David Stern who?

The MLS is coming to Seattle! The MLS is coming to Seattle! Hey! Ho!

I'm thrilled.

I've also been away from blogging for so long that I'm embarrassed. Here's a truism: Being away gathers momentum of a sort. Here's another: The election is over. I've worked insanely in the last five weeks as campaigns gathered steam. Now, I'm planning to work less insanely.

But, soccer! Soccer!

Re: Beckham

I'm a little bit sick of all this Beckham mania. Frankly, I'm more excited about Juan Pablo Angel coupling with Jozy Altidore in New York than I am about anything else MLS related this year.

This is where I come down, though:
1) Non-soccer fans over the age of 15 will never be rabid soccer fans.
2) Therefore, marketing efforts targeted exclusively at those people are misguided.
3) Most soccer fans in the USA do not follow the MLS, but instead European leagues.
4) Marketing efforts that target those soccer fans are good ideas.
5) Beckham is a great player. If he helps the quality of the league, and helps make it more socially acceptable for other European stars to join the MLS, then he's worth every penny.
6) Beckham is a great media personality. Eh. That doesn't matter. Non-soccer fans over the age of 15 might watch a few games, but they'll never stick.

Game on. I'm taping it, but that's because it is Chelsea. Joe Cole!

USA Soccer

What Gooch did in the Premiership, stalling at Newcastle, so might Freddy Adu do in the MLS. He moved from DC United, a stellar franchise with an excellent coaching staff, to Real Salt Lake before the beginning of this season.

Here's a depressing exchange from Steven Goff's blog (Washington Post soccer writer):

Q. Do you think Adu has the potential to develop into a starter on an elite club?
A: By elite, do you mean Premiership, La Liga, etc.? No.

Pressed further, Goff finishes a little more optimistically: "At the moment, Freddy is a good, but not great, MLS player. Good MLS players don't become starters in Europe's top leagues. Maybe he'll show something this year, but right now, he is not a top-flight Euro player."

But still. This feels like a dangerous moment for the future of USA soccer. A month ago, Marvell Wynne, the USA's 20-year-old answer to Ashley Cole, was sold by the NY/NJ Metrostars (or Red Bull, or something). Normally, that wouldn't mean much. The Metrostars have been an awful franchise. But, they just brought on Bruce Arena. And if Arena cannot make Wynne work, I fear no MLS coach can.

All that said, I think the crashing constellations of American football are buffered by some good news. Josi Altidore, also of the Metrostars/Red Bull (or whatever), has looked good in the two games I have seen him. If anything, he reminds me of Schevy -- a goal scorer who seems slow, and never particularly dangerous, and who seems to succeed almost in spite of himself.

Also, the quality of the MLS in general is surprising. I've been taping Thursday night games on ESPN2, and while there are undoubtedly stretches of brutal soccer, there are also moments of absolute class. So, you know, keep your head up, America.

More Beckham

Paul is rocking the casbah here at the Sports Sauna and I'm loving it. Big time. Always something good to read at the Sauna!

As my steroids treatise continues to gestate, I've just got a soccer-related tidbit.

Or, just more info about Beckham's contract, as written by Forbes.com, as appearing at Soccernet: "(Beckham's) five-year MLS deal, which gives him a cut of ticket sales and a 45% share of the take from sales of all Galaxy team jerseys, could be worth $250 million."

45 percent of jersey sales! Wow.

The Beckham contract continues to fascinate me. I love how the MLS is, in some sense, gambling with its future and it is happening before our eyes. We are accustomed to seeing businesses put their necks on the line, but I'm not aware of any sports equivalent to the MLS.

How do you attract attention? How do you fulfill a sense of obligation (develop American soccer) while also building a responsible business? How do you do it in a media culture that pays you no heed, and a sports world that gives you no respect?

Awesome stuff, MLS. Keep it up.

(In related news, I saw an annoucement for Thursday night MLS games on ESPN2HD all season long. Sweet!!!! commercials here).

Beckham

I am not a fan of Beckham's announced move to the MLS. He'll get a $250M contract for 5 years when he arrives this summer, the British press are reporting.

That's crazy.

The Washington Post -- which has the best soccer coverage in America -- published the salaries of every MLS player for the 2006 season. That list is here. Not counting Beckham, the league's highest paid player (Chivas's Mexican star Juan Francisco Palencia) makes $1.35M. The second highest paid player is Landon Donovan, who makes $900k. The Los Angeles Galaxy, Beckham's new team, had four players making $16,500 or less -- right about the federal poverty line. Beckham, by himself, will make more than any other team in 2007.

That's crazy.

Even ARod's legendary contract, the pinnacle of American professional sports greed, is $250M for 10 years. Beckham will make double that, if the reports are true. His contract will crush the league.

Insane.

I hope the size of the contract is incorrect, or the Galaxy have backloaded the contract so significantly that Beckham won't see all of the money, because I have no sense of how American soccer could sustain a pay structure like that.

Anyway. It's a good PR move -- for the next 48-hours at least. Bask in your glory, MLS. The regret will arrive soon.