David Beckham's Influence On American Soccer

David Beckham’s Influence on American Soccer

How could someone kickstart their failing sports league into an organization that that has gained 70 million dollars in corporate sponsorships (Thomas; Mulrine)? They could follow in the MLS’ footsteps and make a celebrity the face of their league. In 2007 David Beckham signed to the MLS, and skyrocketed the league out of mediocrity. Without David Beckham the MLS would not be where it is today.

In December of 1993 the MLS was founded. The MLS, or Major League Soccer is a soccer league sanctioned by US Soccer. The MLS is the United States and Canada’s highest tier soccer league. The MLS was started as part of the bid by the United States’ to host the 1994 World Cup. The league started out with only

2007 was also the year David Beckham started playing for the L.A. Galaxy on his multi-million dollar contact (Dewhurst). Beckham had previously played for teams such as Real Madrid, Manchester United, and the English National Team, making him one of the most popular soccer players in the world. However Beckham’s popularity wasn’t just concentrated on his soccer skill. His popstar wife, and general popularity outside of soccer made his name one of the household variety.

Beckham’s popularity was arguably the biggest contribution he made to the MLS. He brought the MLS attention with his signing, when they were trying to maintain relevance. His move across the pond stole headlines and got people interested in the MLS. If he was just another professional soccer player like Zlatan Ibrahimovic no one would have payed attention (Sappenfield). His background from other leagues in different countries also brought an international audience to the MLS. (Dewhurst)

In Beckham’s introductory match against Chelsea, in which he only played 18 minutes he grew the views immensely. Before Beckham had even set foot on the pitch the view rating of the match was 0.5, but once he joined the game it grew to 0.8 (Dewhurst). According to the Associated press the Chelsea game had 947,000 views, while a couple of weeks earlier the L.A. Galaxy games were only getting 422,000