Beckham Kick-Starts MLS Ticket Sales

[citizen snips]

NEW YORK (AP) -- David Beckham's jump to the Los Angeles Galaxy prompted a spike in tickets sales for several Major League Soccer teams.

The Galaxy said it had sold 5,000 season tickets since Thursday's announcement while the expansion Toronto FC said it sold 2,600 of its 10,000 season tickets.

Beckham's decision "has generated more interest in Major League Soccer than any other event in league history," MLS commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday. "We didn't sign David to sell tickets and jerseys. He was signed because he's a world-class soccer player."

Beckham said he would join the Galaxy after his contract with Real Madrid expires June 30. That was clouded by Saturday's statement from Madrid manager Fabio Capello that the Englishman would train but no longer play for the team.

more...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070116/soc_mls_beckham_tickets.html?.v=1

[northzax]

1. I know I just plunked down for my DC United ones

had been considering it for years, and did it because a: it looks like Becks' first game will be at RFK, b: Superliga and c: MLS cup.

[citizen snips]

2. DC United is my favorite team

so it will be interesting to watch.

[Jack from Charlotte]

3. Let's do the math; $250 million salary would require........

250 million tickets at the going rate of $1 per ticket in order to get David's salary back. So how big are these soccer stadiums?

Real big, I hope.

[northzax]

4. one dollar a ticket?

what stadiums are you going to?

mine at RFK are $22.

and, by the way, MLS is only paying $400,000/year of the salary. And, of course, the team is only on the hook for 7.5 million/year.

but hey, why do math when you can ridicule that which you don't understand? Remember, the guy who owns the Galaxy, Anschluss, is perhaps the second wealthiest owner in US professional sports (behind Paul Allen) he can afford the 7.5 million a year.

[Phredicles]

5. As I understand it, Adidas is underwriting most of The Becks' salary.

As a Galaxy fan I'm still not 100% sold on this. But damn if they weren't just talking Galaxy on Conan O'Brien (Quavas Kirk as heir apparent to Cobi Jones, etc.). I'm pretty sure that's never happened before.

[northzax]

6. AEG, the marketing company is doing a lot of it

most of it is in incentives and marketing rights (for instance, at Real, Becks split his marketing revenue with the club, in LA he keeps it all) so yes, the ten million a year that Adidas pays him is no longer split with the club, and their fee to sponsor the Galazy went up by two million a year as well.

[Jack from Charlotte]

7. Mark my words............

tix will be knee deep outside any stadium, pregame.

I'm not ridiculing anything at all. I'm stating the obvious supply/demand situation for soccer tix in this country. Believe me, if the stadium holds 50,000 or more..... the owner would gladly sell 10,000 tix for $1 each.... if he could.

[Phredicles]

8. Say Jack, why don't you go check out

www.mlsnet.com, look over their attendance figures and individual teams' ticket prices, and then get back to us about what's "obvious". If you're just looking to talk out your arse there must be plenty of other boards you could visit.

[northzax]

9. sure some of them, probably

but then the Galaxy play in a stadium that seats about 25,000. Or take a place like Pizza Hut park in Dallas, which sold out every FC Dallas game, and drew a total of 720,000 people to watch soccer over the course of the year (including friendlies, other league matches, Gold Cup and the like. the Galaxy stadium, the Home Dept Center, seats 27,000 and averaged just over 20,000 for the season, a year they didn't make the playoffs.

and, of course, the Galaxy have actually made a profit for the past three years, but hey, keep talking. you do know better. After all, only five NFL teams sold out every home game in 2006, and one, the Redskins, only because of season ticket deals signed long ago, and for the last two games, you literally couldn't give your tickets away.

oh, one more thing. every soccer specific stadium complex used by MLS has been built with private money. no government bonds, no taxes. cash on the barrelhead. how many pro sports leagues can claim that?

lastly, before you mock too much, the owners of the Galaxy, Anschutz Entertainment, are the largest owner of sports teams, largest owner of arenas and the second largest sports even promotion company in the world. maybe, just maybe, they have an idea of what they are about?