Beckham

Soccer has taken a place in the sports consciousness in the United States with the arrival of David Beckham. Beckham is widely considered the most popular athlete in the most popular sport in the world. He garners world-wide attention and his face is known on all continents.

His contract with the MLS LA Galaxy including incentives based on team and league revenues totals a staggering $250 million over 5 years. Consider this, Alex Rodriguez' massive contract that hamstrung the Texas Rangers into trading him to the Yankees was signed for $252 million over 10 years. Is Beckham worth DOUBLE A-Rod? Is Beckham even half as recognizable in this country as A-Rod?

Of course there are reasons outside of on-field (pitch) production that factor into why the MLS and LA Galaxy have put all of their chips into the Beckham basket. The world's most popular game is the 6th or 7th most popular sport in America behind Football, Baseball, Basketball, NASCAR, hockey and possibly Mixed Martial Arts. Granted, the initial impact has been incredible. People are talking about soccer, there is a buzz. Mrs. Beckham has a reality TV show about their move to Los Angeles. Ticket sales all over the league are up and A-list celebrities turned out to watch his debut game - a game that didn't even count.

The real question is how he will impact the game in the long-term. If this all sounds familiar its because its been done in this country before.

History tells us that he will simply be a blip on the radar of American sports. As big a name as Beckham is world-wide, there is none bigger than Pele. The single most recognizable name in the history of soccer came to the United States to launch professional soccer into the public consciousness in the 1970s. In 1975, a 35 year old (Beckham is 32) Pele signed with the New York Cosmos and played out the final 3 years of his majestic and unparalleled career. The league drew as many as 73,000+ fans for the 1978 Championship game and during Pele's run, the Cosmos drew more than 40,000 fans per game. By 1984 the league was defunct, largely due to many of the other teams drawing less than 5,000 fans per game.

Granted, there are some differences between the two men, not the least of which is Pele came out of retirement to join the Cosmos and Beckham is coming off a season in which he led Real Madrid to the Italian League Championship. That said, David Beckham is a mid-fielder. His game is not to score goals. He could play a spectacular game and not score or even set-up a goal if his teammates can't finish. In a society that worships dunks, home runs and touchdowns, is there room for a megastar whose greatest asset is his passing ability?