Koi manager Mark Basile was happy to hear the couple are coming to town. "As far as the buzz around town, everyone knows who she is, but I don't think a lot of people know who he is," Basile said. "He's a B-plus celebrity. But he can be A-plus-plus if he does well for the Galaxy."
Taking the lead from Meg's observation that this is less about soccer and more about the next Hollywood couple.
Here is some fan reaction:
"Becks will never overtake the popularity crown in Los Angeles as long as Kobe and Nomar play here. It's actually kinda sad. . .with Mrs. Nomar Garciaparra (Mia Hamm) living in Los Angeles, Becks is not even going to be the best soccer player in town!!!"
Stupid yanks "David the Beckham is the most S-E-N-S-A-T-I-O-N-A-L soccerball player in the world! " Beckham is useless, cannot get into the England squad because of 4 words STEVEN GERRARD & AARON LENNON , you have a rubbish league, you will always be rubbish."
"It's a smart marketing ploy by MLS. He'll bring in lots of corporate dollars. Remember, MLS jerseys will be sponsored.So the Beckham Bimbo jersey will be a hot item. His visits to cities around the MLS will be promoted as big events. As for his ability to play...he'll sell a lot of jerseys!"
Someone called Vivekananda wrote a neat one liner
"The average american says, what is the MLS and what is this Beckham person?"
But not all of it was negative. Most of the comments were variations of this one
"I think Beckham coming to LA will be a great benefit to US Soccer. Soccer in the US is underrated. Having an international soccer star play on a US team, I believe will take soccer to a level we've never seen before."
Good points Tilam: not totally in agreement though;
The salary package disgusts me; But, if we can get by that, listen to this so-called statement that it's not for the money, he wants to improve soccer in the US.
OK, we did not get Juergen, maybe Beckham will succeed in raising the quality of soccer in the US: he pulls a Benedict Arnold; we do pretty darn well; in 2010; 2014;
Remote, yes, but remember, impossible is nothing; er, dang,how much did they say getting shoes like his cost? $200+? The man's got the world on a string.
They didn't win the cup, but even with all the junk going on, save his injury; save Roo's red card; we can't be sure what might have happened.
Beckham made an interesting and perceptive comment in one of the press conferences. He said (roughly paraphrasing), "football is the most popular sport in the US up to a certain age. I hope I can help to raise interest beyond that."
Improving soccer in the US is not a 1 year or 5 year project. And Beckham is not the answer (see my follow-on comment to you post below), but let's improve attendance and viewership 25%. Let's get the next TV deal to $50 million per year. Let's get past the first round in 2010.
Let's have some realistic expectation and make some measurable progress.