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<H2 class=date-header>cause assasin's salary shame post got me interested...</H2><H2 class=date-header>1/12/2007</H2><DIV class=post><A name=116861090557316106></A><H3 class=post-title>A League And Its Player </H3><DIV class=post-body><DIV><DIV style="CLEAR: both"></DIV>Leave it to Major League Soccer to end up having to make the Beckham announcement when most of us in the business were in route or already at the NSCAA Convention in Indianapolis and doing it again today with the Beckham conference an hour after the start of the SuperDraft in a different city.
Unlike the army of pundits that have already established party lines based on whether or not you're English or English-inclined, I don't really have an opinion one way or another here beyond a few questions.
<LI>We're all assuming the Beckham Rule is in place to insure it's only the investor/operator taking the big salary hit, but this is a League that's never been much for complete transparency. I'm more than willing to accept what they tell me, that it's AEG's money and AEG's choice past the initial $400k under the new allocation policy, but for such a massive deal that is almost guaranteed to generate revenue for every Galaxy away game? A deal that reportedly includes profit sharing for Beckham? Why would even this cuddlier version of single-entity put that on one team without at least accounting for the additional push this is giving the others?
<LI>MLS has a players union, and one might wonder what they're thinking now that the upper limit of MLS's salary structure has become the world's highest team sports salary. I know we're not supposed to make the obvious North American Soccer League comparison, so we'll ignore that the '84 salvage plan for that league had a hard cap of $600k with one franchise player exemption. Most American players have spent their careers as part athlete/part soccer ambassador taking less than market in a single-entity league that was designed not to compete directly for their services. It's worth thinking about.
<LI>To that point, up until yesterday American players have been the face of this League. How are they marketed now? In terms of public image, every player in the League and the broader National Team program just got reminded what real sports celebrity looks like. How that works in practice is an open question.
<LI>We're being told that this is a one-off deal for the world's only exceptional talent, and I'm happy to buy into that as well. Beckham is special, and our English friends slamming the League and the broader image of American arrogance know that. But try telling that to the next world star that negotiates with MLS. Ronaldo and Edgar Davids are the latest rumors, and I don't think it's one of my wackier opinions to argue that both are better soccer players than Beckham. Plugging collective fingers into ears while chanting one-off and special circumstances when the Beckham deal comes to dominate negotiations for the next player under the Beckham Rule isn't going to work.
<LI>With the Freddy phenomenon parking itself in Salt Lake City for the near future, we know how MLS media sweeps go. Big names on the line, and don't bother with the smaller outlets unless you happen to be visiting that city for whatever reason. In other words, pro sports media relations as usual. They did too much with Adu in retrospect, but it made sense at the time. How does that work with a guy that already has a relative high American media exposure? Maybe I'm the only one that remembers the generic adidas ad that ran during prime-time a few years ago that had a shot of Beckham and the "What a
Unlike the army of pundits that have already established party lines based on whether or not you're English or English-inclined, I don't really have an opinion one way or another here beyond a few questions.
<LI>We're all assuming the Beckham Rule is in place to insure it's only the investor/operator taking the big salary hit, but this is a League that's never been much for complete transparency. I'm more than willing to accept what they tell me, that it's AEG's money and AEG's choice past the initial $400k under the new allocation policy, but for such a massive deal that is almost guaranteed to generate revenue for every Galaxy away game? A deal that reportedly includes profit sharing for Beckham? Why would even this cuddlier version of single-entity put that on one team without at least accounting for the additional push this is giving the others?
<LI>MLS has a players union, and one might wonder what they're thinking now that the upper limit of MLS's salary structure has become the world's highest team sports salary. I know we're not supposed to make the obvious North American Soccer League comparison, so we'll ignore that the '84 salvage plan for that league had a hard cap of $600k with one franchise player exemption. Most American players have spent their careers as part athlete/part soccer ambassador taking less than market in a single-entity league that was designed not to compete directly for their services. It's worth thinking about.
<LI>To that point, up until yesterday American players have been the face of this League. How are they marketed now? In terms of public image, every player in the League and the broader National Team program just got reminded what real sports celebrity looks like. How that works in practice is an open question.
<LI>We're being told that this is a one-off deal for the world's only exceptional talent, and I'm happy to buy into that as well. Beckham is special, and our English friends slamming the League and the broader image of American arrogance know that. But try telling that to the next world star that negotiates with MLS. Ronaldo and Edgar Davids are the latest rumors, and I don't think it's one of my wackier opinions to argue that both are better soccer players than Beckham. Plugging collective fingers into ears while chanting one-off and special circumstances when the Beckham deal comes to dominate negotiations for the next player under the Beckham Rule isn't going to work.
<LI>With the Freddy phenomenon parking itself in Salt Lake City for the near future, we know how MLS media sweeps go. Big names on the line, and don't bother with the smaller outlets unless you happen to be visiting that city for whatever reason. In other words, pro sports media relations as usual. They did too much with Adu in retrospect, but it made sense at the time. How does that work with a guy that already has a relative high American media exposure? Maybe I'm the only one that remembers the generic adidas ad that ran during prime-time a few years ago that had a shot of Beckham and the "What a