I don’t usually call out my fellow soccer scribes. This can be a tricky job, and lord knows we’ve all parked poor pieces from time to time.
But Cathal Kelly’s Toronto Star column on Tuesday defied rational belief. Kelly – who I’ve never met and don’t believe I’ve even actually laid eyes on, even though we’ve both been covering Toronto FC from the beginning – bluntly argued that David Beckham’s desire to remain in Milan will be a slow and certain death sentence for Major League Soccer.
How someone who has witnessed the birth and rise of the TFC phenomenon could even think such a ridiculous thought defies my brain. For what it’s worth:
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- Toronto FC’s success has nothing to do with David Beckham.
- The Columbus Crew’s 2008 rise from non-playoff side to MLS champions had nothing to do with David Beckham.
- Seattle’s sale of 20,000 season tickets for the first MLS season of the reborn Sounders had little or nothing to do with David Beckham.
- No one in Vancouver or Portland is going to turn down an MLS expansion team because of the imminent lack of David Beckham.
- The construction of new and gorgeous soccer specific stadiums in Salt Lake City, Kansas City and New Jersey has little or nothing to do with David Beckham.
- Beckham’s Hollywood flirtation did nothing at all to undermine MLS financial checks and balances which, though often frustrating to soccer fans, have ensured the league’s growth and survival for the last decade and a half.
- Beckham was never more than hype and subplot over here. MLS is about other things, and all its fans and players know it.
Sure, the Becks story is becoming a fiasco, and yes, it’s a black eye for the league. But black eyes don’t kill you, Cathal. Everyone I’ve talked to who cares about this league agrees right now that MLS is better off without Beckham, and the sooner the divorce is final, the better for all concerned.
I’ll be blunt, sir – and please know this next point isn’t about me. (After nine years in at Sportsnet and the Globe, I’m actually very happy and optimistic to be out here on my own right now.)
Cathal, there are good soccer writers in this country who are struggling every month to pay the bills, and are unlikely – given this economy – to ever get the chances you and I have both enjoyed.
I hope you understand how fortunate you are to have that job – and I sincerely hope you intend on doing it better.
Onward!
Addendum: I just listened to Kelly’s appearance on FAN590 radio, discussing his column with Norm Rumack. Kelly argues the league is doomed, largely because it abandoned its carefully structured financial checks and balances to sign David Beckham.
This is utterly and completely false.
Yes, the league created the “Designated Player” rule, so big-name signings could hugely exceed the MLS salary cap. Beckham’s cap hit — the part actually paid by MLS — was $400,000 per season. But that didn’t cost the league an extra penny, because it still paid the L.A. Galaxy roster exactly the same $2.4-million it paid out to every other team in the league. The rest of Beckham’s huge contract was paid directly by Galaxy ownership, a shirt deal and Beckham’s wide and varied array of corporate sponsors.
MLS paid more to Beckham, but less to his teammates — which is why the Galaxy has been a soccer basket case the past two seasons.
The financial checks and balances never changed, and are still very much intact. That a big-media journalist covering the league would not know this — to me — is frankly incredible.