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

[mmbt0ne]

MLS attendance is holding very steady this year even as they've phased out the stat-padding ploys like including tickets distributed not just sold or holding post-game concerts.

For an idea where they stand:

Average 2006-07 NHL attendance: 16957
Average 2007 MLS attendance (pre-Beckham): 15160

Meanwhile, the league is moving rapidly towards independent profitability for every club, has expanded from 3 ownership groups to 12, and has lead to 5 soccer specific stadiums in the United States (and another in Canada) in the last decade with 2 more underway (NY and Salt Lake) and the proposal for a third (DC) a virtual certainty. The teams with SSSs are making money or very close to it. It's the teams like NY that have to pay 200k per game to rent out Giants Stadium and get no parking or concessions money that are hurting. Once these teams get stadiums, the money will come in.

Also, MLS just made 4 international deals for broadcast rights for their games, marking the first time in the history they've ever sold games to independent channels.

You don't have to like that soccer is growing, or even care. Hell, plenty of people in the US don't care one bit about NASCAR, but it's doing just fine. The MLS is similarly allowing itself to focus on a small but dedicated niche market rather than go balls out like the NASL did, and I applaud them for that.