The Beckhams are coming to America

David Beckham signed a 5-year deal worth $250 million dollars with the US football (soccer) team Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Galaxy team had already announced that they have sold over 1,000 season tickets and could sell out their total allotment in about 30 days.

While Rodeo Drive would experience a substantial increase in sales with Victoria's shopping, will David Beckham help revive the Major Soccer League (MLS)?

Soccer, though popular among elementary schools, secondary, high schools, and colleges, has never reached the same level of popularity as baseball, basketball, and American football on the professional level. Being called "the beautiful game" to the rest of the world, Americans view it as "the boring game."

The MLS was formed in December 1993, U.S. Soccer's promise to FIFA to establish a "Division One" professional football (soccer) league in exchange for the staging of the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States. It is still a young league (13 years) compared with England's (over 100 years).

Before the MLS, there was the defunct North American Soccer League (NASL) which operated from 1968 to 1984. Its most popular star was Brazilian superstar Pele who played for the New York Cosmos, who drew upwards of 40,000 fans per game. It folded because Americans were no longer interested, overexpansion, and finances. The failure of NASL led to FIFA's decision to award the 1986 World Cup to Mexico after Colombia withdrew.

The MLS currently has thirteen teams in two divisions. One team, San Jose Earthquakes, is currently on hiatus. The 2007 season starts in April and ends in November. Toronto FC is the newest team added for that season. Three more expansion teams are to be added by 2010.

Even though most Americans may think MLS is just a niche sport, it slowly doing pretty well in terms of profitability and media coverage. Most of the teams have moved into or in process of moving into soccer-specific stadiums. Playing in stadiums specifically for NFL or NCAA football games places MLS in a disadvantage. It becomes expensive if attendance levels are small and poor lease deals. If you have a few thousand people attending a New York Red Bull game at Giants Stadium, it feels depressing seeing all that open space.

Media coverage is also growing with the Fox Sports Soccer Channel, and tv rights on ESPN/ESPN2 and prime-time channels. With more coverage coming in from Europe on their football (soccer) leagues, it will help promote MLS. It will help erase Americans' perception of MLS as being a league of a "niche" sport.

Over the last year, over $1 billion of investment money has poured into the league in the form of new stadiums, owners, and teams, to the Adidas shirt/soccer promotion sponsorship. Fan support is slowly strengthening, with some season ticket sales growing at least 20%. With the addition of 6 more stadiums by 2010, MLS will finally have a solid majority of its teams in venues that will allow them to earn more, create a better atmosphere (and more die-hard fans), and will be able to expand in a more careful manner because the league will be much more financially stable and may make a profit for the first time.

Beckham's arrival may help provide a boost to this. Now if we can get some football (soccer) songs going and more quality players, we can get ourselves off our feet, and actually plan to do better nex time.

The 2010 World Cup is only 3 years away.