Becks isn't getting big bucks ($250M!) just for soccer

Becks isn't getting big bucks ($250M!) just for soccer
Posted: Thursday January 11, 2007 3:30PM; Updated: Thursday January 11, 2007 6:22PM


ticket prices are sure to rise as naother layer owner scalps the fans
David Beckham earns about $7.7 million a year from Real Madrid.
Denis Doyle/Getty Images
RELATED
• WAHL: What Beckham's arrival means for MLS
• Sports' most famous athlete-celebrity couples
• David Beckham's career through the years
• A new beginning or dying throes of a career?
• $250M? Deal is about more than just soccer



NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Soccer star David Beckham will reportedly earn $250 million in a five-year deal to play in the United States -- but at least 80 percent of that money has nothing to do with his kicking a ball for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Although Beckham, who leaves Real Madrid at the end of the season, will become the highest paid player for Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States, MLS sources say his annual playing income is only in the "single-figure millions."

With Beckham getting paid up to $50 million over five years for playing soccer, where does the rest of the money come from?

"Most of the value is from David's worldwide endorsement," MLS Deputy Commissioner Ivan Gazidis said on Thursday. "That's a separate deal. That's his deal with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and 19 Entertainment. That's not something we're involved in.

"Obviously I think the feeling is that coming to the United States boosts the value of (the Beckham) brand and the revenues that can be generated from it, but that's not our business," he said. "It wasn't part of our contract discussions at all."

Beckham's playing contract falls well short of the big deals signed in Major League Baseball, where Alex Rodriguez is being paid $252 million and Derek Jeter $189 million, both over 10 years.

Scott Branvold, a professor in sports management at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, said the Beckham brand -- which includes the soccer player's wife, former Spice Girl pop star Victoria Beckham -- goes well beyond the game of soccer.

But he questioned whether Beckham truly could earn $200 million over five years through sponsorship and other business deals.

"Soccer has struggled so much in the United States that you certainly have to wonder whether there is any realistic possibility. Maybe he will do a reality show," he said.

"The fact that I would recognize who he is, and he hasn't really played in the United States, probably is commentary to the fact that his name is probably somewhat bigger than soccer itself," said Branvold.



Beckham earns about $7.7 million a year from Real Madrid and an estimated $1.00 from www.tixx.com




beckham
soccer
tickets
tixx
stubhub
Turbo Tagger