Friday, January 12, 2007

Beckham Moves to US: World Still on Axis

Upon hearing the news that English soccer icon David Beckham is coming Stateside I contacted friend of dcat British Rob for some insight on what it all means. Are the British weeping quietly into their pint glasses? Are soccer hooligans descending upon HMV's contrywide to smash and destroy every available copy of Spice Girls albums? Will we ever be innocent again? Here is his take:
He's a genuine talent, if not quite in the stellar category suggested by his public profile outside the States, but not a bad investment. He hasn't shone in Spain this season, but then again, he hasn't really had the chance. However, it is more than likely a case of both hype *and* a 'Pele moment' - the Beckham phenomenon is about hype - in a real as opposed to derogatory sense - as much as football. One of the new headlines today was "Posh [Victoria Beckham - Posh Spice out of the Spice Girls] and Bucks" - I think many of us over here would agree that LA is the most fitting location for the end of his career. Wealth is probably not the issue - he's one of, if not the, richest footballers in history, but obscurity is the key - one news package last night pointed out that the States is the one market relatively unconquered by the Beckham brand - it might not be the football, per se, that motivates this move ....

He also sent me to this Richard Williams piece from the Guardian's Sports blog, which provides a pretty spot-on summation. (And he adds the following comment: "And ... if you are thinking that my reference (yet again) to a Guardian article is further evidence of parochialism, please look at today's Guardian sport headlines - cricket, tennis and baseball are the lead stories. Any news service that can have cricket and baseball in its top sports stories has got me hooked.)


My own view is that the Beckham transfer to the LA Galaxy will have less impact than Europe's soccer solipsists would like to believe but is another sign of the health and growth of MLS and soccer generally in the US. I do not anticipate that Becks will cause a tectonic shift in the American sporting firmament, and he might even discover a level of apathy that he has not encountered since exploding onto the sporting scene more than a dozen years ago. This won't come close to matching a Pele to the Cosmos/NASL moment, but it is significant for a host of reasons tying to sporting culture. Plus, even if Beckham has slipped from the rarefied heights he once occupied, in MLS, where the talent level is simply a notch below that in England or Spain, he will probably star for several years and if it goes well for him and the team his move may start a wave of European talent crossing over to the US to cap off their careers.

3 comments:

rob skinner said...

And my Canadian brother-in-law has just informed me that in one day an extra 1000 season tickets have been sold for Toronto FC games on the back of the Beckham move. This is apparently impressive, although needs to be compared with Manchester United's "One United" membership scheme - where $50 will get you onto the waiting list for the 50,000 season tickets per year.

Rhonda said...

I'm interested to hear what happens with ticket sales for Beckham's games. A soccer-fan friend who had never attended an MLS game (he doesn't live near an MLS club city, but he family in Columbus) went well out of his way to see Beckham play in an exhibition game a while back. If people like him go to see Beckham and then start attending games on anything close to a regular basis (and that's a big "if," I'll admit), that would be a huge gain for MLS.

On the other hand, there are just so few clubs that's a major inconvenience to travel to games. I always meant to make the drive to Columbus when McBride was there (gotta support my Billiken), but five hours each way . . . . And of course, now that seems super close!

Rhonda said...

Oh, Rob answered my question while I was typing.