"I'm going to hopefully build a club and a team that has a lot of potential. I think that is what excites me."
Beckham turned down a two-year contract extension offered by Real Madrid to sign with the Galaxy and it is possible that Real Coach Fabio Capello, who has relegated Beckham to the bench, might opt to release him early and acquire another player before the international transfer window closes Jan. 31.
Beckham insisted that the decision to come to Los Angeles, where he already has a youth soccer academy, was not based on the hefty size of the contract put together by AEG, an estimated 80% of which will come from commercial endorsement deals and image rights.
Leiweke declined to discuss the specific financial terms of Beckham's contract but said, "David has the opportunity to earn up to a quarter of a billion dollars.... A lot of that is going be from the commercial side, but clearly David is clearly going to continue be one of the highest paid, if not the highest paid, athletes in the world."
By Thursday evening, the Beckham buzz was already in full swing.
"I think it's exciting for everybody who enjoys soccer, me being one of them," Lakers star Kobe Bryant said. "He's obviously an elite player and it could be good for the game. Soccer has some catching up to do here in the States and I'm sure he'll boost that popularity."
Bryant was asked what he thought of Beckham's deal.
"What'd you think about it? Wish you could be David Beckham, huh? I'm happy for him," Bryant said. "That's a hell of a situation."
Don Garber, the commissioner of MLS, said soccer has changed dramatically in the U.S. since the days of the Cosmos, when NASL teams signed Pele and other foreign stars but started few American players.
"On the same day that David Beckham was signed, we sold Clint Dempsey to Fulham in the English Premier League for $4 million -- a 23-year-old player that came up through our grass-roots system," Garber said, adding that the NASL "didn't have the careful strategic expansion plan that we have. They didn't have the depth of ownership that we have. They didn't have the four network and cable television partners that we have paying us rights fees. They didn't have soccer-specific stadiums.
"And mostly, the country at that time ... did not have the massive fan following that we have. The final of the World Cup had a larger [U.S.] audience than the seventh game of the World Series this past year."
