Guest Article: The Circus Comes To Town - Beckham Style

Aussie correspondent for Whenballmeetsfoot Martin Cassidy reports on the marketing phenomon/footballer David Beckham's sojourn down under with his team the LA Galaxy and analyses the massive reaction he has received.

Vincent

The David Beckham circus is in town this week with Sydney’s Olympic Stadium acting as the big top. The main event, an exhibition friendly between Sydney FC and LA Galaxy, was played there tonight in front of 80,295. To put that in context, it is the largest football crowd in Australia this year for an international or representative fixture, surpassing the 79,322 that attended the Wallabies vs NZ All Blacks at the MCG. The crowd is therefore larger than that for the Socceroos against a virtually full strength Argentina featuring Messi, Tevez, Mascherano, Heinze, etc. It is also only 1,100 short of the crowd at the NRL rugby league grand final at the same venue but larger than State of Origin. Such is the drawing power of David Beckham.

You would have had no trouble finding a seat to watch Sydney FC play Sunday evening in the A-League, at the smaller Sydney Football Stadium and at a much cheaper price. Incidentally, Beckham was at that game as a guest and was paraded before the crowd at half time. Add to that Sydney rested several players for tonight’s exhibition, including former Leeds United striker Michael Bridges who picked up a knock on the weekend. For LA, they came with their new coach Ruud Gullit and with several internationals including US national team hero Landon Donovan, although I don’t think they were the attraction. Rather the fact a reported 20,000 Galaxy shirts with “Beckham 23” have been sold in Sydney in the last few days suggests the spectators were there for one reason.

The match itself was billed as a showdown between the MLS and our A-League, although with Sydney battling to reach the finals and LA missing out on reaching theirs, not to mention them being in the off-season, I’m not sure it was much of a guide. That said, LA started quite well while Sydney were nervous in front of the biggest crowd to ever greet an A-League club and there were numerous early errors as the home side struggled to maintain possession in midfield. However, in the 20th minute former Brazil and Middlesbrough star Juninho slid through a wonderful pass for Alex Brosque and he finished well for the home team. The goal settled the nerves and led to more open play and more chances, Brosque soon netting his second and before long it was 3-0 inside half an hour. The highlight of the night came in the final minute of the first half, Sydney conceding a free kick in front of the D and Beckham curling a trademark free kick over the wall, into the top corner. As an indication, it was similar to the goal he scored against Greece, but obviously with less pressure.
The public got their money’s worth in the first half but the goals continued after the break, Sydney eventually winning 5-3. Despite the game being a “friendly”, LA learnt that concept doesn’t exist for Australians, although Galaxy gave as good as they got. Beckham was felled midway through the first half, caused partly by the slippery surface following earlier rain. He took a knock on his troubled left ankle and limped about for the next ten minutes, no doubt causing heart palpitations amongst organisers and Beckham’s employers alike. He obviously played on and stuck through the full 90 minutes, producing several majestic long-range diagonal passes and the aforementioned goal. An LA team mate was red carded late for a very sinister act, deliberately standing on a player’s arm after pushing him to the ground. The same player earlier kicked Juninho but despite several unattractive incidents, the crowd got what they came for and went home happy.

I believe $1 million was Galaxy’s appearance fee but organisers would certainly be happy due to the estimated $3.5 million in gate receipts, not to mention the unbelievably positive promotion this has been in the media and the associated benefit to sponsors. Which ultimately is what this exercise was about. Beckham is indeed a great player and this was probably his only ever match in Australia. Even so I never thought about travelling to Sydney for this event and had it been in Melbourne I am still not certain if I’d have paid the asking price. However 80,000 people did, Sydney caught Beckham fever with him featuring on the back and front page of the daily newspapers, and even Channel 10, having never shown real interest in soccer before, broadcast the game live. They had to import an SBS (theworldgame) commentator for the occasion but the subsequent news bulletin described Beckham as a “genius” and referred to this as “the most highly anticipated soccer match in Australian history.” Now Vinnie and I, and a few mates, did fly to Sydney and paid good money to attend the qualifier that saw Australia defeat Uruguay to reach our first World Cup in 32 years. If emotion and historical significance are anything to go by, I would suggest that was somewhat bigger, but anyway... such is the nature of Australian football in the eyes of mainstream media.

There has always been problems of this type in Australia, where frustration with the lack of knowledge of new converts clashes with the reality they are needed for the game to really grow. Indeed, long suffering fans may have thought the same about me in years past, so I should not complain. The fact is Beckham’s tour of Australia has been a huge success on all counts, be it cocktail parties, mingling with fans, sponsors’ events or his on-field job. Yesterday he kicked footballs on the harbour from one boat to another, as part of an Adidas promotion with representative players from AFL, rugby and league and never stopped smiling. Tonight he gave a performance surely beyond the promoters’ expectations and the game produced 8 goals, ideal for the audience who were probably more used to higher scores in other football codes and often use that fact to criticise this sport. So in light of the growth of A-League crowds, and governments offering bipartisan support for future development, including a 2018 World Cup bid, an opportunity to win over more converts can ultimately be nothing but good for the game.

Earlier this year the Socceroos opened their Asian Cup tournament against Oman, hardly one of our traditional sporting rivals. The match drew the highest ever average audience for a sporting event on Australian pay TV. This did not include the additional tens of thousands who watched the game in 3,600 accredited bars nationwide, and it was a Sunday night in mid-winter. Melbourne Victory has attracted three crowds of over 47,000 to A-League games in the past 12 months and for the first time ever, the Socceroos are preparing to enter a full and meaningful World Cup qualification campaign, meaning more big matches than ever will be played in Australia in the next year. That comes on top of 95,000 to watch a friendly against Greece last year and two internationals over 61,000 this year for Argentina and Uruguay.

Football, soccer if you will, was always regarded as the sleeping giant of Australian sport until at least 2005 and the win over Uruguay. If it needs David Beckham’s celebrity to stir certain sectors into realising what the sport has to offer, so be it. There is already considerable support in Australia with more kids registered than any other sport. With more people being attracted each year, and Beckham aiding that cause, the future is very bright. Just as long as we qualify for the next World Cup.