He’s here to serve, and sell, a Greater good
You want to sell soccer in America?
Vend it like Beckham.
You want to repair the divide between the millions of Americans who play soccer and the thousands who actually watch it?
Mend it like Beckham.
You want people to think soccer here will finally become a major sport and live happily ever after?
Pretend it like Beckham.
Arguably the world’s most famous athlete is coming to work in Los Angeles, but there’s something you should know.
David Beckham is not joining the Galaxy as an athlete, but as an advertising campaign.
He is coming as soccer swag, a walking Super Bowl commercial, a big-haired billboard.
His job here is not to win, but to give his sport one last chance to work in the biggest place where it doesn’t.
His success will be defined not by corner kicks, but by converts.
“Soccer in America is the biggest-played sport up to a certain age,” Beckham said in a televised message. “That’s where I want to take it to another level. Potentially it can go higher than anyone can probably believe in America.”
Translated, it’s his job to round up those baggy-shorted runts clogging up your park and herd them over to his park.
That’s all fine and good, but this has been tried here before, remember? A big star showed up to sell a secondary sport, and it worked for a while, but once that star disappeared, so did the sport.
Guy by the name of Gretzky.
Beckham’s job is to be greater than the Great One.
No wonder he is being paid roughly $50 million a year for five years, miracles being worth at least much.
“Right now, the move means a ton; I’ve never seen ESPN this excited about soccer in my life,” said Sigi Schmid, coach of Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew and former coach of the Galaxy. “But the real test will be down the road, in how it can help elevate our league and our sport.”
Here’s hoping Beckham at least does better than in his last two jobs; he was cut by England’s national team and benched by Real Madrid.
Right now, at best, it’s a bad news-good news deal.
The bad news is, at age 31, Beckham is not among the world’s elite players anymore.
The good news is, neither is anybody else in MLS.
Beckham’s joining the Galaxy is a little like if Mike Piazza were to join the Nippon Ham Fighters. Talent is relative. Running alongside the locals, Beckham will look like Gulliver.
“If you were looking for an MLS most valuable player, he’d certainly be a finalist,” said Schmid.
The bad news is, Beckham already acts so much like a movie star -- he has thus far refused to engage in live interviews with the Los Angeles media -- that it will be difficult for him to engage with the suburban young families to whom he is trying to sell the sport.
The good news is, who needs to meet a movie star when you have your own movie?
The hit movie “Bend It Like Beckham” has given him thousands of fans who can’t wait to cheer the real thing.
“That movie was huge with soccer kids, it still is,” said Frank Bigelow, an attorney and a longtime coach, referee and league official in Pasadena youth soccer. “It’s going to be a really big deal for those kids to go down and cheer him.”
The bad news is, Beckham is a married family man who might not appeal to the Hollywood crowd he so desperately seeks.
The good news is, his wife, Victoria, is a former member of the Spice Girls, a woman whose professional name, Posh Spice, not only defines her, but describes her.
“When I think of the $250-million deal, I think of how much will Victoria spend on Rodeo Drive,” said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. “Seriously, people will be drawn in by Beckham’s novelty, and soccer will hope they will stay.”
First, Beckham has to stop the Galaxy’s attendance bleed. The team drew an average of 20,814 last season, a decrease of nearly 4,000 from the previous year, the first decline in its four years at the Home Depot Center.
Second, he has to stop the American soccer fan bleed, a condition understood by Bigelow, the Pasadena soccer dad who has seen it up close.
“It seems like I’ve been able to convert everyone into an American soccer fan except my own son,” said Bigelow, whose son, Franklin, is 20. “He is an English Premier League snob. That’s what he watches. He says the MLS is just not good quality.”
Third, Beckham has to create new fans from young players and parents who are happily involved in 20 hours of soccer a week but would never dream of spending three hours a month watching it at their local stadium.
“Here’s where he can make a real impact,” said Schmid. “Beckham doesn’t just pull from soccer people, he pulls from Hollywood, from the fashion world, from the business world. He can pull in a lot of new people.”
But will they stay after he leaves? Can one aging star actually break the perception of MLS as an inferior league and the United States as an apathetic soccer nation?
Beckham will be lucky to even bend it.
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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.
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Biggest sports deals
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If David Beckham’s deal with the Galaxy reaches its projected figures,it would potentially make him the highest-paid player in team sports.
*--* Value Annual (mill.)/ Year value Name length signed Team (mill.) David Beckham* $250/five 2007 Galaxy $50 years Soccer Alex Rodriguez $252/10 2000 TX.Rangers $25 years Baseball Kevin Garnett $126/six 1997 MN.Timberwolv years es $21 Basketball Manny Ramirez $160/eight Boston Red Sox $20 years 2000 Baseball Shaquille O’Neal $100/five 2005 Miami Heat $20 years Basketball Kevin Garnett $100/five 2003 MN.Timberwolv years es $20 Basketball LeBron James $60/three 2006 Cleveland years Cavaliers $20 Basketball Kobe Bryant $136/seven 2004 Lakers $20 years Basketball
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* Includes revenue from sources other than his soccer salary.
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Graphics reporting by Scott Wilson
