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

well, that's 85+ years ago, not 40. There was only one sport then...baseball.

 

It's 40 years from 1920 to 1960. It's 40 years from 1967 to 2007. Got it?

 

Then it was phased very badly.
I hope you're more accurate in your writing.

 

Ok, so here's my question. What if the NFL and MLB keep taking and taking? What if next season when MLB is on TBS Sunday night for baseball and who knows where right now in the week on regular cable? What's going to happen?

I think the niche for soccer opens up a little more. ESPN is going to have to show something other than poker re-runs, hot-dog eating and the rest. It's lost close to all of its golf rights with the Golf Channel having the PGA Tour and TNT the British Open. It still has some tennis with the majors and U.S. Open series, but that usually gets squeezed onto ESPN2.

The WWL is showing all of the European soccer championships next summer. If that goes well, why wouldn't they ramp up their MLS coverage, and even try to buy English language right to other international soccer leagues?

 

The Fox Soccer Channel has already taken a lot of that, hasn't it?

Seems to me that other leagues don't have much to lose by heading in the direction that MLB, NFL and the PGA seem to be heading -- playing provider, distributor and producer to all the content that is available to viewers? That includes TV content, that includes written content/coverage, online, broadcast, etc. ...

What's going to stop FIFA from creating its own TV channel and offering it to individual cable/satellite systems around the world? What's going to stop the EPL from creating its own? Why not MLS? Why not the NBA?

If the money's there -- and it's definitely there -- why should those leagues use a middleman to get their coverage out? And if that's the case, I don't think the "prestige" of the league will mean a whole helluva lot. MLS would be available to whoever wants it -- and that's all that matters.

 

Now, here's the reason why everything we've just said won't happen.

Right's fees.

The NFL, MLB, FIFA, NBA, MLS, the Olympics, the whole shebang, don't want to have to pay for their own equipment, their own announcers, their own airtime.

They'd much rather get a ton of money from the networks, ESPN, TNT, TBS, Versus and the rest for the right to show their games, and have those companies foot the bill for all the production costs.

Do you know why every team in the Premier league will be getting 60 million pounds for simply being in the league when it starts in a month? It's not because they're footing the bill for their own television production.

 

And I believe it's been reported LA has sold 250,000 Beckham shirts at $70 each.

 

Somebody free me from this monstrous regiment of women!
(But not too fast...)

 

David who?

 

I don't buy the theory that the NASL was a failure.

-Without it, I don't believe the thousands of community youth soccer programs would've popped up.
-Without it, our men's national team would perhaps still be playing one or two matches a year like we did from 1950 to the mid-80s.
-Without it, no World Cup here in 1994.

And a little history lesson is also needed regarding soccer's popularity here. In the 1920s, we had the American Soccer League operating as a very popular (and profitable for those who played) professional league in the Northeast. But, alas there was a stupid fight with FIFA involving ASL teams participating in the U.S. Open Cup (as well as other undermining elements from across the pond) which doomed the league. The Great Depression also did a bang up job of crippling the sport for many years thereafter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Soccer_League

 

It was still undeniably a failure (as a business), but it certainly left a valuable legacy.

 

In regards to the throat shoving that the AP is supposedly conducting in regards to Beckham coverage, how about picking up a phone, conducting an interview and maybe, just maybe localizing the story? I'm thinking futbol (I mean soccer, sorry. One of these days I'll get used to that) coaches, players, moms etc. would like to weigh in on the subject of David Beckham. That might be more interesting to read than the stuff the AP is churning out at apparently too high of a rate for some.