Sex sells better than soccer in America.
Which explains why David Beckham will make big bucks to lace up his boots and let down his hair in the MLS.
But anyone who truly loves soccer and wants to see the sport grow in the United States must wonder if a pro league that plays us for star-struck fools really has a smart long-term strategy.
How many folks on Denver’s 16th Street Mall know or care the Rapids are in first place?
I bet it’s not as many as the celebrity worshippers who can recite the only big score from this MLS season that really matters:
Beckham and his wife, the lovely former Miss Posh Spice, have bought a $22 million, 13,000-square foot mansion in Beverly Hills.
“I think you have maybe another 30 players in the world who could be better players than Beckham, and he would not be my first choice as a player,” Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo said Wednesday.
Here’s the deal. Beckham is not Michael Jordan or Tom Brady or Tiger Woods in soccer cleats. His fame is bigger than his game.
“The whole entertainment side of David Beckham catches the eye more than the soccer player,” Rapids and U.S. national team star Pablo Mastroeni said. “I guarantee when he comes over, people are going to wonder why he isn’t scoring three or four goals a game.”
Now perhaps you begin to understand why it was such a gamble to wreck the salary structure of a still-
emerging league to overpay Beckham to move to Los Angeles and be America soccer’s new pinup boy, a job that was obviously too big for teenager Freddy Adu.
The danger goes far beyond the fact Beckham’s guaranteed annual compensation of $6.5 million is more than 50 times the average MLS salary.
While the Rapids try to sell their Colorado fan base on the intrigue of facing Real Salt Lake in a home game tonight, the league has essentially told America nothing really matters until Beckham arrives this summer. Do the games even officially count in the standings before Posh lands in California and sings the national anthem?
“At this point in the league, any news is good news. Unfortunately, that’s how it goes,” Mastroeni said.
“Until soccer becomes something that’s talked about at the dinner table, and not just in one household, but in thousands of households across the country every day, David Beckham is going to be the highlight.”
OK, true confession: Although I wouldn’t be caught dead in a minivan, here’s one middle-age American guy who loves soccer. Which is my way of saying all those old stereotypes of what drives the sport’s appeal in the USA are wilting quicker than orange slices in the noon sun.
The Colorado soccer fan has grown sophisticated enough to know that Beckham is no longer the equal of Cristiano Ronaldo any more than Jake Plummer was John Elway.
“The Beckham mania could be the start of what we’re looking for,” said Clavijo, who supports any idea that could spread soccer passion across America. “If you talked about Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, at least 90 percent of the people in America would not know he is. Then, you name Beckham, and everyone in America knows immediately. He’s a heck of a player. But it’s not only the player who’s coming to America, it’s the whole marketing package.”
Rather than buying a chunk of Arsenal from the English Premiership, local sports magnate Stan Kroenke could have a much greater impact on American soccer by investing in salaries that might keep stars such as Bobby Convey, Clint Dempsey and DaMarcus Beasley playing professionally on their home turf.
Just as Freddy did until the teen phenom became much Adu about nothing, Beckham will sell tickets. For a year. Then, don’t be surprised if U.S. soccer is again asking: Now what?
“He will do tremendous as far as helping the league’s marketing plan. But Beckham will have a very complicated professional soccer player’s life, because it will not be that easy for him,” Clavijo said.
In the United States, where fame for fame’s sake can’t keep even Paris Hilton out of trouble forever, it takes more than looking sexy in an Armani suit for a soccer player to become a true superstar.
Having dressed up Beckham, the MLS is betting you and I cannot tell the difference between sizzle and substance.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
