Beckham to MLS?!

A quick bit of information on the type of impact this is having... A friend is on the list for Toronto FC as they are the new expansion team for next year. They sent him an email that contained this little tidbit:
"We sold over 200 season tickets in the first few hours of this announcement."

There is a serious possibility that Beckham may never play up in Toronto. But, people are buying tickets because of the buzz.

 

Why would you say that? Do you think that he'll only stick around for a year before going back to Europe? That he'll die along with Cruise and Travolta when they go Jonestown? Or that he'll have a no-playing-on-FieldTurf clause written into his contract?

 

Bottom line is that while Beckham may be in the MLS, he will still be surrounded by inferior players. This is like sticking Streisand in the middle of a high school musical. Nice novelty, but that's about it.

 

Fantastic.

 

As someone who interned for a year with an MLS team, and has followed soccer forever, that's one of the best descriptions I've read. No, soccer will never be one of the "big" sports. So what. It doesn't have to be to succeed.

But Beckham will help it grow. Hopefully Real Madrid and MLS come to some agreement to let him out of his contract early. Do they really need their third-team right midfielder? Especially when the title might be decided by April?

With Reyna coming back (probably), Beckham on the way, and more soccer-specific stadiums (stadia?) being built, the future looks good.

 

Have you watched an MLS game recently? The standard of play is higher than everyone makes it out to be. The level of play is closer to the Mexican Primera Liga than people think. MLS is developing players who are moving abroad to bigger and better leagues, Clint Dempsey being the most recent example, but this is going to start making people think about sticking around because the league is getting better every year.

 

I apologize. I should have put the caveat "this year." With Beckham arriving in August, it is possible that he does not step on the Toronto field this year.

People are still buying tickets for this season, though.

I disagree. MLS' quality isn't so far below whatever Beckham has left that it would laughable.

 

Absolutely.

The thing that is laughable about this is they people who are saying that MLS is the equivalent of NFL Europe or such same thing. I live in Tampa. We had a team. It didn't work out here, and the game has moved on and progressively improved since it was here. The thing that is pissing me off, and I'll tell a local host who spouted this on his show today, is that you can't say MLS is not a good league, and then follow up by saying "I haven't watched it since it left town."

That's absolute rubbish, to take what you thought of the league four years ago and say it's still the same when it isn't. If you actually paid attention to the MLS since then, you would realise this. But ignorance is bliss to so many.

That being said.....Huge appreciation to Bill Plaschke for saying on ATH that this was a huge signing and a big step forward. It takes a lot for a major national columnist to throw himself behind this, even if some of his knowledge is shaky. He knows what is coming, and I appreciate him more for it.

 

So he's not that much better than the rest of the MLS players, but he's going to get paid $50 million per season? That doesn't add up.

 

Ok, lets look at this.

The actual salary number I heard is $6 mil per year. But with the endorsments, adidas is the official kit supplier of MLS and Beckham is one of their top endorsers worldwide, and everything else periphally it could easily add up to $50 mil per year.

 

Chances DB will don a circa 1982 Indians jersey: Nil.
Chance DB will sport a Serpico moustache: Nil.

So what's the draw?


Oh, and $250 million? The whole league can't be worth much more than that, can it? I don't doubt it's accurate, but that looks like a massive gamble from an organization that can't afford it.

 

I refer you to the previous post.