Soccer thread

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:48 pm

Surprisingly, Real has a two year deal for D. Beckham but at 31 he's pondering about his future and since he hasn't played as a starter, rumours still have him back in the Premiership, Italy or LA. I think he'll move...

MU wants O.Hargreaves for 15 million pounds but Bayern counter-offered at 25 million pounds

. Are they out of their minds?

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:12 pm

Every time I read about the Hargreaves transfer and the amounts being thrown around, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I know he's a highly rated young midfielder, but 25 million pounds? I just don't get it.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:51 pm

Naples39 wrote:Every time I read about the Hargreaves transfer and the amounts being thrown around, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I know he's a highly rated young midfielder, but 25 million pounds? I just don't get it.

my boys don't want to sell him. We are basically telling Man United to feck off.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:53 pm

fsquid wrote:
Naples39 wrote:Every time I read about the Hargreaves transfer and the amounts being thrown around, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I know he's a highly rated young midfielder, but 25 million pounds? I just don't get it.
my boys don't want to sell him. We are basically telling Man United to feck off.

That still doesn't explain why Bayern wants to cling so hard. He's never struck me as terribly vital to their squad. I would think they could use 15-20 million pounds to strengthen their squad in more ways than Hargreaves himself ever could.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:02 pm

Naples39 wrote:
fsquid wrote:
Naples39 wrote:Every time I read about the Hargreaves transfer and the amounts being thrown around, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. I know he's a highly rated young midfielder, but 25 million pounds? I just don't get it.
my boys don't want to sell him. We are basically telling Man United to feck off.
That still doesn't explain why Bayern wants to cling so hard. He's never struck me as terribly vital to their squad. I would think they could use 15-20 million pounds to strengthen their squad in more ways than Hargreaves himself ever could.

He's great in the Bundesliga and crap in the Champions League. I think Bayern will let him go in the summer. Everyone that Bayern would want would be cup tied in Europe.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:28 pm

Bet Carrick feels great, MU pay £16m for him over the summer, and now he's like the bird you knock off while you are waiting for the bird you really want to become free

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:58 am

Dempsey WP comes through:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... 60&cc=5901

As I understand it, he is expected to debut Saturday the 20th. Should be interesting. I already have a McBride Fulham jersey, and I think this signing pushes me over the edge into full Fulham fan-hood.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 12:06 pm

Nice. I hope he gets some playing time. It should help him develop into a better player. It'll be very interesting to see how he holds up, especially next season. No more room for pouting!

Gamecocks625 · Post by **Gamecocks625** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 11:56 am

Looks like Beckham is coming to LA

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/s ... ml?cnn=yes

and

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... 65&cc=5901

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:14 pm

Word is him and Posh will be converting to Scientology pretty soon.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:44 pm

Five years, $250 million? $50 million per year?

That sum must include the transfer fee, right? Wait, there is no transfer fee, right? Becks is out of contract after this season.

Damn, that's a TON of cake. Becks better help propel the MLS into NASL 1975-78 territory, or this is a huge financial risk for the league.

A risk worth taking, though, if other renowned players follow Becks to MLS like Beckenbauer, Moore, Chinaglia, etc., did to the NASL. And it's not like the league has anything else putting it on the national and international sports stage. Landycakes doesn't quite cut it.

Take care,
PK

Post by **Jared** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:50 pm

Beckham's deal at Real Madrid had 50% of his image rights to go himself, and 50% go to Real Madrid. It's estimated that his image rights are worth about $45-50 million a year. Rumor has it that the MLS deal allows Beckham to keep 90-100% of his image rights. If this is true, then LA's payout isn't nearly as high as it seems.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:52 pm

Becks' signing is leading cnn.com and msnbc.com right now. Not just the sports section, but the entire site.

MLS and soccer in America already are reaping dividends.

Take care,
PK

tjung0831 · Post by **tjung0831** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 12:56 pm

Jared wrote:Beckham's deal at Real Madrid had 50% of his image rights to go himself, and 50% go to Real Madrid. It's estimated that his image rights are worth about $45-50 million a year. Rumor has it that the MLS deal allows Beckham to keep 90-100% of his image rights. If this is true, then LA's payout isn't nearly as high as it seems.

Can you breakdown image rights in layman's terms. Obviously I have an Idea but I don't understand it fully.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:05 pm

I wonder if a lot of the teams invested in that signing to bring him over the MLS. No way a single team can afford that kinda money for a single player. That's more than the entire roster makes on most teams right? There has to be something missing here...or maybe it was a typo and it was 25 million rather than 250.

Post by **Jared** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:07 pm

I think it's basically player endorsements (though it's probably more complicated than that). It's been recent Real Madrid policy that if you sign for the club, the club gets a cut of all of your endorsements....for Beckham, it's 50%. In contract negotiations, Beckham wanted more of that cut, and Real wouldn't budge on that.

Here's a Forbes article from 2005 on this:

http://www.forbes.com/2005/04/01/cx_pm_0401beckham.html

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:32 pm

Wow, good for David. Interesting. Somewhere in this thread I wrote that the best possible move for him would be the USA. When I watched some of the Real games last year, Beckham just looked uninterested and almost sad at what was happening in his career. He's only 31.

He wasn't seeing F. Capello eye to eye. He wasn't even selected for the English national team. His passion for the game was not there. And after watching the wonderful DVD "The wonderful rise of the NY Cosmos", (which all soccer fans should watch) I thought that the MLS and Beckham were a match made in heaven.

It's a win-win situation for the LA Galaxy and MLS, not to mention Beckam's career and his wife Posh, in the middle of Hollywood.

A. Lalas must be playing his guitar loud...

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:39 pm

DB, here's the problem, and the crux of why I think this deal stinks of a Danny Snyder special (re: Archuletta, Deion Sanders, Mark Carrier, Jeff George, the list goes on).

The new salary cap for MLS teams this year, each team's wholly allowed player payroll limit, which was significantly raised this offseason, is around $2.3M. $2.3M FOR THE ENTIRE TEAM.

Now, another change the league made this offseason is to allow individual teams to make deals with individual players above that limit, and then count only the official league max-salary ($400K) to the salary cap, and pay the remainder of the deal out of their own pockets, however much that amount is. Each team is allowed one such "Designated Player" slot, which they can trade away if they want, but no team can have more than two such players, at least according to the official rules.

Apparently, as noted by Jared, the Galaxy are only paying Becks $6M a year, which would be $400K counting towards the salary cap, and the rest of it paid by AEG (who btw. also own two other teams in the league, having just sold DC United to a group headed by former Dukies Chris Laettner and Brian Davis). Where the remainder of this reported $50M a year is coming from is unkown to me, but it doesn't really matter in the end. The fact is, the figure that will be tied to this deal forever going forward will be $250M for 5 years. Maybe Adidas is paying a lot of that, I don't know.

As much as I like the idea of Becks playing in MLS, the money involved in this deal will be a big problem. It will do nothing to help the image of the league around the world; think of how free agents in the NFL think of the Redskins, and mutliply that by 100 million. More importantly, perhaps, will be the damage done to the image of the league among the bulk of the players themselves, many of whom make less than $50K a year.

It won't be easy on the pitch for Becks in this league. It's hot in LA, Dallas, even DC and Chicago, in the mid-summer; the travel is extensive, nothing like what any European domestic league could ever imagine having to deal with; and every player making less than Becks (= everyone) and thinks he is as good or better than Becks (probably a lot of them) will be going after his ankles in frustration. It's a tough physical league as it is, but add these chips to the more hackish players' shoulders, and watch out!

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:47 pm

Maybe the Galaxy can lure Dave "The Hammer" Schultz out of retirement and off skates to protect Becks.

Dave "Cementhead" Semenko is available, too.

Take care,
PK

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:48 pm

If the MLS gets a bigger TV contract and more Galaxy games on ABC, this deal might make sense.

Especially if American TV ratings go up.

But will his merchandising remain attractive now that he's playing in a second or third-tier league?

If LeBron played in the NBDL or Europe, or if Tiger played some other tour which doesn't have the same TV contract as the PGA, would fans be as interested and buy the merchandise?

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:53 pm

I think you're being a little overly negative Zep about player reaction to Beckham. I expect the the opposite. I believe the players are not so short-sighted to simply be jealous of the money he's making but will realize what he means to the league, which ultimately means higher paychecks for everybody. It's like Gretzky in the 80s....there's a story about how some young player laid out Gretzky, and for the rest of the game, his own teammates wouldn't even talk to him because of the hit. Gretzky was larger than the sport, and if Gretzky got hurt it would be bad for the whole league, right down to the players. Honestly, if I was at a DC United game and Bennie Olsen (my current favorite United player) cheapshotted Beckham, I would boo Olsen myself. He's just too important.

The amount of money being spent here is dizzying, and it's certainly far from a sure bet of success, but it makes me more excited for the season, and as PK said, being on the frontpage of major news sites is massive for MLS.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:02 pm

wco81 wrote:But will his merchandising remain attractive now that he's playing in a second or third-tier league?

Yes. It's Beckham. People go nuts over Becks because it's Becks, not because of the league in which he plays. They're buying Beckham the brand, not Beckham the footballer.

Expect to see Galaxy kits all over Asia next year.

Take care,
PK

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:13 pm

We'll see if soccer or in reality Hollywood fans wins him over. Can you see "Bend it like Beckham 2", coming?

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:25 pm

So Phillip Anschutz is the second coming of Steve Ross, huh? Let's hope so. It would be great to see someone that rich have that much passion for growing soccer in America.

Take care,
PK

Post by **Jared** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 2:31 pm

MLS/AEG is only paying Beckham $3 million a year. The rest of the "salary" comes from Beckham keeping 100% of his image rights.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/SPORT/footb ... index.html

I like the deal....MLS doesn't shell out a ton of money, and they still get the hype for a "mega" deal.