David Beckham is waving goodbye to his home across the Atlantic Ocean and joining the super capitalist capital of the world. The USA. I sure would say he is exercising his freedom to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, if that includes lots of money.
Reports are that he is receiving $250 mil for 5 years to come play in our low standard professional soccer league. As true as that may be, lets hold on just one second before we red card Major League Soccer. The curious, investigative part of me decided that it was financially impossible for a league like the MLS to pay one player that much. Heck, the free spending Major League Baseball teams don't even think about $250 mil for 5 years.
So just how is MLS managing this? Or, how is the LA Galaxy managing this? Well, I have read confirmed MLS offical reports that he is being paid only 8 or 9 million dollars a year from the MLS/Galaxy. (I know we could do the whole discussion about the amount of money professional athletes make is not fair. But let's take the "only" in a relative sense for the sake of this blog)
Ok, sounds interesting but there is still alot of money unaccounted for, right? Endorsements. Think about how huge LeBron James' contract would have been with the inclusion of endorsements, or Micheal Jordan? What about Derek Jeter or A Rod? The inclusion of the amount of mula James would get from endorsements would be negative attention, "How can this kid be getting this much money?" The Beckham paycheck may not get people excited for his financial gain. But it sure does get attention. Espically for people who only follow sports like baseball where huge contracts are the entertainment of the off-season. I'd say it is a win-win for Beckham and MLS. I wouldn't care where the money came from if I am Beckham and MLS is getting a high-profile player that will surely get some primetime ESPN or ABC. As far as the endorsers, I suppose they will get their money back through sales, I don't really know or care.
Yes it is alot of money. Yes Beckham is winning by gaining it, and as a soccer fan, hopefully the MLS will win too.
All my info came from the article "Debunking the Myth of Beckham's Contract" by Jen Chang
2 comments:
Wow, Don Meredith's class must have been very influential. You're citing your research source in you blog....although, i think Don might have some red ink for your lack of appropriate turabian usage.
Speaking of Turabian, Strunk, and White . . . you misspelled "moola" (you can also spell it "moolah"). You also misspelled "especially" as "Espically" which is now my new favorite word.
Great post! I had no idea about this. You might be interested in knowing that a few years back (I think it was 2000) Beckham wouldn't come out to Australia with his team (Manchester United) to play the Australian Roos, the national team. Man-U dominated espically well without Beckham anyway. ;-)
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