Write On Sports LLC - "David Beckham: The $250 Million Dollar Lure" by Jeff Bull

David Beckham: The $250 Million Dollar Lure

2007-01-12 10:43:02 | By: Jeff Bull

It’s possible that, somewhere in the Kansas City metropolitan area, there’s a Dutchman dejectedly packing his possessions for a move to New York City; Dave Van Den Bergh was traded this morning from the Kansas City Wizards to Red Bull New York, a move that normally would have got dedicated fans talking, if only for a while. But, today, it's doubtful anyone noticed. Worse, when tomorrow’s Major League Soccer (MLS) Superdraft takes place, will anyone care who went first? Will anyone even notice the draft?

Just about everyone connected with soccer in the United States, not to mention nearly every mainstream media outlet in the country, is discussing the move that sent former England captain and soccer icon David Beckham from Real Madrid to the Los Angeles Galaxy. Yes, that’s the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS. That’s just one sign that this is a deal that far transcends the movement of a player from one club to another. This is nothing less than a doubling-down on the future of soccer in the United States.

The money Beckham will reportedly earn starts the conversation. Multiple outlets, though not MLS’s official website MLSnet.com, report that Beckham has the chance to earn $250 million over the next five years. Assuming that to be true, someone, somewhere must believe Beckham will return a fair chunk, if not all, of that revenue. A second likely assumption, and one that grows from the above, is that Beckham will impress American sports fans - current soccer fans aren’t the real target audience here - as well as the curious on-lookers, enough to draw them to MLS.

Calling this a gamble hardly does it justice. Similarities in the figures might suggest comparisons to what the Texas Rangers thought Alex Rodriguez would do for their club, but the situations aren’t directly analogous. To begin, MLS isn’t on the hook for most of Beckham’s salary: according to early reports, sponsorship and “image rights” will constitute up to 80% of Beckham’s pay package. While the specific details of the deal remain murky, that arrangement indicates that the Brit came States-side as much as a popular ambassador for the world’s game as he did as a player.

At the same time, Beckham does need to play - and well. With the league’s often-breeched annual salary cap for 2007 set at $2.1 million - and with 80% of $250 million leaving $50 for non-sponsorship/rights income - Beckham will make money heretofore unheard of in MLS. The “designated-player” rule - which had actually been nicknamed the “Beckham Rule” - serves as the loophole that allows teams to break as much of the bank as they can stomach over the league’s maximum salary of $400,000. While there has long been a considerable gap between the league’s top earners and the journeymen, Beckham’s paycheck alone deepens that gap to astounding proportions. How will a starting player pulling down less than $50,000 annually take to sharing the field with Beckham on his millions per-annum? Worse, what happens if he flops?

That brings the discussion to what Beckham can do on the field, even under ideal conditions. Beckham can play the game, to be sure, and only a handful of players possess his talent for striking a dead ball (this is where the “bending” comes into play) or crossing in the final third. But with regard to other fundamentals of the game - e.g. dribbling, possession passing, blazing speed, hard-edged tackling - Beckham hardly stands above. All in all, his ability with free-kicks will provide a few goals the Galaxy might not have otherwise scored, he’ll cross the ball well to a big target like the recently acquired Nate Jaqua, and he’ll be better equipped to find a streaking run by Landon Donovan, but...then what? Do the few areas in which Beckham excels justify the seven-figure gap between what he will earn and what Landon Donovan, the team’s previously highest-paid player, earns?

From the perspective of simple value for play, the answer to the above question is something disturbingly close to no. But that’s not why Beckham is making the proverbial big bucks: he’s here to raise the profile of soccer in the United States as high as it can possibly go. In the near-term, this is working brilliantly. The entire country could see Beckham on this morning’s edition of Good Morning America, but the fact report of his arrival led the sports segment on the local TV news last night speaks to the depth of media saturation. But this is only short-term; long-term returns on that massive investment could go seriously sideways - and how well Beckham plays looms large. The Offside, a blog run by Bob Kellett, explained the potential financial risk as well as anyone:

“Will this still be the case when people come to realize that [Beckham] is unlikely to score every match and that he might not be a dominant player?”

That’s the $250 million dollar question. This move interests regular fans on one key level: will Beckham’s arrival help MLS, or soccer in the United States in general, grow and further entrench itself in American culture. Of all the blogs and pundits I’ve read so far, none of them expects much, if anything, from Beckham in terms of improving the game on the field.

This trade is a lure, pure and simple. It’s an attempt to get through to the casual soccer fan - e.g. all the people who watch the World Cup or possibly even the European leagues - to convince them to give MLS a chance. Surely, the hope is they will tune in to just one or two games - or, God forbid, go catch one live - and that they’ll like what they see enough to return. But $250 million is a whopping lot to spend on a lure. Fans, including me, can’t help but view this as a gimmick. But we’d also be hard-pressed to argue that we’re catching much with the various spoons and spinners we’ve tried so far.

So, Beckham is coming. What the hell? Let’s hope we catch some fish.