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Geek Culture / David Beckham: A "Real" deal for the United States

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 12th Jan 2007 21:33
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Sorry, couldn't help the Real Madrid joke, as corny as it was (and yes, I do know that it isn't pronounced "real," but is pronounced "ree-all"). Anyway...

David Beckham, the former Manchester United star midfielder and more recently the star benchwarmer for Real Madrid, has been traded yet again, this time to the MLS, playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy. The five year deal was worth $250 million to Galaxy, making David Beckham one of the highest paid athletes in the United States (of any sport). The Galaxy and Beckham alike are hoping that Beckham's international fame as one of the most recognizable football icons in the world might help raise the level of love for international football amongst Americans. What do you all think about it? Is Beckham worth $250 million? Can Beckham make Americans love the rest of the world's favorite sport? Or is this just a waste of money... many (including myself) believe that Beckham is well past his prime, and while he'll still appear to be magical lined up with American "soccer" players, his legendary playing ability is virtually burned out. So I'm anxious to know, where do you stand? Wise trade or waste of money?


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_Nemesis_
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Posted: 12th Jan 2007 21:40
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Well past his prime, but still good. When he was at Manchester United, he was one of the few players we had that you could call sensational.

Not worth the money though - he'd have to be damn special for me to see any reasoning behind spending $250 million on a player.

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 12th Jan 2007 22:19
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Quote: "By going to America, Beckham would gain new marketing opportunities and boost U.S. recognition with appearances on ABC and ESPN, the league's television partners. Through June 8, MLS broadcasts on ESPN were averaging a 0.2 rating for 12 telecasts, about 197,000 households."


Not worth the money with that viewership, heck 1am reruns of Futurama draw just over 800,000 viewers. It looks like the amount is an esitmate of his salary and endorsements(if he attracts them), could be more or less.

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lagmaster
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Posted: 12th Jan 2007 22:42
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his career is almost over here in the uk, he can only do so much and after quitting the endland team, what else is there for him to do here? moving to the us will only make him more money and the club too, you seen real madrid's shirt sales for the last 3 years? that alone earns them enough money to pay him out right.

and the fact that they have more la friends now. makes sense to move near the end of his footballing prime.

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Fallout
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Posted: 12th Jan 2007 22:57
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Actually, it's pronounced "ray - al"

On the subject though, I dont believe he's burnt out. He is well past his prime, but he's still a talent with some unique skills and a mature football mind (maybe not the sharpest mind off the pitch, but good on the pitch). I dont think he's worth $250 mill for his talent, but he is worth it for his marketting potential. He'll earn that back for the club posing for razor adverts, or drinking pepsi.

So, he aint magic boots anymore, and he won't be an incredible talent for the team, but he should make them some money and raise the profile ... even if it's raising the profile of American football\soccer in other countries.


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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 12th Jan 2007 23:38
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Have fun, we didn't want him, the Spanish didn't want him, you guys can have the over paid trash...a 13mil salary, I could do his job, kick a ball around and miss goals, advertise Gillette shavers, look in the mirror and well I guess I couldn't handle a wife like his...that might be why he is the only man for the job really. But it would be a good amount to get each year, damn celebrities getting so much they don't earn. But thaaaats because I'm a communist (well not really)

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FredP
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Posted: 12th Jan 2007 23:48
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Oops...wrong kind of football...

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 12th Jan 2007 23:50
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Actually, it might be amusing if David Beckham got a football contract in American, that being for American football, he goes on the pitch, no protection and then gets crushed...Now that would be something to put on 'you've been framed' for the £200.

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 00:22
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Quote: "Actually, it might be amusing if David Beckham got a football contract in American, that being for American football, he goes on the pitch, no protection and then gets crushed...Now that would be something to put on 'you've been framed' for the £200."


Good idea, sign him to an American Football contract, and make him pay the team $250 million to get out of the contract before he gets crippled. Perhaps he could be a placekicker that's what we always use the soccer players for anyway, funny when you see them next to the linemen and they come up to the middle of their chest

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Crazy Ninja
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 03:36
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and then lets see what happens when we sign an American football team onto a rugby or Australian rules football league and see what happens.

15 minutes into the game and the Americans are all burnt out.

I think Beckham could do some good for the US. It might help bring some other stars from Europe over to the US to play. We'll just have to wait and see.

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dab
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 07:03
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I thought it's cool that David Beckham is in our States now playing. Though, I think it was a little much of a payment.

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 09:34
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Quote: "and then lets see what happens when we sign an American football team onto a rugby or Australian rules football league and see what happens.

15 minutes into the game and the Americans are all burnt out."


Hehe, yeah those offensive linemen would not be the best rugby players, takes too much energy to keep moving. That said however, I love rugby, played in a college league (intramural basically), but the level of exertion and how hard you get hit is not even close to High school football, let alone pro. Once you get hit by a 265 lb linebacker who runs the 40 in 4.3 its a whole new ballgame. Even with all the pads it takes alot to get back up. Though the fear in rugby is always a solid head to head

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Saikoro
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 09:59
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Quote: "15 minutes into the game and the Americans are all burnt out."

Of course, you know, they haven't exactly been training and conditioning themselves for game-long endurance, either. American Football is made for huge bursts of energy in short stints, whereas Rugby is quite the opposite. Apples and oranges I think, two fruits which are entertaining to play and watch =)


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Torrey
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 11:19
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This news was on TV yesterday. He's coming over here since his soccer career is almost over to try and get something going with Hollywood to get in the movies.

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Fallout
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 12:02
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Just like to point out that Becks isn't some burnt out ex-footballer in any way shape or form. He's still a great talent with a lot to offer any team. The simple fact is, he's played for arguably the 2 best teams in the whole world, and he's always maintained he couldn't imagine playing in england for anyone except ManU. These teams have got the cream of the crop and while he falls just below those standards now, he's probably still in the top 5% of professional footballers in premiereship style leagues.

I think there would be a whole host of teams on both sides of the channel that would jump at the chance to sign him, for the right price, if it wasn't for his desires to stay at the very top and get sh*t loads of money. So he's still an asset ... just a bloody expensive one.


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MushroomHead
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 12:28
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Quote: "This news was on TV yesterday. He's coming over here since his soccer career is almost over to try and get something going with Hollywood to get in the movies.
"


Well his mate, Tom Cruise, has made no secret of the fact that Beckham would do well in Hollywood ...
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Robin
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 13:32
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Beckham should still be playing for England

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 17:39
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I feel sorry for his colleagues who are earning something liek 6,500 times less (according to a newspaper I saw... Not that I trust it).

I dont think they're paying him because he is good or even because he's "worth it". They're paying him to try to get more focus onto American Soccer. Without injecting any international fame into it - its just a sport that America try at but haven't really done much with in comparison to other countries with Soccer. Its like how the UK hasn't really done much with baseball. It'd probably take an international baseball star to get it to become popular in the UK.

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Cian Rice
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 18:05
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Quote: "I dont think they're paying him because he is good or even because he's "worth it". They're paying him to try to get more focus onto American Soccer. Without injecting any international fame into it - its just a sport that America try at but haven't really done much with in comparison to other countries with Soccer. Its like how the UK hasn't really done much with baseball. It'd probably take an international baseball star to get it to become popular in the UK."


He did kinda mention stuff along this lines in an interview about it. He also said that this was a 'project'.

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 18:11
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the common wage for an american footballer is $11,500 per year, about 95% of the league makes this amount.

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Jeff Miller
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 20:13
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I thought soccer would pick up more interest here in the States as TV coverage for sports increaased, bput it still is a non-topic of conversation when most guys discuss last night's sporting events at the water cooler. In the 50's I'd never heard of the game. In the 60's it was mis-perceived as strictly a Hispanic ethnic-thing over here because so many of the Cuban-American's played it in the local parks and nobody else seemed to. Given what was going on in the music industry then, if we had perceived soccer as something the British did it would have become much more popular. By the 90's there was plenty going on at the high-school level, but in '99 when the US won the Womens World Cup I can recall seeing exactly one TV endorsement and one magazine endorsement by the players. Mystery to me. I prefer watching a soccer game to suffering through all the intermittencies of baseball or football. Life is too short for 7th inning stretches or huddles. Soccer moves.
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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 20:27
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See I am the opposite, I would rather see the all out, top speed, bone crushing football play every 30 seconds then watch someone score an early goal then play keep away for 85 minutes. Worse yet is when regulation ends 0-0 then the penalty kicks, and suddenly its 4-3. Skip the middle man have a 4 minute game that consists of penalty kicks and be done with it.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 21:06
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Quote: "the common wage for an american footballer is $11,500 per year, about 95% of the league makes this amount."


Our football players earn considerably too much, a lot of our culture is focused on it, which is silly, call me communist/Marxist but I don't think it is right that a footballer should get so much as people who really need it don't. I say pay a good footballer £40k and an average £30k, so they have enough to live on and raise a family and the rest to go somewhere it should. (I know there are footballers that do give to charity, but not all)

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Fallout
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 21:17
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The problem with football/soccer when compared to American footy is, it's far less predictable in terms of quality. Not that American footy is predictable, but there is a certain level of action you can guarentee and strategy you can anticipate and appreciate. Soccer matches can be bloody boring and dire from start to finish ... 0-0 score lines, impenitrable defences and crap attacks with poor movement in midfield and the game sucks. But when you get two titans clashing and playing their best, it's an awesome game ... far more exciting than American footy in my opinion. And it's a game that allows prodigies and talents to really shine as the skill element plays a much bigger part.


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Dazzag
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 21:19
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Quote: "made no secret of the fact that Beckham would do well in Hollywood"
Yeah, assuming that Hollywood once again wants people who sound like Stan Laurel Hmmm. Just looked it up and never realised Stan was English. I mean fair enough with Chaplin (fairly obvious with that outfit) but never noticed with Laurel. Similar feeling to when I first found out the Bee Gees sounded like they belong down pit, or perhaps in mill (when they talked).

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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 21:46
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I've seen enough Wayne Gretzky commercials to know that pro athletes can't act.

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 21:59
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A twist in the plot... Real's coach has benched Beckham for the remainder of his stay in Madrid! Not much of a surprise, I mean how many games has he even played with Madrid? He's been a benchwarmer pretty much the entire time he's been in Spain, shy of a few games here and there.

Quote: "Actually, it's pronounced "ray - al""

You say tomato, I say Ketchup

Quote: "I dont think he's worth $250 mill for his talent, but he is worth it for his marketting potential. He'll earn that back for the club posing for razor adverts, or drinking pepsi."

But is he worth that in the United States and Canada? Not many Americans could recognize Beckham if he was walking down the street, and I'd definitely go so far as to say he could walk up to 80%+ of the people in this country, announce who he was, and they either wouldn't know the name, or simply wouldn't care. I think Americans could theoretically get into football (soccer), but I don't think this is the way to do it imo.

Quote: "So he's still an asset ... just a bloody expensive one."

I agree, I think most of the bigger premiership teams would play him if he wasn't such a greedy guy. He is definitely passed his prime (almost a senior citizen in footballer's-years), but why spend $250 million (128,278,806 pounds) on Beckham when you could get Thierry Henry (earning 10.5 million), Christiano Ronaldo (at 12.24 million)), and who knows how many others for considerably less... at these rates you could put together an entire side of the best players in the world and you'd probably still have enough to fill your bench and reserves. Then again a lot of Beckham's salary is endorsements and stuff so I'm wondering how much Galaxy is actually going to pay him.

In my opinion, American football simply loses to international football... but that's how I see it. American football is boring to me, they only move in bursts and for years I've wondered why they bother calling it football when you hardly ever actually kick the thing. They should call it "armball" or "tackleball" or something a little more proper I personally have always viewed American football as a sluggish game played by neanderthals whose primary skill is beating the daylights out of their competition. On the otherhand, I view International football as a highly-technical game of skill and patience. When I played soccer in high school, we shared the training field with the football team. We'd run laps together, and not a one of them could even keep up with our goalkeep, who was the slowest runner on our team. They spent their afternoons slamming into these big padded metal gate-looking things, while we spent our afternoons intricately practicing passing, shooting, chip shots, etc. And I'd watch how differently we trained, and then on game day, what was the attendance? Football game: 4,000+. Soccer game: I think 1,300-ish was our record attendance. Miserable. But at the end of the day I think that's the main reason I always disliked american football... they always had better attendance, and even though our team was far more triumphant in terms of games won and lost, they always got more attention. Those jerks lol


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Dazzag
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 22:11
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Quote: "But is he worth that in the United States and Canada?"
Who cares? Billions of people watch football round the world. While playing for Man Utd or Real sold merchandise like no tomorrow, I dunno how this LA Galaxy is going to pan out. I mean, like, eh? Amusing twist on the old Galactico name though He will still sell sunglasses and the like by the bucket load to teenage japanese girls.

Quote: "In my opinion, American football simply loses to international football.."
Your opinion, my opinion, facts etc. Of course it does. Even if *everyone* in America watched American football it would dwarf compared to how many people watch football round the world. One reason is because American football isn't watched in other countries, the other reason is just about every other nation is nuts about football. Look up the viewer figures for the world cup. Hell, look up figures for national football. For us there is football then erm.... well, rugby is good when we win.... erm, so is golf I suppose.... ooohhh, formula one is good for a laugh... you see what I mean...

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 13th Jan 2007 22:32
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And darts, can't forget about darts. On Fox Soccer Channel they show English Darts info every once in a while. I never knew it was a sport until a few years ago lol. And what's that sport you brits play that looks sort of like baseball but you've got that wide, flat stick? Cricket is it? Or is cricket the one with the horses? Eh, always confusing to me lol. But Football is where it's at anyway so it's a useless point


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jrowe
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He's not worth £125 million for his playing ability, it'll be the fact that now he's signed you'll be able to buy LA Galaxy shirts with his name on everywhere in the world, and maybe even be able to sell MLS broadcasting rights internationally. After all, football IS a buisness. Any interest he focuses on the american game, filling the stadium is just an added bonus.

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 14th Jan 2007 09:47
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American Football will never catch on world wide for on simple reason, the cost. Outfitting a team with just the basics cost easily $100,000.

Quote: "They spent their afternoons slamming into these big padded metal gate-looking things, while we spent our afternoons intricately practicing passing, shooting, chip shots, etc."


Matt, sorry but you speak from ignorance here, there is no more precise, time involed, training intensive sport then American football. Take a quick look at a playbook in madden (way watered down by the way) and think that you need to memorize every one of those plays, their variations depending on formation, and think that you need to execute that play with dead on precision or it will fail. Now think that that playbook is going to change substantially every week to meet you coaches game plan for your next opponent. Aside from on field training you need to spend several hours a day studying those plays, hours of watching film of your opponents to determine the best time to run you plays, and countless mind numbing, repetitive drills not till you get something right, but till you can't get it wrong.

If you are not in terrible shape and overly uncoordinated, with some training I bet you could play MLS here, you likely would not be a star, but would not look like a fool. To play pro football here you need years of experience, most rookies(guys who have played all their life) end up spending several years in a back up role watching and learning before they ever become a starter, many never last past 3 years to become a starter if the talent level is not high enough. MLS heck they stuck a 15 year old out there (WTH?).

Of course then there is baseball where when batting if you only fail 70% of the time your tops in the league

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Miguel Melo
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Posted: 14th Jan 2007 21:37
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Quote: "the common wage for an american footballer is $11,500 per year, about 95% of the league makes this amount."


Are you serious??? That can't be right, surely? Unless they have full time jobs on the side and just do it for kicks...

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 14th Jan 2007 22:08
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Quote: "there is no more precise, time involed, training intensive sport then American football. Take a quick look at a playbook in madden (way watered down by the way) and think that you need to memorize every one of those plays, their variations depending on formation, and think that you need to execute that play with dead on precision or it will fail. Now think that that playbook is going to change substantially every week to meet you coaches game plan for your next opponent. Aside from on field training you need to spend several hours a day studying those plays, hours of watching film of your opponents to determine the best time to run you plays, and countless mind numbing, repetitive drills not till you get something right, but till you can't get it wrong."


But I think one could easily argue that international football is exactly the same. Major football teams like Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, etc. all have memorized plays as well... intricately drawn and rehearsed game plans that could change on half of a moment's notice. American teams, the MLS, are crap (no offense MLS fans). There isn't a single MLS team in this country that could score on, let alone defeat, serious competition like England's Blackburn Rovers or Brazil's Cruzeiro FC... and by rights they aren't even the best teams in their respective divisions. Soccer isn't taken as seriously in the United States as, well, any other sport we play here, and as a direct result, soccer players don't have opportunities to learn their skill as vividly as they would in a different country. Every American kid's father is ready and willing to teach him American Football, or play catch in the backyard... it's a lot harder to find a parent willing to practice crosses and drills with their kids.

Quote: "Are you serious??? That can't be right, surely? Unless they have full time jobs on the side and just do it for kicks..."

Sadly it's true. The highest salary in the MLS prior to Beckham's trade was something like $500,000 (I could be wrong though, don't remember where I read or heard that), but there's only about twenty players in the US with six-figure salaries. Most MLS players have jobs on the side because no one takes the sport seriously in the U.S., the clubs can't afford to pay them more than that, and since MLS players can walk down any street in the United States without being noticed whatsoever by anyone (who here can name three MLS players from the same team without cheating?), then endorsement deals aren't exactly lining up around the corner. It's sad... depressing really... but true


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Dazzag
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Posted: 14th Jan 2007 22:14
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Quote: "And what's that sport you brits play that looks sort of like baseball but you've got that wide, flat stick?"
The sport that is like baseball is called Rounders. Basically girls play it. Cricket is similar except no-one really cares unless we want to get drunk in the sunshine with posh people, or if we win a certain game every 20 years or so.

American football won't catch on anywhere else because football already exists. Nothing else matters. And considering we then don't have any history of the sport (don't count any American football team we happen to have in the UK; you may as well play for a footy pub side to be honest) then it really won't grow too much elsewhere. As for Beckham selling LA Galaxy shirts. Honestly? I mean apart from to Japanese girls? I mean LA Galaxy? Has anyone ever heard of them (or any other American team)? Not really like appreciating, say, Barcelona, when you actually support Liverpool. Brazil is another example. Doesn't matter where you come from, there is always Brazil. Oh yes. But LA Galaxy? Heh

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Jeku
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Posted: 14th Jan 2007 22:35
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Quote: "But is he worth that in the United States and Canada?"


Honestly I don't think anyone in Canada could care less about American soccer, as we have our own crappy team to contend with

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 14th Jan 2007 23:01
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I'd heard of Galaxy in passing, I think it was mentioned in the movie Goal!. And I'd heard of the New York Red Bulls because I won tickets to see them once, tickets that I gave away because why on earth would I spend three hours sitting in traffic just to watch an MLS team. I can't force myself to like someone or something just to add a decimal to a statistic of something that I actually do care about... getting football popular in the States.

Is soccer more popular in Canada than it is in the US? If it is, I want to figure out why. In Mexico, it's the only sport anyone cares about. If it's more popular in Canada than it is in the US, then that might answer a few questions about the game's popularity in terms of how Americans view things. Like, the answer to why Americans hate soccer is simple: Americans want to be different.


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Dazzag
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Posted: 14th Jan 2007 23:30
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Quote: "Americans want to be different"
Hmmm. Dunno. American football is not a million miles away from Rugby. But with kevlar body armour. Baseball is almost identical to Rounders but without the girls (or boys when their gym teacher is ill and they have to play with the girls). Basketball is Netball, but without the girls. Ice Hockey is Hockey, but without the girls. Or grass. Erm....

Cheers

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Jeku
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Posted: 15th Jan 2007 04:47 Edited at: 15th Jan 2007 04:48
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Quote: "Is soccer more popular in Canada than it is in the US?"


Not sure, but we played soccer in school and never American football, which is why I still don't know the rules of American football. We have our CFL here, which is rougher than the NFL actually.

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dab
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Posted: 15th Jan 2007 08:20
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Quote: "who here can name three MLS players from the same team without cheating?), "

Lol. I could name 3 soccer players. Let's see here:
Landon Donavon, Brian McBride, Freddy Adu (I think those are all MLS).

When it comes to real American Football (with the hands), I don't know squat. It's really bad when the whole family gathers together to watch the Superbowl thing, but never for the World Cup.

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Crazy Ninja
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Posted: 15th Jan 2007 10:50
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What I hate about American football, is that it's so darn slow! The guy starts the play and is tackled. The play ends. Play must now restart. Uh-oh, time out! repeat,repeat,repeat... SO ANNOYING! I don't know how people can watch American football games, unless if you don't really watch it and just talk to the people around you. I like how soccer really doesn't stop until half-time/full time or unless a guy get injured, and then the clock keeps running and they add injury time later.

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 15th Jan 2007 10:56
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Quote: "Sadly it's true. The highest salary in the MLS prior to Beckham's trade was something like $500,000 (I could be wrong though, don't remember where I read or heard that), but there's only about twenty players in the US with six-figure salaries."


Freddy Adu (sp) makes 500,000 he is the highest payed player, MLS thought he would be the one to spark american interest in MLS.

Quote: "I mean LA Galaxy? Has anyone ever heard of them (or any other American team)?"


I have, so have alot of people in my area, the New England Revolution share Gillete stadium with the Patriots. My little area of the US is actually probably Soccer central for our country, we have so many people or portugese and brazillian descent. The owner, Bob Kraft, does alot to push the team and they have the best attendance of all the MLS teams, but still only average 5,000 in a 86,000 person stadium.

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Fallout
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Posted: 15th Jan 2007 19:00
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Quote: "I have, so have alot of people in my area"


Yeah, but you're from the US! I think the point he was making was every country in the world that is involved in footy in a big way has heard of ManU and Real Madrid and Barce and Chelsea and Liverpool etc. Italian, English, German leagues are world famous, and people like myself who aren't big football fans have still heard of most of the teams from those leagues. Then people more into their footy will know a lot of teams from South American leagues and aussy leagues, other european and african leagues etc. I would've heard of the top 1 or 2 teams from most leagues at some point, but I've never heard of LA Galaxy until this Beckham thing.

Considering that, I would imagine Beckham will put American footy on the map externally at least, even if not internally to the country.


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indi
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Posted: 16th Jan 2007 00:13
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man that soccer player has a funny voice.
I laugh hysterically when he talks.

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 17th Jan 2007 20:26
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Quote: "Freddy Adu (sp) makes 500,000 he is the highest payed player, MLS thought he would be the one to spark american interest in MLS.
"

Yep, and now he's being traded . Chelsea and Real Madrid are fielding offers for him (I think those were the teams). That's the problem... the best American players keep getting bought out by other teams

Quote: "Considering that, I would imagine Beckham will put American footy on the map externally at least, even if not internally to the country.
"

It's almost self-defeating in a way. We need heroes. We need a player (or a few teams) who are so exciting to watch that typical Americans find themselves tuning in to watch their games. If we had a team like Man-U here in the States, I'd bet people would view the sport a whole lot differently. There has to be a way to get Americans into Soccer... 5 billion fans can't be wrong


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Steve J
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Posted: 17th Jan 2007 21:09
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Americans have football though. I love meh football. Many guys were in football in high school (including me), so watching it kind of gets this whole "rush" feeling. So I think targeting younger kids to play soccer would help a lot. Then the future generations would watch soccer=P.

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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 17th Jan 2007 22:11
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Quote: "So I think targeting younger kids to play soccer would help a lot. Then the future generations would watch soccer=P."


Actually we have the term "soccer mom" for a reason, soccer is the most played youth sport in the US (by that I refer to city/town kids leagues) for the past 14 or so years. Why when it is far behind golf, tennis and even curling in popularity? It is cheap, all the town have to do is provide a field and many parks can be split into dozens of them, unlike a baseball field which is dedicated to basically one sport and takes alot to maintain. Cost to parents is minimal, hence many towns may have dozens of kids soccer teams, usually 1 baseball team and basket ball team per park in the city, and unless it is a major metro city, or in Texas, likely only 1 football team if any.

Later on when you get to high school sports, you will usually see one of each team but the major focus on football and basketball since these two sports rarely bleed money and are self sustaining.

College is a whole new ball of Wax, Football can support an entire schools athletic program (assuming you have a semi-decent team). Men's basketball then women's basketball come next as money earners in college. Other sports are there, but they all sponge off the big three and almost always lose money.

Of course half the reason college football is so popular is likely because the talent of the players, unlike other sports where you can be drafted or signed before you even get out of high school, in Pro-football you are banned from playing or even speaking with teams until your college class would have finished 2.5 years, no exceptions (ask Maurice Clarette).

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 18th Jan 2007 01:23
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I dunno, my parents were spending a lot on me when I played soccer in HS. Shinguards (friggin' annoying to wear, hate them), shoes, medical bills, etc. Nothing compared to the costs of an American Football player, with all that heavy armor they wear, but the band-aid people got their fair share out of my parents lol . Fields are relatively the same costs as an American football field... just less paint. Decent goals that aren't made out of cheap PVC pipes can cost upwards of two or three grand, and I'm guessing here, but I assume american football goals cost around the same, maybe even less (they don't have nets, but they're way bigger, so I dunno). So in terms of fields, I think the cost is pretty close... it's outfitting the teams that make up the largest difference I think. Is an American football field bigger or smaller than a soccer field? Or are they the same? Maybe soccer fields are popular here because they're smaller/ take up less space.

I dunno, when I have kids, I'm hoping and praying that they love the beautiful game as much as I do. It would be pretty dang cool to take Matt Jr. to England so we can watch Thierry Henry play . Not that I'd name him Matt Jr. I like Rich's baby name, Atari... I might hijack that lol. But anyway, no kids right now so it's not worth thinking about. Point is, I'd love to get my kids into soccer, but keep them interested until they become pro footy players . They could follow in my footsteps, up to the big accident anyway, and do all the things I wanted to achieve with that sport. But knowing my luck, they'll come out wanting to play tennis


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Steve J
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Posted: 18th Jan 2007 01:46
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Football fields are bigger, there is a reason why they say "Thats as big as a football field"=P

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Chris K
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Posted: 18th Jan 2007 10:31
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Sweet argument.

There is no fixed size for a football pitch, but most will be over 100m long.

They are also wider than American football pitches, so actually, a 'soccer' pitch is bigger.

Also I don't think Adu is leaving the US - he had a trial at Chelsea but they decided they didn't want him (for now at least).

-= Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals =-
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 18th Jan 2007 21:37
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I didn't know he already had his trial. Wasn't their another team fielding offers to him? I thought it was Madrid but I might be wrong about that.

I found this interesting: A kid I know, the cousin of one of my friends, is eight years old, and his teacher asked the class to write a paper about their "dream team." Who would be on that team, and why they'd be valuable to the team. The team could be made up of athletes, actors, anything... but as I understand it, almost everyone in the class did a sport, mostly baseball, basketball, and american football. This kid made up a list of his own favorite eleven footy players, like Pele, Rooney, Gerrard, etc., and then got picked on by other kids because he chose soccer. When I heard about that last night, it made me think about this thread and now I'm wondering, do most American kids enjoy the game, or do parents inspire them to play it because here in the states it's considered a safer game to play than american football? And here's something I definitely don't get... when I was his age, I loved soccer and played it during lunch and after school every single day, and no one ever taunted me because of it. What's different between my generation and his generation? Why was it cool for me to play it when I was his age back in 1988, but bad for him to play it now in 2007?


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