Odds and Sods

Here is the caption on ESPN.com for Beckham’s arrival in the U.S.

The day MLS officials have been waiting for is here: David Beckham as front man for the LA Galaxy.  The English soccer star’s goal: to make soccer as popular in the U.S. as it is everywhere else in the world.

Writing often indicates more about the author than it does about the subject at hand.  This simple caption coined flippantly by an anonymous writer says much about how the United States’ media will shift this story to conform to a pre-set narrative, that Beckham will be a disappointment and a failure.

The first part of the sentence describes this as the that “MLS officials have been waiting for.”  The diction and tone implies that MLS has been steadily preparing for this day since its inception, and that all MLS activity has led to this pinnacle, which will make or break it (like the NASL with Pele).

MLS, in fact, has created a conservative, but most importantly stable, financial set-up.  They have been steadily attracting new investment, and moving teams into soccer-only facilities.  They have a nationally televised Thursday Night match on ESPN2 in HD.  Though not having the media coverage, most clubs have a solid base of support, with hardcore groups like The Screaming Eagles and La Barra Brave in Washington, Section 8 in Chicago, and Raging Bull Nation in New York arising organically.  Forming from nothing in a hostile environment, MLS is actually doing rather well for itself.

Beckham is neither the fruition of the league’s efforts nor a bellwether for its future success.  The league is doing fine for itself without him.  They brought him in not out of need, but because it makes financial sense.  Beckham, if not the most recognizeable athlete in the world, is at least in the top 5.  Anytime you can bring in a person like that, you do it, without question.  It’s similar to Tiger Woods with the PGA Tour.  The Tour does not need Tiger, but having him sure makes a lot of people a lot of money.  Beckham is there to attract interest and money, not make or break the league.

Looking at that caption again, David Beckham is the “front-man” for L.A. Galaxy.  He is not the midfielder or leading player, but the front-man.  This again portrays the implication that he is a rock-star rather than a legitimate athlete.  He is a showman without any substance.  The usual follow-up to this from American sportswriters is the whole “overrated” argument.  Yes, his star power is greater than his playing ability, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a very good player.  He just won the title in La Liga (depending on one’s taste the best league in the World) with Real Madrid (arguably the biggest club in the World).  Aston-Villa dumpee Juan Pablo Angel is now an MVP candidate in MLS, Beckham should be able to do pretty well on the pitch and live up to some of his hype.

There is his alleged goal as well “to make soccer as popular in the U.S. as it is everywhere else in the world.”  Why has this automatically been deemed by most of the American Sports Media as the benchmark for success?  Why does Beckham have to do the impossible and supplant over a hundred years of sports tradition in America to be successful?

He will not revolutionize the sporting culture in America.  What he will do is attract some who would not otherwise be interested in the sport, to see what it is all about.  He will cause a spike in attendance, viewership, and merchandise sales.  He will probably get them a better TV deal.  He will most likely increase the sport’s presence and highlight coverage on Sportscenter.  He will bring more sponsors, and more money into the league.  He has spawned scions and wannabe moguls throughout European football, so his experience might attract some more stars to come to the States and give it a go as well.  Those are fairly realistic expectations.  If he doesn’t conver the entire nation into rabid soccer nuts he isn’t a success?

It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If the bar for Beckham is set so high that it is completely unattainable, then he will be viewed as a failure.  It will confirm their pre-conceived perceptions that soccer is somehow “abhorrent” to American values, whatever those are.   This will provide great fodder for the sceptical and ignorant sportswriters like Jim Rome to pontificate about how Middle America will never accept such a foreign, femmy, and middle-class (in the U.S.) sport and will serve their egos, allowing them to claim that they were right all along.

The reality is that most of us in the States are not “Middle Americans.”  We have an incredibly diverse population, which manifests itself in sporting taste.  Beckham should not be perceived as a battering ram banging against the locked door of the American colossus in a zero-sum game of sports popularity.  Viewing him on this macro-plane creates a self-fulfilling narrative that dooms him to failure.  He should be viewed as what he is, an attraction that can increase the personna and public profile of Major League Soccer and perhaps the sport in general.  If he does that, than he has been a success.