I found it interesting AEG sold DC one day and soon thereafter signed Beckham. Money burnt a hole in their pocket? Does anyone see the sale and the transfer as linked in the sense of giving AEG the cash to make it happen? [After all, the announcement of the transfer of Beckham could have waited til summer, when his arrival was closer, if need be. That it was made now is arguably the case because they could afford to make it now.]
Umm, you do know that AEG is a huge corporation that deals with several aspects in the entertainment business, right? You do recall they owned more than half of the teams in MLS?
You do recall the sale got them $33 million, which bears a resemblance to the $36 million Jen Chang cited as a recent contract offer to Beckham?
Exactly, what you VLA are attempting to argue is that if it weren't for DC being sold AEG wouldn't have somehow been able to sign Becks. P.S. If you disagree then this thread should never have been created.
Yes, but, the interesting thing is that he was not coming here until summer anyway, so why now? After all, the hype for Beckham is destined to die down some in the months between now and when he actually shows. I think they did it because they wanted to make some bold moves one after another, and the money from one gives you the immediate ability to make the other deal happen. You basically sign over the DC ownership group check to Beckham.
DC was bought by McFarlane who is a huge real restate developer and he has a huge desire to become a major real estate player in the DC area. It probably helped, and I'm sure they knew about the Beckham signing, but I think his group was going to buy the team anyway.
Why now is simple. Beckham had to make a decision as to whether or not to accept the RM offer on the table or make another choice. Beckham was making a move in this transfer window regardless of what AEG, MLS or anyone over here was doing. The fact that the DC sale came when it did allowed AEG to be aggressive with going after Beckham, but they wanted him anyway. Serendipidous, yes. Joined at the hip, no.
Why this matters is if you are a DC fan (they find it interesting), what basically happened is your owners sold you and then took the cash and went out and bought Beckham for another team.
No, he didn't. He is still under contract. He won't be here til summer. Nothing had to be resolved now. A summer signee could have been signed just the same in summer. This was all theater.
And why should that matter to United fans exactly? AEG is no longer their owner so no use crying over spilt milk.
Like people said, AEG had to go after him now. I'm sure you know LA Galaxy were not the only club after Beckham. RM were still trying to re-sign him, well for months now. Other clubs were interested. Had he re-signed with RM forget getting him on free. He was given a deadline by RM as to if he would re-sign, and told them he signed with MLS. If AEG hadn't been pursuing him, most likely he would've re-signed or would have been sold off, especially after Capello was fed-up with the hold-up. Capello gave go-ahead to sell Beckham (along with Ronaldo & Cassano). Basically, AEG went after him because AEG were not the only ones with interest.
I like your Oliver Stone stance on all of this, but the truth is he made the move now while he still had bargaining power. RM had a two year extension on the table at 11 million a year. If you are AEG you don't wait because other teams in Europe could find themselves in more money come summer and outbid you. You don't want the bidding circus to wait until the 11th hour because somebody else can always come in and snatch him from under your nose. If you have the chance to lock him up now, you do it. It happens all the time. Your reaction sounds like you've never seen a player sign a contract in January that won't take effect until June, and I'm assuming you have.
What exactly is the fee for Beckham? Free from RM, and about $2mil a year for 5 years. I skipped math most of college, but I don't think that that adds up to $33mil you're quoting. As what I have seen is that Becks is going to get his estimated $45mil/year in endourcements, and the rest in salary (depending on where you read, $2-$4mil). Nevermind that AEG is a rather sizable corporation that can easily absorb $36mil. btw - Becks was always going to the Galaxy or nobody in MLS, so saying that AEG "then took the cash and went out and bought Beckham for another team" is not correct.
That's funny, DC United is only worth a single Galaxy Player... But seriously, i'm sure there's some sort of connection, it makes it a little easier to spend the big cash when you've just got a bunch of cash in, and no longer have a drain (not sure if DC was a huge drain or not, but I know they weren't bringing in a profit).
From a LA-perspective, it's just a franchise sale, and you get the benefit of the money and the player acquisition. From a DC-perspective, you were ditched by AEG so they could raise the funds to improve the competition, and you don't know what to expect of the new owners, if they are after the same standard of play (you know LA is, because they are out spending $). If LA clobbers DC at some point, especially with the toy they bought from selling DC, the import is obvious.
Are you indicating Bolton or whomever was ever going to outbid us, that the "fix wasn't in" on this long ago? This has been a long term open secret. Becks to LA ... how long has there been talk of this? The question was when to make it public. I think you do it now because you can afford it now, flush with cash. A winter signee for summer is sufficiently rare as to raise eyebrows.