History Underwhelming: Beckham Gets His First Goal in MLS Play
By Brian Kamenetzky | What I See, Los Angeles Galaxy
So I’m scrolling through the channels, and stop to read the ticker on ESPN2. Lo and behold, they’re showing MLS Primetime Thursday, featuring our Los Angeles Galaxy and David Beckham- did you realize it was already Beckham season?- facing the San Jose Earthquakes. Barely two minutes into my viewing, the game already in progress, I witnessed what I’m sure is a major event for soccer fans on this side of the pond- Beckham’s first goal in MLS play, put in off a nice feed from Landon Donovan. Yes, he’s scored for LA before, but in theory, this should still be a landmark, right?
There was cheering at The HDC, a ton of confetti (currently littering the field), and plenty of excitement from the announcing crew. I was unmoved.
What struck me, though, was how quietly Beckham’s second season kicked off, compared to the circus that accompanied his arrival. Sports is my industry, and I was caught off guard. I’m not a soccer hater, either. It’s not my thing, but I respect the game and don’t mock those who love it. But I still don’t believe that the presence of Becks will move the needle for soccer in America. It’s not going to mainstream the game, because fundamentally the problem is the same: The average person is more interested in Beckham as a celebrity than a soccer player. Not even a year later, the hype is more or less gone. There was no buzz around town for the start of the ‘08 Galaxy season. Nothing on TV, no jabbering on sports radio.
Will it turn out to be a good move for the league? Could be. The economics of it are pretty complicated, and I don’t claim to know the nuances with any sort of intimacy. But far as making America, at least beyond Kobe Bryant, who was just shown on camera at the game, care about the sport?
Just as I was after Beckham’s first MLS goal… I remain unmoved. I am curious, though, as to how long it’ll take for the historic score to land on YouTube. That sort of thing fascinates me.
UPDATE (9:33 am PST): Here it is, posted 13 hours ago, according to YouTube. That’s pretty quick!
Brian Kamenetzky hosts the Lakers Blog and Blue Notes: A Dodgers Blog for the LA Times.com. He’s a contributing writer to ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and can be heard regularly on the Steve Mason Show, on 710 ESPN radio in LA. Write him at bk@sportshubla.com.
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Brian,
Nothing really wrong with your piece, but some important points should be made.
First, Beckham was not brought to MLS by “the league”. He was a player signing of the LA Galaxy, who alone bear all the financial risks and responsibilities for the move.
Second, most sources agree that Beckham’s entire salary, $30 million over 5 years, has been paid back to the Galaxy through the massive international revenue streams created by having the most marketable athlete in the world, and he hasn’t even been here for 1 year. Every penny the Galaxy, the league and other teams make off of Beckham from here on out is 100% profit. Beckham’s signing was the biggest no-brainer in recent sports business memory. This is no financial risk. None whatsoever.
Three, Commissioner Garber and the league have repeatedly and explicitly stated that Beckham is not here to save MLS, save soccer, or turn people who don’t like soccer into soccer fans. Unfortunately, these assertions were, intentionally or not, ignored by the segments of the media who look unfavorably upon the sport. When Beckham arrived, sportswriter after sportswriter wrote articles about how “MLS says Beckham will make soccer the biggest sport in America,” “MLS says Beckham will make soccer as big as the NFL” and other nonsense that no one of any significance in the US soccer community was ever saying.
About 75% of people in America who already follow soccer as a spectator sport in the US do not currently follow MLS. These are the target audience for the Beckham move. Short-term celebrity watchers are welcome, but no one in the league office was ever foolish enough to believe that these people represented a sustainable future fan base.
The league said over and over, Beckham represents a shot in the arm in terms of revenue and publicity for a league that is growing its infrastructure in the form of stadiums, and growing its financial base in terms of increased sponsorships and growing investment from new billionaire owners who have already joined the league, or are positioning themselves to do so. Beckham is a welcome addition to a successfully progressing business plan designed half a dozen years ago, not an integral part of some ad hoc emergency plan thrown together a year ago to somehow “save soccer”.
Is there no end to this? By this, I mean this constant attempt by American sport writers to belittle soccer. Are they driven by fear perhaps? Fear that soccer might actually find its rightful place in America?
Sure, soccer is a young sport in this country, relatively speaking. But look how far its come in the last ten years. I watched four MLS games this week and several things struck me; how much better the players are today, how much more exciting the games are, how much bigger the crowd are now. Just a few years ago, MLS teams were playing to near empty stadiums. Now the stadiums are actually filling up with real soccer fans.
You can always tell soccer fans when you see them. They are usually on their feet most of the game, jumping up and down, dancing, singing, screaming, whistling, booing. I’m seeing alot of them these days.
The Beckham effect, you think? See, what Beckham has done is make many of us soccer people take a second look at MLS. I have been a soccer fan for twenty five years but I only started watching MLS last year. Beckham did it. He made me watched MLS. And guess what? I liked what I saw. So, I was a Manchester United and England fan. Now, I’m LA Galaxy and US fan. I don’t watch the EPL as much as I used to. But I try to watch every MLS game now.
My prediction; the US will be a soccer power within five years.
Geoff-
No attempt to belittle soccer. Like I said in the writeup, I have no problem with the game. It’s not for me, but I recognize that it’s loved, and why it’s loved around the world. What do I care if it becomes incredibly popular in America? Fine with me. I don’t think it’ll happen on a professional level (amateur/youth soccer has always been huge), but hey, if it does, the more the merrier as far as I’m concerned.
I understand the argument that Beckham is supposed to draw soccer fans who had been ignoring MLS back to the league. That in fact might be happening. I’ve read a lot of conflicting reports on how impactful Beckham has been in overall attendance. Individual games the Galaxy play in other cities inflate attendance, as does the addition of Toronto (correct me if I’m wrong, but they drew extremely well).
I could be wrong about the growth of professional soccer five or ten years from now, that it could be considered a major or near major pro sport. If so, I’ll readily admit it. Like I said, I don’t hate the game. I’m just not betting on it.
Thanks for your post.
Justin-
Thanks for your response. The information really rounds out some of the areas that I (admittedly) either glossed over or avoided entirely. Like I said, I’m not an expert on the ins and outs of the soccer industry. My basic point is that, when compared to this huge media explosion that took place last year when he arrived, the interest in Beckham from the local media has gone down almost to zero. It’s a huge change. And while you’re probably right that the media misrepresented the story- wouldn’t be the first time, by the way- it remains the story that most mainstream sports fans heard.
What I’m waiting to see is how, in two or three years, the non-Beckham games draw, and how the sport is perceived. Looking at highlights tonight during halftime of the broadcast, there looked like a lot of empty seats. Talking to a soccer loving friend in Chicago, it seems like the Blanco phenomenon might have a longer lasting impact.
I wasn’t trying to approach this as a soccer expert, but as someone who, so it seemed, is the sort of person it was hoped would take a look at the league.
Thanks again for your post. Hope to see you back.
Justin-
Perhaps “inflating” was the wrong word, if there’s a negative connotation to it. My point is simply that my understanding from the numbers is they did pretty well at the gate, and provided a boost to the overall numbers in attendance. Of course those people count, but the injection of a high attendance team that wasn’t there before would certainly have an effect on the overall numbers without necessarily changing the underlying fundamentals of how well the rest of the teams in the league are drawing.
And please correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t a lot of tix sold for Galaxy games in other cities (i.e. when they’d be the visitor) when it was announced Beckham was coming over? Figures for tickets sold were up for Galaxy games across the league, whether he played or not. How many of those people actually showed up when it was clear Beckham was hurt/wouldn’t play is another story though. But tickets sold are tickets sold.
As to your point about non soccer fans going, it’s a good one, though I suspect more “non-fans” showed up last year to check out Beckham than otherwise would have compared to other MLS seasons. Whether it’s more or less than MLB or NBA doesn’t really matter- relative to MLS’s own history I’d be shocked if there weren’t more new, one time, Becks related tickets sold. Hopefully some of those people become repeat customers (like I wrote in my reply to Geoff, I’d be more than happy to see pro soccer thrive in America) but there had to be a bump in that semi-etherial statistic.
A lot of this gets away from my point in the little feature, which was a) there’s very little “mainstream” buzz around Beckham anymore, at least locally, which is striking considering all the attention that came with him last year, and whether I think Beckham will make a long, lasting impact on MLS attendance and the sport professionally as a whole in the long term, especially in games where he doesn’t play. I’m skeptical.
With your last point, you’re right- too many people say nobody likes soccer in this country, and it’s not true. It’s fair to say professional soccer has struggled, but at a youth level, it’s huge.
Thanks for responding.
Brian,
I agree with your analysis, the buzz has died down. Thank God. Many of us just wanted to get back to enjoying some good soccer and that was the first I have seen from the Galaxy in a long time. I would like to see some buzz from Beckham’s on field successes than his star personality. Anyway, I appreciate your analysis and think if our season didn’t start the week before the final four, you probably would have heard more.
Way to stir up all the soccer fans Brian…Motion creates emotion
I agree that the buzz in LA is less, but so what? The buzz around Shaq teaming up with Kobe was dead after a year too. People get used to it and move on to the next story.
On the point of not seeing the game becoming big here, that is a dangerous assumption. As you rightly mentioned youth leagues are HUGE here. The one BIG factor you missed though, is the ratings for the World Cup beat everything but the Super Bowl in viewership in the US. Bigger than the NBA finals, bigger than the Stanley Cup, bigger than the World Series…you get the point.
The biggest problem from MLS has been convincing those 20 million tuning into the World Cup to tune into MLS and not just the European leagues on FSC and Gol TV.
The quality of play in MLS has increased dramatically in the last 5 years and if they can keep it up they will draw more of those people.
One final factor is you don’t HAVE to be big to play. Sure physical strength can help, but it’s not 100% needed. Now every team has youth academies and if they ever get salaries up to a point approaching even NHL numbers, you think there won’t be a whole lot more kids interested in pursuing it professionally as a path to ‘easy street’ like they do with every other sport? I think so. That will do nothing but add more talent to the league and give more local interest as the ‘local kis done good’ will be on the field for their local club like baseball and football used to be (and still should be)
Papabear - your ratings informaton is incorrect…..
the 2006 world cup final got an 7.0 rating, which was less than that year’s World Series five game average of 10.9 (tigers/cardinals), and the NBA Finals: 8.8 (heat/mavericks)….that world cup final was the highest rated world cup in US history.
I have to say, it’s fun to get involved in a discussion about soccer. It’s not something that happens to me very often (haha). The point Justin and others have made about the mainstream sports media overstating the importance of Beckham is certainly an excellent one. For me, the question is trying to figure out exactly what MLS is supposed to be, too. It is, as far as I can tell, a well run organization increasing in financial strength. I certainly don’t have any expectation that the league is teetering on the brink or anything like that.
If the expectation is that MLS will be a strong but second tier sports league in this country, that is absolutely possible. If the goal is to move into the same sphere as the Big Four (some hesitate even to include the NHL here), that’s tougher. Soccer isn’t a sport, at the pro level, that is part of the fabric of US athletics. It’s not a part of the pro sports culture here, and that’s a huge obstacle. That doesn’t mean the league can’t thrive, though.
I just question whether it will ever really impact the mainstream sports scene. Great point, though, about teh Univision audience. You can make a solid argument that Blanco has a more meaningful impact on soccer in American than Beckham, at least in terms of building long term fans.
@daniel: I should have clarified like Justin did that you have to include the Spanish language numbers in there as well. Also remeber that unlike those other finals, the WC was going on in the early morning some matches starting as early as 10am while the World Series et. al all start in prime time. Kinda makes the numbers the WC pulled all the more incredible.
Also as Justin said, there were an incredible amount of people watching in group settings. I was back in Chicago visiting family for that month and went to a Cubs game, but virtually everyone was in the bars right up to first pitch watching the end of Germany vs. Argentina (in fairness, Chiacago has a ton of Germans and German immigrants so perhaps another match might not have had that big of a hold, but still, it was pretty incredible to hear all of Clark explode in elation when they won!)
@Brian: I think MLS’ 10 year plan is to be at or above the level of Eredivisie (Holland’s league) In this country, I think they’d like to, and will take up the #4 spot from hockey. I think they would be happy if they could occassionally creep into the 3rd spot now and then which is possible as NBA ratings have been slumping the last several years (thank you boring zone defenses)
Re: not being in the pro sports fabric: when the NFL was started by George Halas people laughed him out of the room and was considered a pipe dream. For the first 30 or so years it was an afterthought to MLB. I think we all know where it stands now.
Same goes for the NBA which was largely ignored until the 80’s and didn’t REALLY explode until the Jordan 90’s (ahh the halcyon days)
I’m not saying MLS will for sure ever surpass the NFL and become most favorite, but just that things can change in drastic ways. I wouldn’t be shocked if it became a solid #3.5 though.
Imagine how much more fun these soccer back and forths would be if you loved the game.
C’mon, you know you can! :p
I do applaud you for not being a Jim Rome like troll. I don’t expect everyone to like every sport but it is pretty lame when ’sports’ writers write crap like ’soccer isn’t really a sport’ which is basically the dumbest thing a sports writer could possibly write.
@JustinO-I think you are right that more youth players know that Europe is a possibility, but you have to remember that unless you are willing to move overseas at 16 you have to get a work permit after you turn 18 which often requires a certain level of national team appearances which isn’t normal for most US players to be capped at the full senior level that young. Combine that with FIFA’s new rule on the horizon that players can’t move until the age of 18 it makes it all the more prohibitive.
So in that sense, the ‘path to easy street’ is all the more prohibitive. I think once MLS is an option to be a wealthy man by the time you are 18 there will be a big uptick in talent.
I can only speak for myself, but I used to go visit family in Germany in the summers when I was little and a few times I was by myself and I can tell you, I would have been pretty miserable being away from my immediate family at such a young age. I can’t imagine how a kid with no family whatsoever would handle moving there at 15-16. Especially since you are able to drink at 16 there (in most countries) and are generally considered an adult. It can honestly make your head spin.
It really is a pretty big thing to move to Europe at such a young age. For everything that is similar between us and Europe, there is enough that is different to throw a youngster off. Especially the negativity. Europeans are very negative people by and large. I don’t think any could ever explain why, but they really are. It always struck me as odd when I was little.
I find it funny how most sports writers, who aren’t fans of the game, can so easily say that soccer wont ever break into the top tier of the US sports landscape. Personally, that view is a bit short-sided.
I think Papabear is onto something though. Every major league when starting out was laughed at. Even beloved baseball struggled out of the gate. Why would soccer, especially given the current competition, be any different?
The problem lies in believing a sport wont become big because it not part of the CURRENT fabric of American culture. Well, I have news for you. Culture changes.
Yes, for now, soccer is struggling professionally (well, struggling only when compared to other top leagues in the US [which are the top leagues in the world], not necessarily to other soccer leagues around the world - a comparison that is all too often overlooked).
The point is, soccer is the most popular youth sport in the US. These kids, myself included, will grow up with an appreciation for the sport. The old guard, who didn’t have soccer available to them, now run much of the sports media. Of course they’re not gonna write about (and even scoff at) something of which they know nothing about.
I feel I was at the start of the youth soccer movement, as it’s really picking up speed with more and more kids playing today than ever before. I grew up with a love and passion for the game. At 23, I still play and have season tickets to the Galaxy. There is a whole generation of kids coming behind me who will have the same appreciation.
Beckham was brought in, as he has said again and again, to change perceptions about the sport through the youth. He was brought in so this enormous group of kids playing soccer has an equal appreciation for the pro game being played here AND abroad. He was brought in to raise the level of play and so that the youth, who will determine where soccer’s popularity inevitably ends up, will have an idol that they can look up to on a home team.
Underestimating this and saying that soccer will never be a top tier sport in the US is either ignorance, foolishness, or both.
As for the buzz. Buzz is only needed to attract the average sports fan. People who love soccer, know how to get their soccer information without the buzz. We’ve been doing it for years. Beckham will make sure that those fans are now getting information that is comming from this side of the pond as well as from abroad.