Can Brand Beckham Change Hearts, Minds?

I can't fake or feign it...I'm no sports fan. So this is a question to all you Americans: is brand Beckham strong enough to change this nation's hearts and minds on soccer...or will we ship him back home?

I asked my dear ol' Dad and he said "The game is too slow for this country." While half-listening to ESPN earlier they said "Americans can't deal with a game that has no end in sight." (I still don't understand what Dad or the reporter meant.)

According to the Baltimore Sun: "From the fine folks who brought us warm beer and driving on the wrong side of the road comes this latest line of twisted logic: The world's most popular soccer player is charged with finally pushing the sport into the mainstream.

You aren't going to sway a nation that prefers football to futbol by simply sending over the most popular athlete you can muster. If we collectively think the sport is boring to watch, the solution is not to send us someone who's mastered the boredom. That's like a television network airing an hour-long reality show on paint drying -- and encouraging you to watch because the broadcast features the nicest, shiniest paint in the world. American sports fans aren't fooled with dimples and hard abs and a Spice Girl on one arm -- to us, it's still paint drying."

But some BIG bucks have been invested importing the Beckhams here to prove them all wrong. And poor Posh, her reality show is getting ripped and yielding low ratings. Like Paula Abdul's reality show I watched it. Once.

And I've no intent on watching either again. (Paula's show was too bipolar and I turned off Posh's show after they asked her if Tom Cruise had converted her to Scientology.)

So, marketers, can all the money and image-makers make us love not only this cutie couple...but the game of soccer? I for one am looking forward to all the parodies on Saturday Night Live (and YouTube).

PS: Question for my fine European readers: If we do ship him back home, would you want him back being he's sold-out to the red, white and blue for lots of green?

Comments

[John Dodds]

He has never been the best player in any team for which he's played, though he will no doubt be the best player on his new derisable LA Galaxy side. Moroever he's injured. So there's no great clamour for his return.

I've no idea what the hype will yield (claiming sales of 250,000 shirts when in fact this was the amount that MLS ordered for their stores -no actual sales - is just part of it). Football's profile will be raised but it's a team game and one that doesn't bear interruption so preferences will have to be changed considerably for success to ensue.

And tell your Dad that baseball (which I love) is incredibly slow and a great event at which to have long conversations in the stands.

[Ryan Karpeles]

First, Beckham is past his prime. Soccer fans know this. Which means (in theory) that the real futbol fans on US soil won't even be THAT excited anyway. And if the non-soccer fans tried to care, they would probably end up disappointed that they spent their efforts on someone without much gas left in the tank.

I think the Baltimore Sun nailed it. This whole thing reeks of "push" advertising. It's like the US sending a beat-up and weary Shaquille O'Neal to Malaysia and expecting everyone to suddenly like basketball.

Another problem is the MLS (the league Beckham will play in) itself. US cities are playing US cities. There aren't intense rivalries. In foreign countries, the competition is between nations. It's a battle across dividing lines. Pride is at stake. When the LA Galaxy plays the Chicago Fire in the MLS, it's hard to get very emotional.

Soccer is life in countries outside the US. It's ingrained in the culture. It's a part of who you are. It's worth crying for. Dying for, even, in some cases.

One soccer player can't simply change an entire culture of 300 million people. But I guess the question then becomes...does he have to? How big of an impact will be considered a success? If this country is going to hop the fence and begin appreciating soccer, it has to start somewhere.

Perhaps David Beckham is simply that Somewhere...

[Paul]

I really don't think the preferences we show have anything to do with the mechanics of the sport. It's all about the connection - especially the emotional connection. You love the sports you grew up with.

In this way, sports are like big'ol brands - Pepsi drinkers are gonna say they like it because of the taste, but not really, it's because their grandmother used to always have cans of it for family picnics when they were 10 (an exaggeration, but you get the point)

Beckham isn't meant to convert current American sports fans to soccer, he is meant to inspire new ones - the 10 year old who sees one of the greatest players of this era do something few human beings can do. His impact, if any, will be felt years from now. Which is why months from now, when the ratings haven't changed and fans haven't increased, he will be declared a failure by the American media. They will, as usual, be wrong.

[Sarah]

As a Brit who now lives in Canada (via a couple of years in LA) i would have to say that the US version of football is slow and boring! But I guess it's all what you're brought up on. Mind you I am not into english footie either, its just the lesser of 2 evils!

In the UK the media portrays Victoria as a dumb woman. Any reality show is comprised of 30 minutes of your life you will never get back. She managed to portray herself as more intelligent that I thought she was. She also seemed to be a good mom!

Never thought I'd say it.

[Pete]

Oh, you mean all this is real? I thought it was just a lot of hype for an American version of the British soap "Footballers Wives."

It probably doesn't help that this is going on in LA, it comes across as this week's celebrity watch while we all wait for Paris Hilton's next misstep. I actually think that tag-teaming the Beckham hype with his wife's own media frenzy dilutes the soccer message, he hasn't even stepped onto the field yet and it's quickly becoming a joke that will be forgotten (and replaced) in a very short time.

[Cam Beck]

We've seen this before... I don't think Beckham will make a bit of difference in the near term. He doesn't have the star power here that he had in Britain, because fewer people are watching here, and they've not been given a compelling reason to start.

How do they expect us to react? Start watching because he or his wife is attractive? Please!

And this is coming from someone who LOVES playing and watching soccer. I think it's a great sport. I just don't care for the games as they're played, when they're played (rarely on network TV), or where they're played.

I also hate the "mascot" names. There's no room for rivalries. Who can get mad at the Galaxy? The Fire? The Burn?

Now the Rams... the Eagles... the Bengals... There's something I can sink my teeth into. :)

[Matt Dickman]

I disagree that Beckham won't make a difference short and long term in the US and here is why. Despite what anybody thinks, youth soccer is among the top sports for young Americans growing up. I found research from 2002 stating the active number of youth soccer players in the US to 17.5 million. That's an INCREDIBLE number and a huge fan base.

Soccer has not taken off for a couple of reasons in the US to date. When I played from age 4 until 14, the only REAL soccer you could see happened every four years at the World Cup. There were no real US stars and coverage on ESPN was non-existent. The MLS gets very meager coverage even though the talent level has been slowly increasing.

So Beckham brings the sport to the forefront. He's past his prime, but he'll still kick ass over here because the talent level is very low on a global perspective. Hopefully his move will bring fans and money to the teams who can try to go out and get some players in their prime.

The version of soccer we watch in this country is slow and not the best. Watch some English Premier League action and you'll see a HUGE difference. Publicity in any form can only help US soccer long term.

[Lewis Green]

As a former pretty-good athlete and then a sports writer, my data shows that playing a game as a kid does not translate into adult fans for that sport on a one-to-one ration. Soccer fans for three decades have been saying that because lots of kids play soccer, it would flourish as a pro game, and professional soccer continues to wilt on the vine. It is particularly true with soccer as opposed to America's most popular sports (football, baseball and basketball), because half the kids who play are girls, and they don't buy lots of tickets to professional sports as adults (it's all relative).

Kids play soccer for lots of reasons, and if soccer didn't exist many of them would not participate in competitive sports. Here are just a few of those reasons: They are encouraged by their parents, who don't want them to play a rougher sport and because it is far cheaper for uniforms and gear than other sports. Others play because they don't have the eye-hand coordination (as opposed to eye-foot coordination) to play baseball, basketball or football.

That's my take, anyway. Won't see soccer popular in this country because some washed-up guy from Britain now plays here.

[Jetpacks]

I'm in agreement with your Dad.

The first many of us had ever heard of Beckham was "Bend it Like..." the film with Kiera Knightley.

No matter how much hype, publicity and press coverage this guy and his camera-loving wife get, no one in America will give two shits about "futbol" when it's all said and done. We just don't care for the sport, on the whole. Sure, I've seen pockets of adult enthusiasts at the local parks, but they're all from countries that love the sport.

Speaking of, I saw an English woman in the neighborhood playing in her front yard with her grandson. They were playing cricket. Think that'll ever take off here? Sure - as soon as soccer does.

[Matt Dickman]

Lewis -- I disagree that youth play doesn't translate to being a fan later in life. It's all about how the sport is structured. Kids need role models. Name me the best soccer player in America....I'll wait while you go Google that.

Now, imagine kids playing basketball, baseball or football without the NBA, MLB or NFL. When I grew up I looked to Jordan and Marino and Ozzie Smith. I visualized them and played to be like them. That play as a youth led me to stay involved in the game by attending and watching on TV. Soccer has had absolutely NOTHING in this country along those lines. If a kid has to work to follow a sport it's not going to take off. Take any sport and remove the professionals and you'll have less interest.

Is Beckham going to save soccer? Not really, but if I were 6 and played soccer I'd look up to him for damn sure and I'd definitely follow it more closely.

[Cam Beck]

Matt - You do have a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, don't you? By that, I mean if you were 6, you would have great difficulty finding a channel that had MLS on, and that your parents would also want to watch. It would be difficult for you to follow just from the standpoint of availability.

I don't think the problem is the sport of soccer. As I said, I love to play. I love to watch. But it's so much more fun to watch when you can talk to your friends about the game the next day. That's a little hard to do when no one else is watching.

MLS shoulders some of the blame, and getting high profile players actually helps their cause, but without airtime available to middle America that supersedes, in their minds, "Desperate Housewives," the buzz generated by those high-profile players is going to be most prominent in the tabloids.

This is all conjecture, of course. We will see where this goes soon enough.

[Nathan]

I would venture to say the opposite of what your dad had said. The sport is too /fast/ for most americans. Baseball and football are both slow sports. Basketball is probably the fastest of the mainstream sports.

Take a look at the number of Hockey fans compared to baseball or football. I think the difference is it's too fast, not too slow. I do, however, agree that a problem with soccer is the end in sight and that had been an issue with hockey as well.

[Lewis Green]

Hey, I must have missed the fast parts. I viewed at least 8 world cup matches. Basically, most players are standing around, while a few are jogging. And there aren't any 300-pound defensive tackles who can run the 40 in 4.6 knocking you silly. On every World Cup team there are one or two guys with speed, but they can use it only rarely. I'm not arguing whether or not basketball or football is fast. But if you want a fast game, watch ice hockey, track or view a game of Lacrosse. I seldom see soccer players even breathing hard.

[John Dodds]

Lewis - the average distance covered by an outfield player is about 7 miles - that's in a 90 minute game (that lasts 105 minutes as opposed to NFL's 3 or 4 hours) and during which they have to be on the pitch all the time - unlike defensive tackles. If you like fast impact sports, check out rugby where again play and participation is continuous and there is no protective padding.

[Matt Dickman]

Cam -- I think the egg is there, but they were lef to fend for themselves.

Soccer is an extremely fast-paced sport to Nathan's point. The field is just really wide making it appear slower. Anybody who's ever played at all knows what type of shape you have to be in to keep up with the constant running. Like I said, you have to watch English soccer to see the real deal. They do tackle and hit and there is plenty of blood as well. Part of the reason they're not breathing hard is the level of training they have. Put ANY football team or baseball team on a soccer pitch and you'll see some winded, whiny babies complaining of how hard it is.

I think any buzz for the sport only helps. The more people that go in person, the better it is and the more it'll be on TV.

[Cam Beck]

Matt - You won't get any argument from me that soccer's an exciting sport... and whenever I played it was certainly a contact sport (mostly due to lack of quality skill -- but I sure could slide tackle).

Yes, there is a lot of jogging (just as in football when players trot back to the huddle or off the field), but it is interspersed with a lot of sprinting... though much of it happening away from the ball.

Yes, the buzz only helps, but at what cost? I heard on the radio today that Beckham was going to make a boatload of money for his effort, which cannot be justified by a simple cost-benefit analysis unless that benefit is a dramatic increase in viewers.

I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen, but we can all agree that what has happened is that MLS took a big risk.

I hope it works out for them.

[Tangerine Toad]

Why did I know this post would garner a lot of debate....

Do you all remember when the North American Soccer League signed Pele, at about the same point in his career as Beckham is now- nothing happeing.

And Lewis Green is right: playing soccer as a kid doesn't translate into being a fan as an adult.

He's also right that it's popular because pretty much anyone can play: it doesn't require the same coordination as other popular sports. (It requires a lot of coordination to be a GOOD soccer player, but getting out on the field is pretty easy. That's why it's so popular with kids, especially younger ones.

[CK]

All: I am really enjoying this thread and thank you for so much insight--especially being that I'm so sports-ignorant. This strategy of the billion-dollar Beckham boy and beautiful wife being imported here...for a game that's not taken-off professionally...has me intrigued.

And I'm also intrigued as to how the U.K. feels about it (well, the rest of the world, too). On the one hand it appears clever but on the other it comes off as so very forced. Is it wrong for me to say I don't want them here? No, it's not that I don't want them here...I would love to know more of the game as Ryan said above with how much futbol symbolizes abroad--but I think we're making a (bloody)mockery of it. I don't want it to be so easy to just throw enough money and good looks at something so as to manufacture popularity. I probably could have said that better but that's what is bugging me about all of this (even tho' Beckham has a lot of talent). I just think it makes the U.S. look bad.