Bloomberg News: Beckham Sparks $13.3 Million in Sales for Galaxy

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by pc4th, Apr 19, 2007.

  1. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    MLS Press Release, right?

    They're good. Very very good. I used to compete against a company like this. Stretched brilliantly with their press releases. Were never strictly speaking inaccurate, were always highly misleading. The press couldn't tell the difference. Printed what they were told to print.

    Who knows, the press release might even be accurate this time. But if not, they'd issue it anyway.
     
  2. Bjorn Taroque

    Bjorn Taroque New Member

    Jan 18, 2006
    Louisville, KY
    It's a Bloomberg story.

    Is anyone else floored by the news that MLS-licensed products bring in $150 million a year? If that's accurate, that's really good to hear. I would have never even guessed any figure even close to that.
     
  3. uclacarlos

    uclacarlos Member+

    Aug 10, 2003
    east coast
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Yeah, me too.

    $150mil is over $12mil/team last year. I kinda doubt that it's that much. Maybe they're counting adidas money, which isn't all that much ($15mil/yr??).
     
  4. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    True enough, it's not an official press release. Somebody with Galaxy/MLS feeding the Bloomberg reporter.
     
  5. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    Hard to believe. Even if the stuff cost $11 million to produce and market, which seems highly unlikely, that would still leave $1 million per club in profits. I saw the Wizards books when the Wiz was for sale and there was nothing like that for licensing/merchandising revenues. Believe me, you wouldn't miss a stray million with the Wiz's revenues, as there weren't very many millions to go around.
     
  6. Baysider

    Baysider Member+

    Jul 16, 2004
    Santa Monica
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    All the numbers seem a little weird to me. According to the article, last year it was $5 million from ticket sales, $3 million from sponsorships, and then $12 million (gross) from merchandising. I wouldn't have guessed any of those proportions.

    Of course there's also the $25 million from parking.
     
  7. JohnR

    JohnR Member+

    Jun 23, 2000
    Chicago, IL
    The Wiz were a lot lower than that, although the proportion was similar.

    True 'nuff. 10,000 people per match x 14 matches per year x .5 cars/people x $350 parking fee = $25 million. That's the math that's saving MLS.
     
  8. SideshowBob

    SideshowBob Member

    Jan 12, 2007
    Maryland
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Is that why all the teams are building suburban stadiums, so that no one can take public transportation to get to games and avoid parking fees?

    ;)
     
  9. USMNT

    USMNT New Member

    Oct 28, 2006
    That guy Powell is a moron. 40% of NHL revenues after 10 years with 1/3 the teams may be walking around money compared to the NFL...way to place the numbers in context.
     
  10. USMNT

    USMNT New Member

    Oct 28, 2006
    Do you want to cut Real Madrid in on 50%?
     
  11. USMNT

    USMNT New Member

    Oct 28, 2006
    Maybe Vagenas should get a mohawk and some tatoos...he's pretty close to a mohawk as is.
     
  12. pc4th

    pc4th New Member

    Jun 14, 2003
    North Poll
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Genius. Charging people $350 for parking. MLS fans = Bill Gates of the world. The actual parking fee is around $10-15 for most teams.

    5,000 cars x 15 matches x $12 parking fee = $900,000.
     
  13. balatonsurfer

    balatonsurfer BigSoccer Yellow Card

    Jun 21, 2005
    Galbitown
    I did a search, and there 6 David Beckham's in the metropolitan LA area. Someone more creative than I should do something funny with that.
     
  14. capitalist

    capitalist New Member

    Nov 13, 2004
    He's gonna sell of a lot of tickets for all other MLS teams as well. Add in the jersey sales, autographed auction sales, etc. and it's a sweet deal.

    However, the most important benefit is the increased media coverage, which is just invaluable for a young league such as MLS.
     
  15. Stan Collins

    Stan Collins Member+

    Feb 26, 1999
    Silver Spring, MD
    In a business context, $150 Million in sales is often sneezed at.

    As to whether the figure is legit. . . I don't know. I do know at one point you could buy Mardi Gras napkins in the grocery store that were MLS-licensed. And I know at one point they were the #1 brand of napkin in the US.
     
  16. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    That's $150M in retail sales. MLS probably gets 8% (standard rate ... which is what made Mary-Kate and Ashley so wealthy) license fee, which does come out to a neat $12M.

    NFL probably gets 10-12%, being the big dog and all.
     
  17. SidFarkus

    SidFarkus New Member

    Jan 11, 2007
    New Jersey
    Right now they do, but when his deal ends with them and his deal with MLS starts he will own his own image rights.

    In fact, this was maybe the biggest reason he didn't decide to stay with Real Madrid. They wanted to keep his image rights as part of any new deal and he wanted them for himself. Those image rights are also another reason his contract looked a whole lot bigger than it really is.

    As far as the Galaxy acting as if no one would have bought another season ticket if not for Beckham, well that's pretty much what a growing business does. We know it's BS, but it's what they do. Look no further than the fledging industry that is satellite radio. When Sirius gave Howard Stern an ungodly sum of money to join them, they acted as if they'd made their money back when something like 1 million people signed up from the time they announced his signing to the time he debuted. He and they acted as if he was solely responsible for those million. Obviously that's ridiculous because to think that you'd have to assume that not one more person would have signed up for the service had they not signed him.

    The Beckham deal is no different. His impact, like Stern's, was positive but not nearly as lucrative as the companies make it out to be.
     

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