… So why has the Beckham experiment failed?
About 34 years ago, soccer in the United States was saved – despite the eventual death of the North American Soccer League – by Pele. He was able to draw large crowds for his New York Cosmos club, home and away.
He was also paid an absurd amount of money for a professional athlete at the time. Where Hank Aaron was the highest paid player in baseball at under half a million dollars, Pele would earn well over a million.
Current Galaxy star David Beckham drew in big crowds for his first season in Major League Soccer and signed what is reported to be five years at $250 million.
That’s where the similarities end.
After Pele’s first season with the Cosmos and even after his retirement, the Cosmos were still able to fill Giants Stadium (with its 78,000 seats) to near, if not complete capacity for years to come. The Galaxy still have a hard time filling up the Home Depot Center that seats about 27,000.
The main problem the Galaxy are struggling with and the Cosmos never had to worry about was a salary cap. With a contract as big as his, it’s hard to field a team with quality players. Besides Landon Donovan, can you name another, current, Galaxy player? Therein lies the problem of why the Galaxy can’t win.
When the Cosmos built the team, they were able to bring in top quality international players. After Pele, they brought in Girogio Chinaglia from Italy, Franz Beckenbauer from Germany and another Brazilian named Carlos Alberto. This was a soccer club more than 20 years ahead of its time.
Of course, the Cosmos would eventually be run into the ground to the high salaries and other financial troubles their parent company Warner Communications that caused the end of the club and the league.
Ultimately, MLS and the Galaxy will survive because of that salary cap. Beckham, however, is no Pele.
… I’m now locked into a contract with AT&T Wireless for another two years now that I have a new cell phone.
It is a Samsung Impression and to paraphrase MMA fighter Georges St. Pierre, I am impressed with its performance.
The Impression is a world phone that also has GPS and a touch screen. It takes pretty good pictures and the Internet can play videos; the quality is not so good, but it gets the job done.
It is not a smart phone like my last phone, however, but I think I can do without it.
This is the first time I’m under contract with AT&T since my contract ended in 2006. That’s when I had an LG phone (that was garbage) die on me while I still had a few months left on the contract. I bought a phone without a contract then more than a year later I was given a Samsung Blackjack by my friend James. However, it was time for a change and I wanted something cool. I’m happy with this phone.
… I talked to my father recently and got around to the subject about his trip to Mexico in October. I reaffirmed to him my wanting to go.
He wants to go for three weeks. My two of my sisters that are going with him and I are now up to figure out when we are going to be with him since we can only spend a week at a time with him. We are also trying to figure out a time, when possible, to spend some overlap time with the siblings and our dad.
When I told my father I wanted to go, he told me that I should go first with him. My sister would tell me later, he wants to show you around, which I have no problem with.
From what I understand, his trip will be in two parts, a week or so in Mexico City and the rest of the time in his – and my mom’s – home state of Jalisco. Going first means I won’t be able to go to Jalisco, but that is a miniscule disappointment.
So, I’m going to the homeland of my parents in October. When I have a date hammered down, I’ll buy my ticket and I’ll be there letting my father taking me around Mexico City.
I’m excited and I’m just under three months away from that trip.
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