Bend it like David

[DolfanBob]

Beckham will play his last game for the LA Galaxy next week. It has already been six years that he has played in the MLS. I still wonder if LA got the return on the huge financial investment that they spent on getting him.
He did add International star power to the League. But did he bring the kind of Pele, "must see play" kind of excitment like back in the NASL of the 80s?
He say's that at 37 he is not ready to retire and wants one last challenge before exploring the possibilities of team ownership.

[TulsaRufnex]

I don't know if the LA Galaxy got the "return" on their huge financial investment, but the league definitely did.

For the 2006 season, MLS had 12 teams, five soccer specific stadiums, and a league average attendance of 15,504 fans per game.

For the current 2012 season, MLS has 19 teams, twelve soccer specific stadiums, and a league average attendance of 18,807 fans per game.

Of the teams in 2012 that do not have soccer specific stadiums, one could argue that Portland's Jen-Weld Field is soccer specific, since it is a converted AAA ballpark (baseball no longer played there), Vancouver's BC Place Stadium is a conversion as well (the Tulsa Roughnecks played Soccer Bowl '83 at that stadium in its first year of existence), and Seattle's NFL-sized CenturyLink Field was built with MLS in mind.  This leaves only teams in DC and New England playing in older NFL facilities, while the San Jose Earthquakes are playing at tiny Buck Shaw Stadium until its new soccer specific stadium opens in 2014  http://www.sjearthquakes.com/newstadium

[TulsaRufnex]

Flashes of the old Cosmos in a potential deal with David Beckham
By Howard Megdal
2:11 pm Nov. 26, 2012
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/sports/2012/11/6682673/flashes-old-cosmos-potential-deal-david-beckham

...this weekend, when the team announced that it was in talks with David Beckham to become a player/owner, with a possible deal by Christmas.

The immediate benefit of adding Beckham to the mix is clear. The Cosmos have a 13,000-seat venue to fill at Hofstra. If the New York Red Bulls have struggled to draw at gleaming Red Bull Arena, playing in the top tier of American soccer and featuring Thierry Henry and others, convincing soccer fans to come out to Long Island for second-tier soccer wasn't going to be an easy sell.

A Beckham-led Cosmos team means fans making the trip have more than a logo to go see; there's a curiosity on the field that is likely to make them want to stay and watch, then return.

The N.A.S.L. has no salary cap, unlike M.L.S., so Beckham's addition wouldn't preclude them from signing other players as well. Nor is the N.A.S.L. likely to complain about the traveling boost to attendance that would be any games Beckham plays on the road.

The attendance boost would feed into the long-term Cosmos goals, too. Though the Cosmos organization hasn't officially said that its goal is to join M.L.S., they appear to be setting themselves up to follow in the recent trend of teams to pass through N.A.S.L. on their way to the American majors:  The Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and others, in recent years, played in the second tier of U.S. soccer, and built a fan base there, prior to making successful transitions to M.L.S. The idea is that a team with a built-in infrastructure and fan base is likelier to succeed in M.L.S. than a team starting from nothing.

The Timbers, for example, drew an average of 10,727 fans in their final season playing at second-tier in 2010. They've averaged a full-capacity crowd in their two seasons in M.L.S. since making the jump, and even drew better than 14,000 fans earlier this year for a reserve game.