It is confirmed: David Beckham has signed a contract with MLS and will join the LA Galaxy. A formal announcement is forthcoming at 1:30 pm ET. The deal is said to be worth some $38m a year for five years. AEG, adidas and MLS have formed an unusual partnership to handle and market the star in the United States. Recall that under MLS's "salary cap" rules, the league is only paying some $400K of that. Out of whack? You be the judge! Beckham himself has confirmed that he is leaving Madrid in a prepared statement to the press, and our look at what this means for the league will be up momentarily.
So, trecker, what's the deal? I've read your blog for a while now. This is the second story in the past month that you have "leaked" as a big story.
No explanations, no facts, what is the deal? Your ccredibility is really sinking and it's happening very fast. With the deal that FSC has signed with MLS, you either need to figure out what you are doing or pack your bags.
There are good things going on in MLS. Is it perfect? No. But the league is adapting and changing, more investors are coming in. It's always been a work in progress. Do you think the EPL or Serie A or any other league developed into what it is in 11 years? Be glad that you even have a league to write about. Constructive criticism does wonders. Being negative and having no facts leads to nada.
Jamie - your credibility is really riding on this....
IM: Because: my name isn't "JB." Also, I get to decide what stays here and what goes.
Brew: This is actually the first story we've teased. And because this one remains in the undone stage, we thought it would be fun for y'all to know that something big — and good — is afoot with MLS. And, as I mentioned, even if this one doesn't work out, we'll tell you about it. It's still a good story that shows that MLS is trying to become a big player.
Some of you folks seem to forget that the Klinsmann story was, when I wrote and when we published it, true. And that wasn't just yours truly behind it -- it was all of Fox. It was vetted and passed, and the editors here supported it then and support it now. Klinsmann walked away from an agreement -- that happens in sports. Just ask Nick Saban.
As I've said before, if you're angry about that, your ire should be directed at the people who screwed around with the agreement, not the messenger. The fact is, I also told you WHY the deal could collapse in the initial and what the sticking points were. Those points — which which we also broke — have been widely copied and verified from blogs to the New York Times. So, if you're of the belief that the report was wholly innacurate, you're dreaming. It was dead on. But people change their mind, even when things are signed. I'm not sure I blame Klinsi, either.
I really hope this goes through. I also hope that teams around the leauge are also able to attract aging stars that have played in the MAJOR European leagues. I really believe that this would be a draw to soccer fans who will have seen these players on FSC, in the CL and WC.
Someone like me, who does not presently attend Fire games mostly due to the level of play on the field and the value for the ticket price, would come out to see Beckham and other EPL, LaLiga and Serie A greats. Hopefully the budgets would allow each team to bring in a star and the attendance would go up for all games.
As a kid, I remember seeing Carlos Alberto, Cruyff, Chinaglia, Pele, Cubillas, Best, Banks and the likes play live against the Sting in the NASL.
Last edited by abjdmba on January 10th at 8:35 AM.
I think it's worth noting that Beckham shouldn't be considered an "ageing star". Madrid had a 2-yr deal on the table which Beckham reportedly turned down. That's notable, and a good sign for MLS.
Jaimie, personally I appreciate your work and columns and even if some of this doesn't work out, it's fun to feel like we're on the cutting edge of soccer in America. It would get frustrating if the back story wasn't explained after the fact though. Either way, this new rule should prove interesting.
Wow...a possible Beckham move to MLS, Reyna looking to come back to the States, and rumors of the Figo deal falling through...
If MLS can land even 2 out 3 it would be a big step in the right direction. It'll bring some much needed credibility to the league and should boost attendance as well.
Damn it, I was planning on getting Galaxy Season tickets this year. (if this happens it'll probably bump the price up out of the range I was willing to pay) Still, it'll be cool if this really goes down.
Beckham at thirty something? I'm shocked anyone would find his transfering to the MLS overly exciting. He's always been over-rated and on top of that now he's in his twighlight years.
Remember the NASL? Talk about having great players in their twighlight years...the league was loaded. But not even high profile, aging players playing the game in over-sized soccer stadiums could keep the league from degenerating to....nothing. Wait, that sounds like the direction of the MLS. Tell me i'm wrong but I predict i'll see at least one MLS game in 2007 played on a field with fake grass and 10-yard hatch-marks left over from an american football season and more empty seats than fans played in a over-sized soccer stadium.
Jaime-i'm still waiting for those soccer articles aimed at hammering the USSF for the way it handled the Klinsi deal, which only highlighted the main problem with how that organization has been hindering our national team progress.
Jamie you are spinning. The real journalists listened to the conference call introducing Bradley and the first question was about your erroneous report. Gulati said without hesitation or reservation that no contract had ever been signed. So now you are not only a liar, but you are calling Gulati a liar. Anyone who listened to Gulati put his tail between his legs on that call and admit how bummed he was to not get Klinsmann would clearly know a contract was never signed.
Worse yet, if what you say about your initial report was true, then why did you and your so-called editors pull your original article down and change some of your previous postings to delete the word "signed"?
Very understandable Jamie
Just wanted to remind you
I figured you had forgotten since you said on the 21st it would be done that day or the next.
We are waiting with baited breath.
Hang on, now. Your own article on this website now says:
"David Beckham, long the subject of interest in America, is in negotiations to re-up with Real Madrid for a two-year stint, with the club setting a deadline of midnight Tuesday. The Los Angeles Galaxy are also courting the former England captain."
IV: That's correct. However, that article was written Monday for today. Stuff changes quickly. That's life. Your implication that somehow this current report is now erroneous is unwarranted, and frankly, you're reaching.
TSF: I didn't pull the article, nor did I delete anything. As far as I know, it is still up there.
As for Gulati: What he said is not wholly accurate, no. And people don't tell the whole truth all the time, for various reasons. We call that "public relations."
Do some thinking and ask yourself: Who has more to gain -- a guy with a stake in getting Klinsmann (him) and who can't trash a guy who walked away if he ever wants to get him again; or, a guy with no stake in any outcome (me) who doesn't care who the coach is and is just here to report?
However, since it seems that your goal is to just try and find ways to trash me, this conversation is meaningless. The fact is, you won't accept the truth because it doesn't happen to make me look bad.
Last edited by JamieTrecker on January 10th at 4:17 PM.
Are you saying that you wrote the article about Dempsey two days prior to the work permit coming through?
I simply noted that the end of that piece, which purports to have been posted at approximately 6:20 p.m. Eastern, contained an item apparently at odds with your current Beckham blog post.
I now understand that that posting time is inaccurate, but frankly your personal attacks on me and others here have been unfair and rather unbecoming.
I have always found the banter here to be pretty fun (although admittedly you are sometimes on the wrong end of that fun) and have been disappointed by your wholesale deletion today of my posts (and others') either criticizing you or ribbing you for your high-profile erroneous report on Klinsmann.
IV: I apologise. I did not realise the posting times re-set every time we re-set our pages overall.
Yes, I chatted with Clint in advance for two reasons: 1) i was travelling yesterday to get closer to today's story on DB and 2) All parties were confident it was going to be approved.
Had it not been approved, we had another piece to sub in on that angle. That's how, within minutes after the announcement coming, we were able to get it up. It's an old newspaper trick -- in fact, if you look at yesterday's national NYT, you'll note a sub in by Rhoden because the BCS game ended too late for the first edition.
As for personal attacks on you: I don't think I have done that. What I have done, is deleted posts that don't have anything to do with the topic at hand and that are somewaht drive-by in nature. I don't think that adds anything to the discourse here — but I've left plenty of negative comments up as well on this blog. I don;t think I can be criticised for having thin skin or a poor sense of humour.
Fact is, I have to correct your perception that my report on Klinsmann, was erroneous. It was not. When it was published, it was correct.
Look: The same thing happened with the guys who wrote that Nick Saban "positively" was staying in Miami. Were they wrong? No: They wrote what the guy said. I did the same with my sources — and we had a lot of them, not just one or two. That Saban then turned around and went to Alabama meant they got to write another story, on how the deal came together. I did the same with Bradley.
Last edited by JamieTrecker on January 10th at 5:07 PM.
You can look at this two ways: Either you say Saban's a liar (and by extension, so are the folks that said Klinsi was coming in) or, you accept that things change in this business and we journos do the best we can with what we know when we know it, all in an effort to give you guys the best info we have.
I do take exception to people claiming I blew this one, however — because I didn't. People make mistakes — and g-d knows, I've made them in my life — but on this one, all my bases were covered. Klinsi just plain walked. No spinning, no excuses: That's just what happened.
Does it suck? I guess so — again, I don't really care who the coach is — but was it made in error? No, it wasn't. Sometimes things just change. (In Saban's case, $32m worth of change) That's part of this biz, and I accept it.
Trecker, for what's it's worth...you make more sense than any of the skewed logic in most of the comments in this thread. People that bother to comment are typically looking for a fight so it's really no use arguing. I admire the stance you've taken and look forward to your resulting article on Beckham - hopefully the deal goes through without a hitch, as it's one of the most exciting developments in MLS history.
Point taken. Maybe I did the overreact, maybe not. Also add in the disappointment of Klinsi not signing....you know what I mean.
As for Beckham, I've been scouring the web all day, caught the London Times piece as well as the LA Times this evening. It's starting to sound like it's happening.
I have an observation, and please bear with my ramblings until I lay it out…
Frankly I believe the attacks on your pieces are, in general, unwarranted, and unable to see another side of an issue. But the attacks your person are visceral in nature, and wholly loathsome, and inexcusable. I believe there is no reason, even given the “nature” of the web, that people should attack someone’s character. Anonymous is not permission for rudeness.
But I digress….
Given those two types of attacks, and further looking at their intents, one may be able to discern a possible reason behind this war of words. I believe many of the spiteful posts you receive may have to do with your “bedside manner” as it were.
Seeing as how soccer fans, and players grew up being ridiculed, and indeed still are as adults, by nearly anyone and everyone, we are a fiercely prideful group used to defending our sport. Also given that Americans, no matter their political affiliation, love their country, it goes without saying they’re willing to defend her too from anything, or anyone they perceive as derogatory.
I wonder if that when you distance yourself from MLS, and USMNT, you’re distancing yourself from your audience. Further, when you go on to ridicule, and belittle the MLS, and USMNT, (and make no mistake, some word choices you use to get your points across do those very things), you raise ire over your opinions. This is not to say your opinions aren’t legit, nor is it to say that some people get their undies in a bundle a way too easily. What I mean to say is, if you’re going to offer opinions on why and how something is broken, it’s easier for people to take it, if it’s coming from a compatriot rather than from someone who claims they “doesn’t really care” but is always seeming to take a negative tack. It’s along the same lines of: I can call my mother fat and ugly, but you certainly can’t.
Eh… this note is pointless…. I can’t imagine that you would, or worse SHOULD, change your style just to avoid some anger riddle pot shots? And I cant’ expect internet culture to change just because I think it’s silly to treat people with such little respect. I guess I just wanted to post an opinion on maybe WHY you seem to get beat up so often.
Alikin: I think that's a fair point. That said, one of the defining characteristics of American sport is ridicule and satire, or "trash-talking." It's pretty U.S.-centric.
I think soccer fans kind of want to have it both ways sometimes: They would like people to agree with them that "their sport" is wonderful; yet at the same time they want it to be clubbish and clique-y. That's impossible. Some folks also feel a bit tweaked because, yes, I do go out of my way to push buttons and puncture egos.
But, in the larger scheme of things, I'd ultimately like soccer to be covered just like any other sport — and that means that the good comes with the bad. I often feel many so-called "hard-core" soccer fans never see another sports broadcast or read the sports section, and that elitism is what makes them a target for fun. I also think that attitude has got to go to make the sport more broadly accepted.
And then, of course, there are folks who don't like their machinations and mistakes called out. Tough. As I've said, we all make mistakes. It who those mistakes affect and how we deal with them that defines us as people. Somehow, I think the mistake of leaving a Chicago suburban village in deep debt to build a little-used soccer park is bigger than a typo. But, I digress.
Am I the only one who is thinking... $250 million over 5 years... $50 million a year... at least by some of the reports I am reading... what the hell is in that contract that makes AEG think that at a minimimum, a MINIMUM, they can come close to making that back?
Also, Jaime, you may know better, but is this not one of the highest salaries paid for soccer player? In the world?
Paul: It's up there, yep. Highest? Hmm. It may well be, though some might argue that since this deal includes sponsorship as well that it's not a "true" club payment. There's merit to that point as well since adidas is clearly getting a lot for its dollar with him.
Knuckles: Nope, I don't. Hey, I just have to cover them, not play for them! Would I like to see a big name? Yeah, because I think it would help the image of the sport. But I genuinely could care less what his name is.
My issue with that statement is that it implies all coaches are equal. I think we all know that they aren't. That's why I don't really buy that. Now, does that mean necessarily that you want Klinsi over Bradley? Hell if I know. But I also have a hard time believing you don't at least have people you'd prefer to see in charge...
Hey Knuckles and the rest of you who think Jamie should care about the coach of the USMNT...do you know the difference between a fan and a journalist? As a Fan you can give a defecation. However a Journalist should have an opinion, but it should be a neutral opinion…to paraphrase Sgt Friday "Just the facts, mamm".
To ask for more than that from a journalist is to ask for Univision type reporting… (or Boston type reporting…same “homers” different language).
If you're going to keep a blog, then keep it as a blog. Don't go back and edit past entries.
For instance, anyone coming across your blog right now would read your post marked "Jan 8, 4:40 p.m" and assume that you were breaking the Beckham news then. You didn't. That's the time of the original tease post you put up which didn't actually have any information other than "I know something you don't know" in it.
It's intellectually dishonest to have this be a place where you break "news" and do #### like that.
Last edited by yellowdog442 on January 12th at 6:36 AM.
Although a positive step, Beckham’s move to the MLS could not solve the overall relative mediocrity of the games in the MLS championship. One talented player surrounded by 10 average to OK players has never been fruitful. Djorkaeff, as talented as Beckham, if not more, has not sufficed to raise the ex-Metrostars team profile, because of the poor/average quality of his teammates.
On a game point of view, the impact of Beckham will be even less: 1 talented player in an average team against a poor to average quality team has never made a good game.
Yes, Beckham will attract more people to the game, but for how long? A few will attend live or watch a couple of games on TV at most, but the poor quality offered on the pitch will neither retain real soccer fans who will be disappointed, nor new comers who will find the game boring. It will also bring “Us weekly” and “People” magazines’ journalist and readers to a few games, but not for the good reasons…
I think there is a big misconception in the US media, as well as the League, of what characterized a real soccer star and its impact on the Game. Beckham has reached his “rock star” status for many reasons, one of them being his talent and the fact that he was playing for 2 of the most prestigious teams in the world, playing the most prestigious competitions...Playing for the Galaxy, and competing for the MLS championship and the Lamar Hunt Cup is clearly less prestigious and exciting...Unlike Madonna whose performance in London, New York or Albuquerque would be the same, Beckham performance and overall add-in value won't...
Last edited by mikewiesen on January 12th at 11:47 AM.
For Beckham to have a real impact, the MLS must focus on the core values of the game: quality, stadium atmosphere, and passion. After 10 seasons, none of these ingredients have been secured. The quality may come if MLS clubs start bringing a mix of former stars in the likes of Beckham, Davids..., but also European players having a lower profile but with a solid experience in order to structure the game and make it look organized and nice.
The atmosphere will also eventually improve with soccer specific stadium. However, stadiums will also need to stop promoting sponsors in the middle of the game...that just kill the atmosphere or distribute “trumpets” to kids which creates a nasty and annoying sound throughout the game.
Then, once these 2 ingredients will be in the MLS plate, the passion will come naturally through lifetime soccer aficionados who will start coming to the stadium on a regular basis, and through those who will catch the soccer fever on the way because seduced by the product offered on the pitch.
Soccer is not about satisfying investors, it's simply about passion, a word the MLS doesn't seem to really understand unfortunately. Or maybe it is the Passion of the Investor!
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