David Beckham Signed by MLS, America Yawns
This is ESPN‘s headlining graphic…
So he’s the face of American soccer now? Too bad the US World Cup team got embarassed last year.
The only possible consequence I could see coming out of Beckham signing this massive deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy is a few more international superstars signing with the MLS. Even then, that won’t bring in that many more fans, because they won’t know who the guys are anyway. Maybe I just live in the wrong part of the country. Are there really people in America excited about this? I was of the impression that soccer was even less popular than hockey, which has been basically pushed out of the “big four” with NASCAR taking its place (which I personally think is worse than pretty much everything). Even the poll on ESPN.com asking “Who is the biggest star in sports today?” has Tiger Woods winning in a landslide, with LeBron James beating out Beckham. The best part is that Beckham isn’t even the best player in his sport, like the other superstars. What does that say for the moronic British public? I predict that L.A. will get excited over Beckham and pretend to enjoy watching soccer for a year or two, and then they’ll come to their senses, or a real football team will move to Los Angeles.
It’s been said that the contact is around $250 million for 5 years. My first thought was, “How in God’s name could an MLS team afford that?” That’s double the money per year that Alex Rodriguez gets. Apparently, the breakdown goes something like this:
- AEG (the company that owns the Galaxy) will reportingly be paying him $9 million a year.
- The MLS will chip in with only $400,000 a year.
- The rest will come from Beckham retaining his “image rights” – whatever the hell that means. I would assume it has something to do with endorsements and other things…
So there it is. David Beckham is now a soccer player in the United States of America and he’s going to be making an obscene amount of money while doing it. Excuse me while I go read about the NFL playoffs this weekend.
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