FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Great blog. Beckham is clearly gone. He desperately wants to break the English CAPS record (which I believe he is tied for the lead at 108) and he wants one more shot at glory with the Three Lions in the 2010 World Cup.

He can still play and so far has looked good for Milan. He needs to stay over there, stay closer to the manager Capello and perform in a much higher rated league in Serie A. His chances of making the English squad is infinitely better there.

Also, if Milan wants their man they are going to pay to keep him. The MLS needs to take the money for the Beckham transfer and invest it in the betterment of their product.

QUOTE(#1):

Originally posted 12:28 PM ET  01.30 by J. HOVA: BROOKLYN

Great blog. Beckham is clearly gone. He desperately wants to break the English CAPS record (which I believe he is tied for the lead at 108) and he wants one more shot at glory with the Three Lions in the 2010 World Cup.He can still play and so far has looked good for Milan. He needs to stay over there, stay closer to the manager Capello and perform in a much higher rated league in Serie A. His chances of making the English squad is infinitely better there.Also, if Milan wants their man they are going to pay to keep him. The MLS needs to take the money for the Beckham transfer and invest it in the betterment of their product.

Very good point... I hadn't taken into account how close he is to breaking the record. But he is farther away than you think, J. Hova. He is one behind Bobby Moore, 108-107 -- but two more caps for Beckham would only put him in SECOND place. The all-time England record is 125 caps by Peter Shilton, the well-traveled club goalkeeper who manned the goal from 1970-1990...

I also agree that Beckham's money can be much better spent... for what all the incentives would've provided, the league can personally go out and buy TWO elite players for EVERY squad... but that, too, is not the right tact...

QUOTE:

Originally posted by

Yeah, he's gone. Beckham is not Pele, never was - never will be. Apples and oranges. But MLS tried to market him like he was. Problem is, Becks and Donovan (who is also doing well in Germany and will hopefully stay there) cannot be a 2-man team, and the Galaxy were mediocre and borderline awful at times. Hopefully the MLS will learn from this experience, and realize their true place in the soccer world of today. Importing South American stars who may not be so well known - but bring in more latino fans - is one example of how they can better their product and bring in more fans without the media spectacle (and ultimate failure) of bringing in a player like Beckham. The MLS IS better for David having come here in the first place. He definitely raised the awareness of the MLS in sports fans here and abroad. However, its run its course and has gone as far as it can go at this point. Good luck to him in Italy. As for everything else (Victoria, Inside Edition, blah, blah blah) - good riddance.

This is where I, too, think the money can be best spent. With the Hispanic population the fastest-growing population of the United States, there is a burgeoning and ballooning market for quality soccer in this country. Everyone knows that MLS will never be the Serie A or EPL or Primera Liga... but it CAN be the equal of leagues in Mexico and points south. There is certainly enough money to create a strong core of teams that would easily rival South American squads. The talent is there, and can be developed at a premium for export. All MLS has to do is come to grips with the realization that they will never be the equal of top European leagues. However, their squads can progressively develop, through INTELLIGENT investment and a gradual and sustained increase in the quality of play, into teams which could challenge those clubs on occasion in the Club World Cup and other international competitions... and could regularly challenge for continental and intercontinental honors with other leagues from CONCACAF and CONMEBOL...

Bigalke - do you think that the development of MLS could be hastened by the system of having tiered leagues where the worst performers in one league would be assigned to a lower tier the following season (with a similar promotion to a higher tier for teams winning championships in a league)?

And is there not a bootstrap system at work here. If the US can be successful at creating better and better soccer leagues, might they not be able eventually to challenge the best European leagues.

(I am reminded of how the fledgling AFL took on the established NFL and won SUper Bowl III.)

Okay, my voice is returning after that gasp of helium.
Obviously soccer is not something I follow very closely, but I think from what I've read, that Beckham is more comfortable compeating against the worlds best than in the U.S.
He has plenty of ego and that is where is adored. He has enough money that it really isn't an issue for him and removes it from his decision.
So yes, I believe he is gone.
As far as the U.S and I guess Canada soccer programs...I do know that soccer has gained enormous strides in Canada with thousands upon thousands of kids signing up every year. I don't know if the U.S is similar in this development or not. In the end, I think that Soccer can be a fun game and I always did enjoy playing it as a youngster myself.
In time, it will catch on more in North America. I have always felt that fans are attracted to what they know and have played as kids. That's why I think that Soccer is on the upswing here but it is still a good 5-10 years out from making a serious impact.

QUOTE(#5):

Originally posted 05:03 PM ET  02.01 by Appleseed

Bigalke - do you think that the development of MLS could be hastened by the system of having tiered leagues where the worst performers in one league would be assigned to a lower tier the following season (with a similar promotion to a higher tier for teams winning championships in a league)?And is there not a bootstrap system at work here. If the US can be successful at creating better and better soccer leagues, might they not be able eventually to challenge the best European leagues.(I am reminded of how the fledgling AFL took on the established NFL and won SUper Bowl III.)

Let me take these one at a time:

First, I think that a promotion/relegation system would offer teams incentive. The problem with a lot of American sports is that an owner of a professional team has little incentive beyond ego, altruism or fanaticism to build a winner. Even losing teams rarely dip too far into the red to no longer be viable. The incentive at work here would be the diminished revenues which come with lower division status. However, I don't know that this would work with MLS. Because they work under a single-entity system, the MLS franchises are literally that -- franchises. There is little autonomy of the clubs, and I would bet few owners would agree with such a system. Why? Precisely because it would force them to be so proactive...

Were they to be proactive, I believe that there would be an elevated level of play... to an extent. The problem in the United States is not that the potential is lacking, but rather the funding. Even with the growth of soccer and MLS in America, it is wholly unlikely that it is about to topple either the NFLs or the EPLs and Serie As of the sports world. That is not to say that quality cannot and will not improve; rather, it states that there will always be the core group of a dozen or so clubs (give or take) in the top European leagues that will always be gluttonous for the world's top talent. MLS, in its current state, is hardly set up to fund the salary of a Cristiano Ronaldo, a Kaka, a Zlatan Ibrahimovic... the reason the Beckham acquisition worked is because he was, at the time of signing, washed up in the eyes of those top dozen clubs. Now that he's proven he's not yet done in his stint with Milan, the big boys have their eyes open again...

The problem, also, is that unlike the NFL/AFL example you use in what was quite the insightful comment, there is the matter of competing for fan interest in wholly different markets. The European powers have had decades to build their leagues to the globalized point they enjoy today. Further, intercontinental competitions like the UEFA Champions League provide an annual forum for those top clubs to duke it out with one another. MLS is competing more against the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL... and even NCAA sports and other fledgling leagues such as the NLL more than it is with the Premiership or Primera Liga. Until MLS can prove that it has the potential to take market share in North America from their domestic competitors, it will never be strong enough to challenge overseas leagues and clubs...

QUOTE(#6):

Originally posted 01:13 AM ET  02.02 by Baun-ded=PUCKHEAD

Okay, my voice is returning after that gasp of helium.Obviously soccer is not something I follow very closely, but I think from what I've read, that Beckham is more comfortable compeating against the worlds best than in the U.S.He has plenty of ego and that is where is adored. He has enough money that it really isn't an issue for him and removes it from his decision. So yes, I believe he is gone. As far as the U.S and I guess Canada soccer programs...I do know that soccer has gained enormous strides in Canada with thousands upon thousands of kids signing up every year. I don't know if the U.S is similar in this development or not. In the end, I think that Soccer can be a fun game and I always did enjoy playing it as a youngster myself. In time, it will catch on more in North America. I have always felt that fans are attracted to what they know and have played as kids. That's why I think that Soccer is on the upswing here but it is still a good 5-10 years out from making a serious impact.

Beckham seems to be one of those types of players that plays either up or down based on the level of his competition. He was not, and at this point in his career never will be, the type of player who is a men amongst boys -- something that MLS misguidedly wished he would be. We've already seen his form quickly return with his Italian sojourn...

Regarding American and Canadian soccer, the sport continues to blossom at the youth levels... but as of yet, few inroads have been made to channel that young talent into productive adult players. It is a fun game both to play and to watch; however, decades of stigma attached to it within American sports society has not been countered enough to see substantive growth...

But as I said in the article, with a booming growth in the Hispanic population, the figures become more and more skewed in favor of professional soccer growth. I would be heartened to think that it will be a mere decade until the MLS becomes more than a niche market for sports fans in the U.S. and Canada, but assessing things pragmatically I believe it will be a couple of decades. By 2030, though, I wholeheartedly believe that MLS will be right there with at least hockey and basketball in terms of viewers and revenues...

So at least we have that to look forward to!

Thanks for you in-depth reply, Bigalke. Your comments make sense to me.

And get with new generations of larger groups of hockey and soccer kids growing up, I can't help but feel that both hockey and soccer will end up with bigger shares of the (possibly bigger) sports market - slowly to be sure.