A Perfectly Cromulent Blog

Ballyhoo it like Beckham

Get used to this pose, Galaxy fans:

The amount of coverage given to Beckham joining the L.A. Galaxy is pretty hilarious. Admittedly, I'm glad we're hearing about someone who's actually accomplished something - 58-time English national team captain; only English player to score in three World Cups; played on the 1998-99 ManU team that won the treble (Premier League, F.A. Cup, Champions League) - other than the usual rotation of Hilton/Lohan/Spears.

And he's a better role model than Michael Vick.

But he's also 32 years old. He's not part of the "new direction" of England's team and though Real Madrid finally won a title in the final year of his contract, he didn't play much. He was responsible for a 137% increase in merchandising profits, however, and that's going to be his biggest contribution in L.A. I don't know that anyone is expecting the Galaxy to win the MLS Cup based solely on Beckham's signing, but the owners are already enjoying a healthy boost in jerseys. More importantly, it's another advance on the ongoing battle to increase soccer's popularity in the U.S.

Much of the Beckham coverage to this point has trumpeted how he's finally going to make soccer a marquee sport - something earlier imports Pele and Franz Beckenbauer were unable to do in the '70s. And yet, as this on-target BBC story puts it, it may not be necessary. More to the point, I don't think it addresses the right symptom.

Soccer is already the most popular sport in America...for kids. This was almost the case back in the '70s when I played. And even then, we were told how soccer would be the biggest sport in the U.S. RealSoonNow. And with the visibility brought by hosting the World Cup in '94 and airing all the MLS games, to say nothing of the enthusiasm brought by transplants from south of the border, the sport's popularity has never been higher.

But coverage of Beckham's arrival ignores the gap between youth league enthusiasm and professional paycheck, and it'll always lag behind the Big 3 until the following issues are addressed:

+ Football, basketball, and baseball remain the major scholarship sports in college
+ The best American players go overseas, and foreign players in their prime don't want to come here
+ The U.S. team sucks in the World Cup
+ American networks can't solve soccer's lack of breaks. This last World Cup allowed advertisers to sponsor chunks of games, but it's still going to be unattractive compared to other sports, which go out of their way to stretch 60 minutes of playing time to three and a half hours
+ Drop the Beckham Cam - soccer, like hockey, is a sport where you need to see the whole field to watch plays develop

I like soccer well enough (though not enough to call it football, which I realize puts me in the global minority). I'll watch a decent Premier League or World Cup match, even if the players' incessant flopping makes even the most exciting games nigh unwatchable (makes it a lot like basketball, come to think of it), and I think it'd be great if America enjoyed the same global dominance as it does in baseball basketball uh...beach volleyball, but we're not there yet.

And while I'm enjoying the saturation bombing-style coverage of the Beckham Invasion (which will likely drop off now that they've lost their first game with him), I'd remind him that Houston's own Dynamo are still the reigning MLS Cup champions.