The Sports Rumors

David Beckham. MLS. Over-hyped.

Obviously, the guy is here now. The savior of soccer is here in the U.S. Beckham-Mania is in full effect.

I’m not buying into the hype though. I’m not buying into Beckham. I’m not going to get excited about an over the hill European star who decided to come to the paparazzi capital of the world with his snotty looking wife. I’m not going to run out and buy Beckham jerseys because quite frankly, I think this whole thing is going to be a dud. Here’s why:

The argument has been made that Beckham coming to the states will open up the floodgates for more stars to come here and play in the MLS. That’s an “if-then” statement though, and a major if-then at that. If Beckham does GREAT here, then yes, possibly some European players will venture over here to give it a shot. Even if they do come, and when I say ‘they’, I’m not talking about all the superstars from Europe. I’m talking about a few more over the hill stars, or potential stars coming here. Why would stars leave an area like South America or Europe where soccer, without question, is the number one sport viewed and relished by the public? Why would they leave that to come to where soccer wouldn’t even crack the top 4 of major sports. Let me remind you, incase you forgot, what sports soccer would compete with for attention.

1. National Football League (August-February, not even counting the Draft)

2. Major League Baseball (Pretty much all year)

3. National Basketball Association (October-June)

4. NASCAR (All year)

They would be competing with the NHL’s and the WNBA’s and even Golf. So don’t think for a second that European players are dumb enough to leave the money, the fame, and the glory to come to a country that doesn’t know the first thing about soccer, and to a country that would only pay attention to soccer by the masses if nothing else was on TV. Do you think soccer, during a Pennant race would stand a chance with ratings or fan turnout? People from Chicago, New York or other major markets would go to an MLS game over a baseball game when their team is doing well? I think not. Do you think soccer would stand a chance against the NBA playoffs? Do you think soccer would even get on the map in the south where NASCAR is king? No. It wouldn’t. And this is all ASSUMING that Beckham does phenomenal here in the states and draws more stars in the coming years. I’m not talking about today. I’m talking about 5 years from now. Let’s not forget that NASCAR is growing rapidly in their popularity. That’s why the common sports fan can name players like Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. So you can bring a couple of stars over from Europe and have them play in the states. That’s all fine and dandy but don’t expect for soccer to break the top four any time soon.

“Well I’m not talking about cracking the top four sports and becoming that popular. I’m just talking about how Beckham will make the sport, the league better than before.”

That’s a valid statement. But what I’m saying is the hype that he has gotten is the hype that you expect for someone to really make a MAJOR impact on the landscape of a sport that still has contingencies to other major sports. Meaning, Lebron James’ hype was real and valid because his impact on the sport, on Nike, the landscape of sports was enormous. If all this hype for Mr.Beckham is to make the sport “better than before” but not shoot soccer up on the chart of most watched or most profitable sports, then I’m adamantly say that its overdone, over-hyped, overrated, over-whatever. And let me again, remind you, this is all considering the best case scenario in which Beckham thrives in the states.

What if he doesn’t play well? What if he gets injured?

“Oh well what-ifs apply in anything. You can’t think that way”. Yes, I can think that way. I know what-ifs apply in anything, but they are there for a reason. Because they HAPPEN. You can’t just assume the best. Hope for the best, plan for the worst is what wise people do to avoid complete disarray when things don’t go their way. So now let’s assume Beckham has a bad season or a bad injury. What spin does the MLS put on it then? Are you still going to attract the stars from Europe? Not a chance. So basically, the hype, the publicity, the mass advertising of Beckham is all based on assumption that he does great. Well, I hate to be Debbie Downer but if he fails, you’ve set your league back years.

“So what are you saying, don’t bring in a David Beckham?”

No, I’m not saying don’t bring him in. I’m saying this hype is unjustified in my opinion and I feel that he will not live up to the expectations.

One more thing before I close this topic.

I brought up the fact that Beckham isn’t a prolific scorer. He’s not the Kobe Bryant or Allen Iverson of soccer where he’s just knocking goals in left and right. I asked a good friend of mine who is a source of a lot of accurate knowledge about his take on Beckham as a player. He said to think of Beckham as Steve Nash; a facilitator.

Will being a facilitator be enough for people who are tuning into MLS for the first time? I don’t think so. I think when people will tune in to see Beckham, they are going to want to see him do either one of two things:

a) Score goals, or

b) Facilitate and create opportunities for teammates which will lead to them scoring WELL beyond the league average. Meaning they score 4 or 5 goals as opposed to the average of say, 2 or 3.

If Beckham can successfully complete option “b”, then people will stay interested (but still not interested enough to justify the hype or put soccer over the top four sports mind you). If Beckham does lead his team to high scoring games, then yes, he is a facilitator like Nash.

However, if he does not, then he is not a Steve Nash. He’s a Stephon Marbury. Steve Nash facilitates, yes. Steve Nash also leads his team to be the highest scoring team in the league two years running and teams where Nash has played on in the past 5 years have been in the top three scoring ALL FIVE YEARS. So Beckham had better make sure that one way or another, that ball gets in the net and it gets their quite frequently because Americans don’t have the patience to watch low scoring games; not even baseball. (Baseball tweaked many rules to make it more high scoring. That’s why you don’t see 1-0 games that often anymore, for those of you who were going to try and take that angle at me).

“Of course he won’t raise scores, it doesn’t work like that in soccer. You watch to see a good player make magic.”

In the rest of the world: True

United States: False.

Tim Duncan, magical player, doesn’t interest anyone outside of San Antonio. Baltimore Ravens defense of a few years ago, magical, one of the best ever. NFL responds by changing rules to make the games higher scoring because guess what? People didn’t care. And I already mentioned the MLB. I hate to be the barer of bad news but magic in the United States IS high scores. Low scoring NFL games don’t draw ratings. Low scoring Basketball games don’t draw ratings. Low scoring Baseball games don’t draw ratings. Low scoring soccer games with Beckham playing or not, well, I’ll let you finish the sentence.

(Don’t fool yourself into thinking saving the MLS was on Beckham’s mind when he decided to come here. You’re smarter than that.)