David Beckham article in Sports Illustrated
There is an indepth article, "Anatomy of a blockbuster: The story behind the Beckham deal and the economics", in today's Sports Illustrated, that talks about the ins and outs of how the MLS team LA Galaxy signed David Beckham! A couple of quick take away points if you don't have time to read the full article
1. LA Galaxy are completely re-branding and intend changing their colors. So it would be best to hold off on buying a Beckham LA Galaxy shirt or other merchandise because David Beckham will never wear the current green and gold. The team is looking at dark blue and black but no decision has been made.
2. The article details how the deal was put together and refutes any allegations of pre January 1 talks.
3. The article confirms rumors that LA Galaxy will make a pre-season tour of Asia in 2008.
Full Story here
posted by rpm at 8:46 AM
5 Comments:
Thanks for putting it up Anna :)
balanced summ up and good news -> no light blue, yellow or green kits Yipeee
Ben
9:16 AM
Thanks Ben for the heads up - appreciate it. I like the sound of the color change too!
Anna
9:36 AM
Anna - First off Great Job on this site! you do a fantastic job all the way around. I am writing ot vent. The American media has done a terrible job o nthis entire beckham story. I understand soccer is not #1,#2or even #4 in american sports but it is still a topic that should be covered wit hclass and professionalism, Today a national and well known Sports host said beckham came ot American A. becuase he is washed up ( we both know it is near impossible for a 31 year old star to be washed up) and B. becasue he had not other choice or options. If im wrong please correct me - i respect your opinion - wasn't Ac MIlan ready to sing beckham if it was not for LA? Why have reports of this been kept so quiet- if you have metioned it im sorry i check the site everyday and i may have missed it and if you have any unknown answers as to why no one has cover ed this story let us all know - Keep up the great work ! - tlka to you soon
Rp
6:12 PM
Hi,
I'm relatively new to the site, although that doesn't seem to keep me from burdening it with some excessively long comments--based on my own frustration with the media I suppose (sorry!). But it's very nice to know that Anna is the person I have to thank for the wonderful amount of well organized and to-the-point information. It is greatly appreciated.
Rp-the coverage you mention comes from two unfortunate sources. The "no other choices" comes from Calderon's offensive speech, and "washed up" comes from a highlighted box in the Sports Illustrated issue Anna mentions that quotes several tabloid rags apparently in fun. It's pitiful that a major news outlet can't read through a whole article, if they are not willing find their own sources, and simply quote the trash alongsides.
Mr. Beckham seems to have had confirmed offers from, at least, both Inter and AC Milan, Lyon, Marseille, West Ham United, Bolton Wanderers and Newcastle United, as well as interest from Liverpool and, surprisingly, even Barcelona once again. And for someone who is so furious at being turned down, Calderon forgot pretty quickly about the existence of Madrid's own two year contract offer.
Apparently Milan was considered down to the last minute and didn't get their response much sooner than Madrid did. The Sports Illustrated article, found through the link on this site, offers an interesting picture of the final decision making days, in addition to the years that lead to the Galaxy deal. I also like the articles and comments included in the "Owen Supports David Beckham" section below which refute a good deal of misinformation.
American sports coverage can get pretty bad on most topics as reporters do tend to repeat what they read and hear elsewhere. I guess that is true all over, the difference being that in other places you usually have at least a few columnists that you trust to provide educated coverage even when you disagree with them.
Diane
8:39 PM
Hi Rp,
Diane is right about the source of the negative publicity that Becks has received, the comments from Calderon seem to have been most damaging. They were very widely reported and gained quite a bit of traction :( The media, as unfortunately I have come to expect, were very irresponsible they reported the quotes in isolation and didn't include any of the info that directly contradicted the lies that Calderon was telling.
There were most certainly other offers besides the one from LA Galaxy, AC Milan seems to have been the main competition for his signature? It was quite widely reported on Jan 13 and I put up an article about the AC Milan offer on Jan 13, it's on the bottom of the Post "Capello, won't play Becks again". I posted another article about the AC Milan offer on Jan 16 as well, when Calderon said he had received no other offers. Don't worry about missing it lol there has been so much news and I have posted so much on the site in the last week, I barely know what's here at this point :))
Anna
11:11 PM
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