Major League Soccer on Thursday signed English star David Beckham to a five-year contract worth a potential $250 million to play in Los Angeles for the Galaxy.
With a flourish of a pen, the league not only made the most significant move in its 11-year existence but also one of the most potentially far-reaching acquisitions in American sports history.
It is also a bit of a gamble.
The league believes that Beckham, even at 31, can do for soccer in the U.S. what Michael Jordan did for basketball, what Wayne Gretzky did for hockey and what Tiger Woods has done for golf -- that is, raise the sport's profile to an entirely new level.
Of course, that path has been followed by U.S. soccer before.
In the 1970s, the New York Cosmos signed Pele and Franz Beckenbauer and the Los Angeles Aztecs later acquired George Best and Johann Cruyff. They were as famous in their day as Beckham is today and attracted record crowds for several years, but still the North American Soccer League folded in 1984.
That will not happen this time, predicted Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive officer of AEG, the entertainment and sports giant owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz. The company operates the Galaxy and two other MLS teams, the Chicago Fire and Houston Dynamo.
"There is not an expectation that David Beckham single-handedly makes the league relevant, because the fact is the league is relevant," Leiweke said. "The biggest impact here is that David Beckham makes us \o7more\f7 relevant, not just in this country but internationally, and more people will follow our games."
The Galaxy, which has led MLS in attendance the past two years, said Thursday that it sold 2,000 season tickets within hours of the Beckham announcement.
Beckham said he would complete his contract with Real Madrid in Spain, playing there until June before joining MLS. His wife, Victoria -- better known as former singer Posh Spice of the Spice Girls -- and their three sons, Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz, will move to Los Angeles in late July or early August.
The MLS season begins in April and runs through November.
"Another challenge has come up and it is the right time for us to do it," Beckham said in a televised interview in Madrid.
"I didn't want to go out there at 34 years old and for people to turn around and say he's only going there to get the money. It's not what I'm going out there to do.
