A friend of mine asked me this earlier today. I watch a lot of soccer, so he wanted my take on Becks in the MLS. Here's what I just wrote him:
Well if history is any guide, yes. The last time that soccer was as big or bigger than it is now in the US was the mid to late 70's and it got that way because the New York Cosmos imported a washed up striker from Brazil by the name of Pele. Even in his late 30's he was so much better than everyone else a even soccer newb could see it and people turned out to watch.
Before Pele started with the Cosmos their average attendance was under 5,000. When Pele started with the Cosmos in 1975, their average attendace was about 15,000. By 1977 when he left their average attendance was over 35,000 and continued to climb all the way up to mid 40's before the league fell apart from over-expansion in the mid 80's.
Other teams imported stars of a lesser nature (notably the Los Angeles Aztecs who brought in Dutch legend Johann Cryuff and nearly doubled their attendance for that season -- though that was admittedly only from 8 to 15 thousand in the Rose Bowl) and had similar success. All that turned into modest TV success for the NASL with several teams getting local TV contracts and the leagues playoffs being shown nationally.
--End summation of wikipedia articles on NASL--
Also don't forget the er... let's call it the MJ effect. The Chicago Bulls in their early/mid 90's heyday played in front of sellout crowds everywhere because people bought tickets to see MJ even if their team sucked.
Now I think soccer is poised to do the same, but unlike the previous effort most of the MLS plays in soccer dedicated stadiums of appropriate size. Sure Cryuff doubled the Aztecs attendance but 15,000 in a 92,000 seat stadium still looks bad on TV. Even Pele playing in front of 35,000 was doing so in 80,000 seat Giants Stadium. If Beckham comes to Chicago to play against the Fire, they will sell out the 20,000 seat Toyota Stadium (which they do occasionally anyway), but I don't think even Beckham could sell out the Fire's old stadium... 60,000 seat Soldier Field.
Plus Beckham, while the biggest draw, is not the MLS' only draw anymore. Freddy Adu, Landon Donavan, and DeMarcus Beasley have all been on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and while outside of soccer they don't yet have much name/face recognition maybe they can ride Beckham's coat tails. Donavan all ready does national sports commercials (Right Guard I think), and Freddy Adu has contracts with Nike (who doesn't) and ?Pepsi? (or Coke, can't remember which, but it was big deal when he signed it). Unfortunately for the MLS Adu is set to move to Manchester United after the next MLS season. BTW that will be Adu's 4th season in the MLS and the one in which he turns 18 years old.
The general level of soccer has gone up in the US as well. The United States has been as high as eighth in the FIFA World Rankings, though after our poor '06 World Cup (0-2-1) we're now down to 30th. Still using mostly homegrown MLS talent we are competitive at the international level. Yes our /best/ players still play in Europe, but a large majority either started in or still play in the MLS -- the exception is goal keepers all three keepers on the US squad play in the English Premiere League, including Tim Howard who plays for Beckham's old squad Man U.
2 comments:
I didn't know they played soccer in the U.S.
Some of us even coach it:)
As I said later in that convsersation to my friend:
"I think he could really help the MLS. He comes to America (don't forget he brings a celebutard wife with him) and gets Brangelina type tabloid coverage. He plays in LA, and all the sudden MLS games (always involving the Galaxy strangely) start showing up on Sat. afternoon on ABC. ESPN 8 (The Ocho) or some other minor ESPN carries the entire Galaxy season. Occasional soccer "highlights" like Beckham exchanging shirts after a match (a soccer tradition) start showing up in between shots of Becks and Posh attending a premiere on shows like Extra and Access Hollywood.
Do I think he can "make" soccer in the US? No, it will never beat football and baseball, but I can see him making it bigger than hockey and in a best case scenario on par with the NBA.
But really when I say "famous in the US" I mean as an actor or something. He's said he wants to act, and so has his wife. If you want to it make big in acting, you go to LA."
That's all ready started to happen. Chicago NBC5 sandwiches Extra between Ellen (don't ask, but I watch) and the local 4:30 news. The Beckhams have been on every night for the last week.
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