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fancy_daniel
Joined: 12 Oct 2005
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
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baker10
Joined: 21 Jun 2006
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 Posted: 01/11/07 2:03 pm ::: |
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Although I liked the movie Bend It Like Beckham. I don't think much of his and spicy chicks front page highlights. More boring Tinsletown couples to come to Los Angeles for yet more scandalous tabloid stories..
I guess he belongs in LA!
I'm not much of a soccer fan either, just really tired of hearing about him!
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rooky
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
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| Posted: 01/11/07 2:09 pm ::: |
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| I think it's great! I'll be making the trek to SoCal to see Becks!
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dtsnms
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 18815
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| Posted: 01/11/07 2:11 pm ::: |
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| Maybe it's time to check out a Revs game in Mass.
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 66922
Location: Where the action is
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| Posted: 01/11/07 2:32 pm ::: Re: David Beckham to play for Los Angeles Galaxy |
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| Quote: |
| The Galaxy, citing industry experts, said Beckham's deal is worth more than $250 million in salary and commercial endorsements and is "thought to be the biggest in sporting history." |
Let's do some math.
MLS had an averaged announced attendance of 15502 in 2006. That's about twice the WNBA's 7476. MLS plays fewer total games, so their total announced attendance of 2976423 was about 67% higher than the WNBA's 1779366.
Last summer the Washington Post reported that the WNBA has higher TV ratings than MLS:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/11/AR2006071100988.html?nav=rss_sports/index/wnba
| Quote: |
| The WNBA's television ratings are higher than the National Hockey League's cable ratings and Major League Soccer's TV audience. |
A few weeks later, MLS signed a new TV deal:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6360146.html
| Quote: |
| ESPN inked a new eight-year multimedia agreement with Soccer United Marketing, the league's commercial arm, for rights to MLS. Under terms of the deal -- which industry executives in the TV-soccer community placed at some $8 million annually -- ESPN2 will air 26 regular-season matches principally in primetime on Thursdays, plus three playoff games each season. In addition, ABC will televise the season-opener, the All-Star Game and the MLS Cup final. |
So, logically, we can expect the WNBA to get a similar or better deal from ESPN next year when the current contract expires, and teams will be able to offer contracts not too much less than what Beckham is getting.
Right?
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BCBG25
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 20112
Location: Sampa
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| Posted: 01/11/07 3:25 pm ::: |
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First Barry Zito, now David Beckham. Who said looks matter only in women's sports?
If anyone thinks he's being paid for his talent, think again. Beckham is mediocre at best. He's not even in the top 50 best players in the world right now. Maybe with the level of talent in the US he can have it easy, but he's been rotting on Real's bench for sometime now and he's been kicked off the English Team.
He used to be a good long passer and had some skill with free kicks, but the Galaxy is paying for his looks, his tatoos, and his anorexic wife. Unfuckingbelievable.
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 16359
Location: Chicago
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| Posted: 01/11/07 3:31 pm ::: |
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| And just like Anna Kournikova, Beckham is attractive but really nothing special. I don't follow soccer, and even I know that there are far more attractive soccer players than him.
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rooky
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 840
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| Posted: 01/11/07 3:38 pm ::: |
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| I love Becks cuz he' s gorgeous and has a nice a$$.
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harlem_basketball
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 2666
Location: Gee I don't know...Harlem maybe?
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| Posted: 01/11/07 3:39 pm ::: |
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| So, have the Galaxy watched their own sport in the last 5 years? I thought Galaxy was just a nickname. Apparently it's also a state of mind for that front office. The next time someone asks Blaze how she keeps her job, she should just point to Alexi Lalas. |
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BCBG25
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
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rooky
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
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| Posted: 01/11/07 4:04 pm ::: |
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| Absolutely. It's all about the entertainment. I wish I could have seen him play in his prime, but logistically, I couldn't. I'll now enjoy him in the MLS.
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BCBG25
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
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| Posted: 01/11/07 4:52 pm ::: |
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He'll bring awareness to MLS, no doubt about that. The type of publicity many sports league can only dream of. BUT...in his prime he was nothing special and he doesn't have now the kind of conditioning he had then. So what this amounts to is that he'll reinforce the bad image Americans already have of football, that of an inferior sport. People will be sold on his being the best player in the world only to be disapoointed when they watch the real deal. When he starts playing and has absolutely no impact in the game, which is all he's done for 4 years, then people will have yet another reason to diss football. Heck, Pel, the greatest ever, couldn't make football work in the US (not to mention Beckembauer played there, too).
One of the things that attract people to football and Americans can't understand is the aesthetics of the game. The beautiful plays that don't result in goals, but capture the imagination of fans around the world. Pel was most famous for incredible goals he didn't make, like the ones against Uruguay in the 1970 World Cup just because he did the impossible to even create those goal opportunities so much so the goal was a mere detail. Becks doesn't have the improvisation skills of Ronaldinho, the genius of Zidane or the killer instinct of Drogba or even Eto'o.
He's the equivalent of paying top dollar for a fantastic FT shooter. But he's a damn good product, that's for sure.
BTW, this is a great video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Pbbs94EhA
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Ballwinner
Joined: 29 Dec 2004
Posts: 656
Location: Indianapolis
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| Posted: 01/11/07 5:19 pm ::: Gettin' my KC or Chicago trip lined up |
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America has a long track record of paying attention to talentless, somewhat attractive people (What does Paris Hilton actually do?) . Beckham still has a bit of talent and looks.
Americans don't know the more talented Wayne Rooney or the better looking Cristiano Ronaldo. MLS does not need the talent of one player but does need the celebrity attention. Beckham brings the international marketing of Adidas, Gillette, Pepsi, etc. Candice Parker could walk on the Tennessee River and not bring that to the WNBA.
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There are good ships, and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea. But the most important ships for a viable WNBA future are ownerships, and that will always be.
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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 21046
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| Posted: 01/11/07 7:44 pm ::: |
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| BCBG25 wrote: |
He'll bring awareness to MLS, no doubt about that. The type of publicity many sports league can only dream of. BUT...in his prime he was nothing special and he doesn't have now the kind of conditioning he had then. So what this amounts to is that he'll reinforce the bad image Americans already have of football, that of an inferior sport. People will be sold on his being the best player in the world only to be disapoointed when they watch the real deal. When he starts playing and has absolutely no impact in the game, which is all he's done for 4 years, then people will have yet another reason to diss football. Heck, Pel, the greatest ever, couldn't make football work in the US (not to mention Beckembauer played there, too).
One of the things that attract people to football and Americans can't understand is the aesthetics of the game. The beautiful plays that don't result in goals, but capture the imagination of fans around the world. Pel was most famous for incredible goals he didn't make, like the ones against Uruguay in the 1970 World Cup just because he did the impossible to even create those goal opportunities so much so the goal was a mere detail. Becks doesn't have the improvisation skills of Ronaldinho, the genius of Zidane or the killer instinct of Drogba or even Eto'o.
He's the equivalent of paying top dollar for a fantastic FT shooter. But he's a damn good product, that's for sure.
BTW, this is a great video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Pbbs94EhA |
Why don't you collect your objections and send them over? Sounds like you have a good piece here._________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 21046
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| Posted: 01/11/07 7:46 pm ::: Re: David Beckham to play for Los Angeles Galaxy |
Reply |
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| pilight wrote: |
| Quote: |
| The Galaxy, citing industry experts, said Beckham's deal is worth more than $250 million in salary and commercial endorsements and is "thought to be the biggest in sporting history." |
Let's do some math.
MLS had an averaged announced attendance of 15502 in 2006. That's about twice the WNBA's 7476. MLS plays fewer total games, so their total announced attendance of 2976423 was about 67% higher than the WNBA's 1779366.
Last summer the Washington Post reported that the WNBA has higher TV ratings than MLS:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/11/AR2006071100988.html?nav=rss_sports/index/wnba
| Quote: |
| The WNBA's television ratings are higher than the National Hockey League's cable ratings and Major League Soccer's TV audience. |
A few weeks later, MLS signed a new TV deal:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6360146.html
| Quote: |
| ESPN inked a new eight-year multimedia agreement with Soccer United Marketing, the league's commercial arm, for rights to MLS. Under terms of the deal -- which industry executives in the TV-soccer community placed at some $8 million annually -- ESPN2 will air 26 regular-season matches principally in primetime on Thursdays, plus three playoff games each season. In addition, ABC will televise the season-opener, the All-Star Game and the MLS Cup final. |
So, logically, we can expect the WNBA to get a similar or better deal from ESPN next year when the current contract expires, and teams will be able to offer contracts not too much less than what Beckham is getting.
Right? |
You, too. Great tie in to WNBA economics. If you don't blog on this pilight you're nuts._________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
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Smoovie
Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 3960
Location: H-Town
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| Posted: 01/11/07 7:47 pm ::: Re: David Beckham to play for Los Angeles Galaxy |
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That what I was thinking when I heard about it. Houston has a team now. WOW. I can't wait to see him_________________ (¯`v´¯ 
`*.¸.*´
¸.•´¸.•*¨ ¸.•*¨
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.•´*~Smoov |
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jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 21046
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| Posted: 01/11/07 7:51 pm ::: |
Reply |
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| jammerbirdi wrote: |
| BCBG25 wrote: |
He'll bring awareness to MLS, no doubt about that. The type of publicity many sports league can only dream of. BUT...in his prime he was nothing special and he doesn't have now the kind of conditioning he had then. So what this amounts to is that he'll reinforce the bad image Americans already have of football, that of an inferior sport. People will be sold on his being the best player in the world only to be disapoointed when they watch the real deal. When he starts playing and has absolutely no impact in the game, which is all he's done for 4 years, then people will have yet another reason to diss football. Heck, Pel, the greatest ever, couldn't make football work in the US (not to mention Beckembauer played there, too).
One of the things that attract people to football and Americans can't understand is the aesthetics of the game. The beautiful plays that don't result in goals, but capture the imagination of fans around the world. Pel was most famous for incredible goals he didn't make, like the ones against Uruguay in the 1970 World Cup just because he did the impossible to even create those goal opportunities so much so the goal was a mere detail. Becks doesn't have the improvisation skills of Ronaldinho, the genius of Zidane or the killer instinct of Drogba or even Eto'o.
He's the equivalent of paying top dollar for a fantastic FT shooter. But he's a damn good product, that's for sure.
BTW, this is a great video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Pbbs94EhA |
Why don't you collect your objections and send them over? Sounds like you have a good piece here. |
A good piece? Let me correct myself. That's some brilliant shit right there._________________ Every woman who has ever been presented with a career/sex quid pro quo in the entertainment industry should come forward and simply say, “Me, too.” - jammer The New York Times 10/10/17 |
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 66922
Location: Where the action is
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| Posted: 01/11/07 8:08 pm ::: Re: David Beckham to play for Los Angeles Galaxy |
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| jammerbirdi wrote: |
| You, too. Great tie in to WNBA economics. If you don't blog on this pilight you're nuts. |
I keep thinking that someone will tell me I've missed something here. Yes, MLS has higher average attendance*, but they also have more players on each team that must be paid and uniformed and transported and all the other little expenses that add up after a while.
How can they pay this guy that much money? Something doesn't add up.
* MLS attendance figures are fictitious in a way Val Ackerman only dreamed of. Check here:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060514/news_lz1s14zeig.html
| Quote: |
| Stadium turnstile counts obtained by the Union-Tribune show on average a 60 percent inflation over the past three seasons from the actual attendance |
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/soccer/20060927-9999-lz1s27goal.html
| Quote: |
| Subtract the international doubleheaders that swell MLS crowds the seven last season had an average announced crowd of 48,589 and the per-game paid attendance in 2005 drops below 10,000. |
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Richyyy
Joined: 17 Nov 2005
Posts: 24356
Location: London
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| Posted: 01/11/07 8:29 pm ::: |
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Well for one thing, the actual playing salary is in the 'single-digit millions' per year. The rest is inclusive of endorsements and image rights and everything else that goes along with the 'Beckham brand'. It's like they've included everything Jordan was making through Nike, Hanes, Wheaties etc. from back when he was hugely underpaid by the Bulls before coming up with the final number. Some of it is explained here. Not played up by that piece is the fact that Adidas will be trying to use Beckham's move to try and 'break' America more than they've managed so far, and push into Nike's stranglehold on the US market.
Also, the Galaxy are owned by 'sports and entertainment giants' AEG, as mentioned here, who Beckham is already partnered with for his soccer schools. They'll be underwriting the costs of his wages, presumably. They opened up the MLS salary cap rules a month or two ago to allow signings above the cap to be paid for by individual teams (rather than underwritten by the league as a whole) to allow for signings like this. It's like if Cablevision or a Mark Cuban dipped into their own pocket to pay for a global superstar women's basketball player (if such a thing existed) to play in the WNBA. The Galaxy as a franchise obviously couldn't afford that salary within a typical red/black running budget.
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pilight
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 66922
Location: Where the action is
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| Posted: 01/11/07 8:34 pm ::: |
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| Even if only 20% of his salary comes from the Galaxy that's $10M per year. That exceeds the salary cap of all 14 WNBA teams put together.
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I ain't got a home
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BCBG25
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 20112
Location: Sampa
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| Posted: 01/11/07 9:26 pm ::: |
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Real Madrid couldn't afford the 50 million/year he's allegedly going to make, be it salary/incentives/endorsements and they're the richest club in the world this side of the Yankees (thanks in no small part to Beckham himself).
It's funny that this all happened today. Last night I watched a documentary on how Real Madrid is a global brand. They showed this teenage girl in Japan who's obsessed with Beckham and only cares about his looks. OTOH, there's this other teenage girl in NYC who plays soccer/football in college and suffers a bad injury, so her coach tells her how Ronaldo overcame a possible career-ending injury to resurrect his career and lead Real Madrid to a Toyota Cup (not to mention winning the World Cup with Brazil in the process), so she starts emulating him.
So they portray these two sides as a backstory, the duality of fandom. On one side you have the business part of the game which can't be ignored, so you have to capitalize on that because you need it to support and fuel the passion of your fans by putting the best available product out there. As I said, this will certainly put MLS on the map as far as brand awareness goes, maybe they won't flatline on a top of mind survey, but by selling fans on an overrated player, they might be shooting themselves in the foot and burying any chance soccer had to ever catch on in the US. The talent level just isn't there, still, they've got to give it a shot.
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Smoovie
Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 3960
Location: H-Town
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| Posted: 01/11/07 9:41 pm ::: |
Reply |
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| jammerbirdi wrote: |
| jammerbirdi wrote: |
| BCBG25 wrote: |
He'll bring awareness to MLS, no doubt about that. The type of publicity many sports league can only dream of. BUT...in his prime he was nothing special and he doesn't have now the kind of conditioning he had then. So what this amounts to is that he'll reinforce the bad image Americans already have of football, that of an inferior sport. People will be sold on his being the best player in the world only to be disapoointed when they watch the real deal. When he starts playing and has absolutely no impact in the game, which is all he's done for 4 years, then people will have yet another reason to diss football. Heck, Pel, the greatest ever, couldn't make football work in the US (not to mention Beckembauer played there, too).
One of the things that attract people to football and Americans can't understand is the aesthetics of the game. The beautiful plays that don't result in goals, but capture the imagination of fans around the world. Pel was most famous for incredible goals he didn't make, like the ones against Uruguay in the 1970 World Cup just because he did the impossible to even create those goal opportunities so much so the goal was a mere detail. Becks doesn't have the improvisation skills of Ronaldinho, the genius of Zidane or the killer instinct of Drogba or even Eto'o.
He's the equivalent of paying top dollar for a fantastic FT shooter. But he's a damn good product, that's for sure.
BTW, this is a great video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Pbbs94EhA |
Why don't you collect your objections and send them over? Sounds like you have a good piece here. |
A good piece? Let me correct myself. That's some brilliant shit right there. |
Hey, this is too heavy for me. I just think he's hot. I've been meaning to check out a soccer game. Now, I have an excuse. Forgive me for having a shallow moment._________________ (¯`v´¯
`*.¸.*´
¸.•´¸.•*¨ ¸.•*¨
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•.•´*~Smoov |
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luvDhoops
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
Posts: 8229
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| Posted: 01/12/07 9:42 am ::: |
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| I've always had this fear that if soccer actually becomes the next big sport in this country as many are pushing for, we can then expect to see even fewer WNBA games on tv. They would be replaced by soccer. I'm I being overly paranoid or is there some validity to that in the new tv deal MLS just signed and the addition of Beck to the league here?
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