Uhhmm, AP, how many Beckham stories are you going to shove down our throats?

I'll gut him like a goddamn fish.

(kidding, FB, you know I love you and all. Now don't delete the PM again!!!!)

 

My bad.

 

his contract with the Galaxy is like 32 million for five years

 

It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter where the money is coming from.
MLS. Nike. Adidas. Herbalife. Madison Ave.
It's money. American money.
And, it is a quarter of a billion dollars. That merits notice.

 

The yearly salary was reported to be around 25 mil a year...coincidentally that's the same amount that Herbalife paid for the shirt sponsorship. So the contract has pretty much been paid for and the Galaxy are now profiting from shirt sales and tickets.

 

The salary from the Galaxy is $6.25 million per for five years. He also gets a piece from every jersey sold. But thanks to the Herbalife deal, the Galaxy are already well in the money.

 

In other news, the sky is blue.

No one here believes the stars of the soccer world are busting down the door. MLS executives don't believe the stars are busting down the door. Aside from a few overheated columnists who adore soccer, there have been no statements made that say other stars are busting down the door.

People have hope that if Beckham has a good experience, others may follow. I'm personally not that optimistic, but Beckham is the experiment. The success of this DP rule will hinge on what comes next year and the year after. If no other players come, the experiment will have failed.

 

I wonder how much this is being driven by European outlets -- subscribers to AP, many of them. I have the impression that the thirst for footie news there rivals our own for the NFL.

 

And Michael Schumacher was pulling down more than $40 million a year from Ferrari alone. He was appearing in the states approximately as often as Beckham has thus far and was competing in a sport that's enormously popular in Europe and much of the rest of the world.

I don't think AP (or any U.S. media for that matter) ever gave him the coverage blitz the Beckham got without having yet set foot on the field -- er, pitch.

 

Not even close.

Ferrari is an Italian company. So his popularity and bankability in Italy was assured, yes.

And Schumacher wasn't planning to appear in the U.S. And he wasn't the most famous athlete in the most popular sport in the world.

The Beckham coverage has indeed been over the top, but let's find better comparisons. Next we'll have someone repeating that assertion from January that Michelle Wie approaches Becks in worldwide fame.

 

I've covered soccer for parts of four decades. Remember the NASL. Saw Pele playing at Downing Stadium on CBS. The MISL. Sellouts for the St. Louis Steamers. The NASL's indoor whirl to fight MISL. Saw the rise and fall of the Cosmos. Remember Beckenbauer, Chinaglia and Cruyff. The World Cup frenzy. The Women's World Cup frenzy. The coming of MLS. The team-owned stadia in Columbus, Carson, Bridgeview, etc.
And still, the game on a professional level still barely has a foothold in the U.S., no matter how much money has been spent and how much pub has been gotten.
It's 40 years since pro soccer went big-time in the U.S.
In 40 years, the NFL had grown from a barnstorming league to a rival for baseball, poised to become No. 1. In 40 years, soccer is still a sideshow. In the 70s, it was the sport of the future. It still is. I like it, but I don't know that it will ever be bigger than fourth-fiddle.

 

"Fourth-fiddle," in this country, still is worth a lot of money.