at all on being athletic. He could easily wind up having an extended MLS career like Valderrama who was similarly very good at distributing the ball and no speed demon.

[mmbt0ne]

[ QUOTE ]
looool

yea when MLS gets its championship on in prime time on a network, then maybe you can make this claim

NHL is still way more popular than any pro soccer league in the US. World Cup prob gets better ratings than Olympic hockey, but the World Cup is awesome.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gold Cup final more than doubled the Stanley Cup ratings. And that only includes the Spanish language broadcast.

[Chairman Wood]

[ QUOTE ]
Within 5 years the MLS will be the 2nd largest revenue producing league in the Western Hemisphere behind Mexico's league. They will likely not pass Mexico for 20-30 or so years unless some rapid growth comes out of nowhere (see TSCs "US clubs playing Euro ones in matches that mean something" comment).


[/ QUOTE ] do you have a link or source with how much each league in the western hemisphere ( or the world if possible) generates?

[mmbt0ne]

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=565187

Looking at that, clearly my time table is a little off [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[shoxbb6]

[ QUOTE ]
do you have a link or source with how much each league in the western hemisphere ( or the world if possible) generates?

[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/...D56148,00.html
(click on the highlights)

From that url:
The European football market grew to €12.6 billion in 2005/06, a
€1 billion increase on the previous year with the revenue growth of
the ‘big five’ European leagues, which represents 53% of the
market, and the impact of the 2006 World Cup being the major
drivers of this growth.

Combined revenues of the ‘big five’ European leagues totalled
€6.7 billion in 2005/06, a €430m (7%) increase on the previous
season.

Edit: They also have some info on the major latin american leagues, but no exact figures. http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/...143315,00.html

[imitation]

Who is beckham, I only know LT?^&

[moayer]

that looks like a pretty seedy motel. i thought he made enough to stay somewhere nice.

[DonkeyKongSr]

[ QUOTE ]
Sportnation poll from ESPN

1) What have you watched more of in the last year?


35.0% English Premier League

31.8% I don't watch soccer

21.2% MLS

12.0% Other


2) How much have you watched David Beckham play?


42.8% A few games here and there

24.6% Only highlights

20.8% A lot

11.9% I've never seen Beckham in action


3) How will Beckham's arrival to MLS affect your interest in the league?


70.5% More interested

28.2% I wasn't a fan and still won't be

1.3% Less interested


Total Votes: 77,976

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this was supposed to prove some point in favor of soccer being more popular.

31.8% don't watch soccer.
28.2% weren't fans and still won't be.

Sweet, Beckham increased popularity among people that want to answer a poll on soccer on ESPN.com by a whopping 3.6%! That poll shows nothing.

[Triumph36]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
looool

yea when MLS gets its championship on in prime time on a network, then maybe you can make this claim

NHL is still way more popular than any pro soccer league in the US. World Cup prob gets better ratings than Olympic hockey, but the World Cup is awesome.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gold Cup final more than doubled the Stanley Cup ratings. And that only includes the Spanish language broadcast.

[/ QUOTE ]

wow i'm sure the demos for that are enormous.

also this year's stanley cup final was riveting

way more money in pro hockey than soccer in the US, not even CLOSE

[jah7_fsu1]

Salt I love your enthusiasm for soccer, but I have to disagree with you on the impact of certain things. I've already said once how I think the large participation rate of soccer means little to its popularity here in terms of getting people to go more often or watch it on TV. Not a lot of adults play tackle football, but the NFL is the most popular sport by far so I think your point is a little off there. Americans love playing soccer for many reasons, but the majority don't love watching it.

Beck's will help UNDOUBTEDLY (MLS hasn't had this much coverage in their existence combined than they have in the last few weeks), but I can't see him having an impact that puts soccer over the NHL. The MLS isn't even close to the NHL in terms of popularity yet. I can't see more people going to watch MLS games...unless their team is playing the Galaxy.

It's going to help, but soccer has a LONG LONG LONG ways to go before being even close to a major player.