How big will the Beckham-effect be for attendances? Will attendances go up a little or very much? Will the games be more watched, or only when Galaxy arrives with Beckham? Shall David have a big impact so the clubs will play for full stadiums?
Spread your arms like you have airplane wings, now from finger tip to finger tip, that big... Ok really, he will have a huge impact on attendance as many expect certain stadiums to sell out when he comes to town. The big questions are when he hits DC, NY, and KC, the ones still in NFL size stadiums, how much of an impact will he have in those places we have yet to see.
I'm wondering how big the beckham effect will be on attendances next season. Will the galaxy still sell out every game?
Lower bowl of RFK already sold out so I would assume DC will have at least 30-35K. I don't think we sell out RFK, though.
I think people who aren't fans that aren't die hard fans will go to games only to see David Beckham and then after the game It will go back to normal with the attendance, but when ever he is in your town it will be a big crowd.
* David Beckham is expected to feature on the cover of the July 11 edition of Sports Illustrated. LA Galaxy are rebranding and details of their new kits, colors and logo will be released in conjunction with this. http://davidbeckham.fans-online.com/
Good. As he is a player that most Americans have heard of. Although it will be interesting to see if he is treated as just another player by the refs.
Attendances will go up for a good while. Some fans who aren't MLS fans, but like the sport and Becks will come to see. Will they return after a few games? The Toronto/Galaxy game should be a good one! If Becks has an exciting year, has some nice highlight worthy free kicks, and markets himself well. I can see the attendance sticking for the 2008 season. ESPN and MLS needs to do a lot to market the post-Beckham affect and not let attendance drop. The stadiums will be crazy with both hardcore fans and youth team groups/soccer moms to see Becks. He's an icon off the field too, what else can expect?
1) Every Galaxy road game for the next five years will have larger attendance. 2) Galaxy home games will probably sell-out for the next 5 years also, including quite a few celebs like U see with the Lakers 3) Most importantly for the Beckham-effect; you'll see a major media surge on MLS. Many local stations rarely show highlights and breakdowns on their local MLS teams like they do NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL, but now you'll be able to see more coverage of MLS on the news. Also, the mainstream media (ESPN, Fox, etc.) will be covering MLS much more after Beckham comes than now. Maybe this will be the first step in MLS/soccer getting it's own ESPN tv show like Baseball Tonight, NBA Shootout, or NFL Live, which would be huge in adding the momentum of mainstream soccer in the U.S. 4) Fan-wise, we now will have two clubs that will always have sellout home games; Galaxy, and TFC. In the near future hopefully, there will be more. 5) Due to the new coverage, the clubs with struggling attendance (every club that's had a game with 12,000 or less fans at a home game) may finally have a small boost in average compared to now. We won't know that until the end of the season, but if those clubs' averages are raised to over 15,000 each, and there's no more games with less than 10K there, it'd be a major breakthrough for those clubs.
It will be interesting to see how many people are converted into real fans out of the masses that just go to see becks. I imagine this will be compounded by more publicity and hype for the league at that time. I'm looking forward to seeing the attendance and ratings for the playoffs/cup.
I think the effect will be greatly seen from the minute he shows up, the media (espn,fox sports, local media) will cover it like crazy and most of the non-Galaxy fans will get sick of it. But it will help all attendnece figures. Colorado is doing good in their new stadium, so this effect could help sell it out much quicker, and bring a new light to soccer. Soon the MLS will have big name players that most common soccer fans are known to, though it would of helped a lot more if Ronaldo came, but we will have to wait and see who else besides the current cast of "stars" come...
Actually, the Aug. 5 game of TFC vs Galaxy will be the worst game in BMO all year. We sell out every game regardless, and with 14,000 seasons tickets, and an additional 4,500 half season packages sold, most games draw the hardcore football fans, making the atmosphere amazing. The "Beckham" game will see many season ticket holders unable to resist the urge to sell a single ticket for a LOT of money. This means we will see more people that know nothing of the game, and come to oogle at beckham, and fewer true soccer fans . I have been to every game so far, and plan on going to as many as possible. I have an authentic jersey, and jump around screaming the entire game. I won't be attending the galaxy match (didn't manage to get seasons tickets sadly) and I know I am not the only fan in that boat.
Why won't TFC play at Rogers Centre if they sell out MBO field? By the way, what are the average attendances of the clubs of this MLS season?
Rogers Centre (the Skydome) will kill off the atmosphere ... I went there for the baseball a few times and it is possibly one of the worst experiences ... I also went there for a Liverpool-Porto game a few years back and it wasn't exactly that good ...
the ticket prices here have gone way up for that game. i don't really care that much about him, but we are expecting alot of people in arrowhead that night. i am kinda looking forward to seeing how things go
No doubt the impact will be big on attendance but the question is how long before the new wears off and attendance drops?
If every team had their own SSS by now, that would be great, but now that at least a few teams will be playing in NFL stadiums for the next few years, it will provide an interesting opportunity to see just how many seats they can fill, and we'll find out what our "ceiling" is at this moment. Or maybe not, I don't know how many fans would come out just to see Beckham, who doesn't play for their home team, as opposed to say if one of the teams that still played in an NFL stadium signed a guy like Ronaldinho. Then that would be something I'd like to see. In any case, if Beckham sells lots of tickets in the big venues, then that could lead to some of those teams who are hesitant at the moment, to pull the trigger on their own DP signings, noting how much gate they can expect to get if they did it themselves. Right now it's up in the air. I'm especially anxious to see how many Kansas City people will attend when Galaxy are in town on September 27, because if middle-of-the-country Americans turn out well for that, then it can be done anywhere.
Yo i bet that Becks is gonna have all the stadiums full they should make like a soft drink sponsored by him to sell at the matches theyd make millions lol
Did any of you see the video on Sports Center yesterday showing Posh Spice throwing out the first ball at the Dodger game?
As long as he is playing in the league, the effect should be quite noticeable. I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about the day when Beckham steps down from playing. THEN what does the MLS do? Do they have a back up plan or a plan at all? Only time shall tell.