Beckham 'to leave Real in summer'

[ak47]

the avg crowd in the USA league is 15,000 people

Thats similar to the A-League crowds in Australian Soccer

For a nation with approx 300 million - its not a good look...but thats soccer for ya in the USA

The league scrapped some cap to let LA lure him....

I dont know how this is profitable....if they think 1 man can change the game, and boost its profile they are clearly wrong, as already tried with much better players in Pele and Maradonna.

They can say Soccer is growing....but whats the point if its not growing any faster than Basketball, NFL, Baseball, NHL.

If its not taking any sports market share from the US sports its a slow rotting inevitability of nothing.

Becks can if he wants, make a Hollywood move upon retirement....
TBH i'd rather see him in a locks stock type of film than Day After Tomorrow 2 or King Kong 4.

He shoulda stayed home..........perhaps the new face of Burger King is too luring

 

[An Tarbh]

well if someone like Beckham can get $1 million a week then surely the huge numbers that are playing soccer at an underage level will continue to do so. Money is the only way to increase the profile in the US.

The league in the 70s had players at the end of their playing days which was never really going to work. The world cup would have had a much greater impact and probably did considering the underage numbers now playing.

 

[O'Rothlain]

Soccer is growing here. I mean, I played soccer instead of little league baseball...that wasn't even an option when my dad was a kid. He had no clue how to give me advice on what to do except play hard. Now, when my children play, I'll have advice for them...and so on and so on. It is increasing but on a generational scale, not a n every year scale. What Beckham can do is increase the desire for kids to continue playing soccer instead of switching into contact sports like football or hockey (hockey btw has grown immensly here).
I do think Becks motive for being here is hollywood and his wife rather than sporting greatness. Sadly, though, like I origionally said, people don't know who he is on a large scale. Occasionally he makes it as a honorable mention in a tabloid, but only like "Britains celeb couple Posh and Beck's purchased a home for 30 million dollars" I watched a news clip on BBC where they were showing his picture to people on the streets and none of the people had a clue. For the true american soccer fans, this will be huge. He will draw larger crowds to all the LA Games. Whatever it is, it's making him a load of money and he's living in the land of overindulgence. His wife will get skinnier (because that's what they do in LA) and his kids will get fat (because that's what they do in the states).

 

[An Tarbh]

Tough times ahead for the Beckhams then and considering this $250 million is the conceivable maximum that he can make if everything doesn't fall nicely into place then poor David and co could be on the breadline sooner than we think.

 

[Bullitt]

Oh dear, they'll only have the combined £250m in the back that they own...

 

[An Tarbh]

terrible f***ing luck some people have

 

[Bullitt]

:lol:

 

[getofmeland]

Oh dear, they'll only have the combined £250m in the back that they own... [/b]

Well I am catching them up with my £250 in the bank

Only need to add a couple or few zeros to the mine and I am there!!!

 

[DC]

Soccer is growing here. I mean, I played soccer instead of little league baseball...that wasn't even an option when my dad was a kid. He had no clue how to give me advice on what to do except play hard. Now, when my children play, I'll have advice for them...and so on and so on. It is increasing but on a generational scale, not a n every year scale. What Beckham can do is increase the desire for kids to continue playing soccer instead of switching into contact sports like football or hockey (hockey btw has grown immensly here).
I do think Becks motive for being here is hollywood and his wife rather than sporting greatness. Sadly, though, like I origionally said, people don't know who he is on a large scale. Occasionally he makes it as a honorable mention in a tabloid, but only like "Britains celeb couple Posh and Beck's purchased a home for 30 million dollars" I watched a news clip on BBC where they were showing his picture to people on the streets and none of the people had a clue. For the true american soccer fans, this will be huge. He will draw larger crowds to all the LA Games. Whatever it is, it's making him a load of money and he's living in the land of overindulgence. His wife will get skinnier (because that's what they do in LA) and his kids will get fat (because that's what they do in the states).
[/b]

I played soccer and baseball until i was 11 or 12, ill tell you what i was pretty damn good at soccer.. if i had lived in england i'd be in the acadamies now, but i soon lost interest in it and focused more on baseball, which i was really good at until high school when i have made the team but quit because i had to split time at 2nd base with the coaches kid :%#%#: :ranting: :rahh:

 

[An Tarbh]

bloody nepotists :rahh:

 

[O'Rothlain]

I played soccer and baseball until i was 11 or 12, ill tell you what i was pretty damn good at soccer.. if i had lived in england i'd be in the acadamies now, but i soon lost interest in it and focused more on baseball...
[/b]

Exactly...we'd have some superstars if they didn't leave soccer for other sports. Same with Rugby...if it was given the attention Football is in our country we'd be unstopable. Those small towns in the south and midwest eat, live, and breath high school football...imagine if that were rugby.

 

[gjohn85]

Thank **** Beckham has left for the US, just hope that knob stays out of the papers over here.
I know is a good player, but overrated as hell.
Money grabbing b**tard.

 

[An Tarbh]

that would be one of my worries alright, think the UK media will always be obsessed with him, hasn't stopped with him being in Spain so I don't see the States making any difference. I just hope the tv companies don't start wasting money on showing MLS.

 

[The TRUTH]

<div class='quotemain'>
I played soccer and baseball until i was 11 or 12, ill tell you what i was pretty damn good at soccer.. if i had lived in england i'd be in the acadamies now, but i soon lost interest in it and focused more on baseball...
[/b]

Exactly...we'd have some superstars if they didn't leave soccer for other sports. Same with Rugby...if it was given the attention Football is in our country we'd be unstopable. Those small towns in the south and midwest eat, live, and breath high school football...imagine if that were rugby.
[/b][/quote]

I can imagine

I mean you just have to look at your national Basketball,Baseball and Hockey teams..... UNSTOPPABLE!

 

[Bullitt]

that would be one of my worries alright, think the UK media will always be obsessed with him, hasn't stopped with him being in Spain so I don't see the States making any difference. I just hope the tv companies don't start wasting money on showing MLS. [/b]

ITV proberbly will. They do that sort of thing; Remember when Nigel Mansell moved to Indycar?

 

[getofmeland]

Well he's been told he will never play for real again!!!

Which I think is fair enough after seeing that press conference

 

[An Tarbh]

and it's a perfect excuse for Capello who has never really rated Beckham and hasn't picked him this season anyways, he might be on his way sooner rather than later.

 

[187]

so does this make beckham the highest paid sportsman? coz last time i checked, a couple of months ago he was 3rd, schumacker 2nd and tiger woods was 1st.

 

[An Tarbh]

Well they were saying last year that Tiger will probably become the first billion dollar sportsman, even with his $250 million over his contract, Beckham will still have a fair way to go even taking into consideration his earnings so far.

 

[Canadian_Rugger]

One thing must be understood about American sport and especially about the MLS. The league is owned by a bunch of billionaires with very deep pockets. For example LA Galaxy is owned by a company called AEG which also owns two other teams in the MLS: Houston Dynamo, and the Chicago Fire. The company has already said they don't care if they lose money on this investment initially because to them this is only going to strengthen the league in the long run. They are hoping to see attendance boosts at all 3 of the teams that they own and they think the league will benefit immensely from this adventure.

The MLS is also going in the right direction by building smaller stadiums specifically designed for soccer which seat between 15 and 25 thousand people. The new BMO field which will be the home of Toronto FC is a prime example of this. The League is solidified now and they have a solid base to grow from.

Soccer: as we in North America call it, is the fastest growing sport in North America. In Canada for example, there are more youth playing soccer now then there are playing hockey. This tremendous growth has seen soccer jump into the limelight. I think part of this has to do with the fact that it is cheap to play and also because anyone can play the sport. Sports like Hockey and Football draw from a select group of people and not everyone is cut out to play these sports. I know in Canada hockey is very expensive to play and a lot of focus now is being placed on high performance and if you want to play at a high level you have to commit a lot of money and time to doing so. In Ice Hockey players have gotten bigger, no longer can you be a small man and hope to make it anywhere playing the sport. Everyone playing has to be a 6'4 230lb brusier to be of any significance. Soccer is not like this because anyone can pick up a ball and play which is one of the main reasons it so popular over here.

One other factor I think nobody is considering is the huge immigrant population we have over here in North America. If you goto Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto the whiteman is a minority in those cities. Some of the groups living in these cities come from nations with a strong following in Soccer. These groups are the ones really pushing the development of soccer.

I personally believe that in the next 20 years you are all going to see major changes to the soccer scene in North America. It is growing very fast and rapidly and with the amount of money that is thrown around in North American sport I think you will see stronger more competitive teams emerging from this side of the ocean and the awakening of the giant.