David Beckham said during a press conference at the Air Canada Centre that he wouldn't play against Toronto FC.
As there was in Dallas, there may very well be a horde of angry fans in Toronto. According to the Toronto Sun, the Beckham game helped drive season-ticket sales and helped the expansion side reach a total of 14,000 season seats. Also, about 500 extra seats were put in place and many of those cost well over 100 dollars.
Now that it's become the Beckham-less Galaxy game, we will likely have hundreds, maybe thousands of upset fans.
This whole situation could have been avoided had the league told some teams "Sorry, no Galaxy game for you" from the start. Instead of backloading the Galaxy's schedule and giving all MLS fans hope that they may see Beckham play in person, the league should have said from the start that Beckham is one player and one player doesn't dictate the entire MLS calendar. Then, the Galaxy could have played at Toronto FC on April 21 when neither the Galaxy nor Toronto FC played and the problem would have been solved before it ever started.
What's the schedule going to look like next year? Will priority be given to Dallas and now Toronto because they missed out on Beckham? Will next year's calendar have no Galaxy road games during the weeks leading up to and during Euro 2008 in anticipation of Beckham playing for England in that tournament, thus intentionally screwing over Galaxy season ticket holders? Or will the Galaxy be given that time off completely?
If Beckham is unable to play today, then how likely will it be that he plays in DC on Thursday? If he were any other player, I highly doubt he would have a chance of playing at all these next three games and perhaps the Galaxy would target the SuperLiga semifinal as a possible return. As it stands, he's not and he knows that so he might push himself to play as soon as possible.
That would not be the best thing for player or club but then at least the screaming masses would then have nothing to complain about.
7 comments:
One thing I will really give Toronto fans credit for is that they've been pretty adamant about saying that they're coming out for their team, not Beckham. They've definitely proven it so far this season.
Frankly, I think if Toronto fans suck it up (Beckham's absence) and make clear their loyalty to FC rather than their LA visitor, it'll create pressure on DC to do the same.
In other words, if Torontonians don't gripe about Beckham, but show up to cheer their team to victory, then DCU diehards, who have lost the amorphous, never really awarded "best fans" title to Toronto, will feel obliged to do the same.
The fans who come out just for Beckhams will 1. stay home 2. show up and be impressed by true passion for a team and not just a player.
So I think the league could very well have dodged a bullet by Beckham being absent for possibly thse two games - because they have loyal fanbases anyway, and they probably don't want to reveal themselves as so soccer-ignorant that they're unaware that player participation cannot be gauranteed due to injury.
I'm not saying the league didn't screw up with the emphasis - and I think they may have killed the Galaxy's hope of making the playoffs with this ridiculous schedule, thus semi-sabotaging Beckham's first season, but I'm betting against the worst-case scenario.
Whats really upsetting is to see Lalas make rounds stating that when you brought the ticket you its was for the Galaxy and not for one player. I wish reporters and ESPN would have the gutts to lay into him "specially" for saying that as it is so hypocritical of him to say that. To say now he is hear for 5years so we shouldn't rush him to play as the ankle was so swollen when he got here. If the injury was as bad as they are saying it was. Then it only goes to show you their lack of judgment and the pressure they put on him when they trotted him out for the All-Star game and then played him in that meaningless exhibitation match.
Talk about dropping the ball. The Galaxy and MLS should have seen the potential for injury, England call ups, and not being in the playoffs as potential problems and should have tried to lessen the damage.
DC has sold all those upper decks seats which are usually not available for any DC games no matter the competition. Then they actually charged more then the usally ticket prices for those same upper deck seats. If their is no refund offered then people will likely come so as not to waste their money. At least TFC fans brought tickets for the whole season and they are likely to have only those single game ticket people upset. For DC I think you can say the dihards will show, but those Beckham ticket holders if they show expect the backlash banners to continue.
Personally, I think one of the biggest problems with the marketing of Beckham has been that many teams have used him as an excuse to markedly raise ticket prices for a game. If people were simply asked to pay regular season prices for their team's game vs. the Galaxy, then there isn't a lot of room to complain if Beckham can't play. But if they dished out around $100 for a seat just to see Beckham (which is just ludicrous in the first place) then they have a little more reason to be upset with their local team's FO. I hope this doesn't end up actually hurting the league overall. Even if he's 100% fit next season, the fickle public wants to see him NOW. By next season they'll have turned their attention elsewhere and some people will be even more turned-off by MLS or even soccer as a sport. Silly, but that's how most Americans are.
Becks should just get better and healthy and play when able. I feel bad for fans that spent a lot to see him, but too bad. I live in Dallas, and few people around the country felt bad that he skipped our game, so I don't feel bad that he is missing Toronto, DC, etc.
In regards to the Galaxy FO working to screw the fans over... what's new? From jacking ticket prices to jacking parking prices to allowing the season to be so back-loaded with games (AND THEN SCHEDULING MEANINGLESS EXHIBITIONS ON TOP OF IT!), it's just another chapter in "How to Milk Your Diehard Fan Base," by AEG.
I bought my season tickets before Beckham came, because I enjoyed watching the TEAM, not one man. And I'll renew my season tickets again next year... unless Uncle Phil prices me out in favor of Jennifer Love Hewitt, Arnold, etc...
The league did it right. beckham's injury was just bad luck. If he'd have been healthy, we would be raving about all the attention and how smart the league was. This is not a Freddy Adu situation...
Even if selling a game on the back of any player, as well as raising ticket prices, were an error, which I believe they were, the other issue is that the Galaxy should have been honest about Beckham's injury from the beginning (it wasn't exactly a secret in the world press) and then updated the report honestly when Beckham arrived and they got a look for themselves.
It should also have been the club and not Beckham who finally made full report on Saturday. I think the club is trying to put the "decision" down to Beckham, instead of medical staff and coach, so that they can keep marketing his possible appearances--and let him take the heat when they're not possible. It's a cheap shot to the player (he clearly estimated a week to ten days and they immediately started with the maybes again re DC in 5 days), even in a world where the marketing over-exploitation is unfortunately nothing new.
Would have been nice to expect more from this league, or even for the Galaxy to have learned from their last three weeks of mis-handling and quit equivocating now.
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