By JOSEPH WHITE, AP
WASHINGTON -- David Beckham's presence wasn't required last weekend at Robertson Stadium in Houston. An overflow crowd of 30,972 could've cared less about the English fashion and soccer superstar as they created a raucous, intimidating atmosphere that helped carry the Houston Dynamo to victory and a spot in MLS Cup, the league's championship game.
Beckham also was nowhere to be seen at 14 of the 15 games played this year at BMO Field, where expansion team Toronto FC exhausted its supply of 14,000 season tickets. The club has already sold them all for next year plus an additional 2,000, a remarkable show of passion for a last-place team that went an epoch without scoring a goal.
BECKS AND POSH
This MLS season was supposed to be all about Becks and Posh: Beckham and his wife, Victoria, the former Spice Girl. The mere news of his signing with the Los Angeles Galaxy created a fervour unlike anything the league has ever seen. They would be the First Couple of Soccer in America, arriving like royalty from England to speculator fan adoration with a reality TV show to boot.
Beckham did make his mark, even though he played in only five regular-season games because of a knee injury he brought with him from Europe. Those games, predictably, were among the best-attended, drawing an average of 37,659 fans who wanted to see if he really could bend a free kick. The games he was supposed to play, but didn't -- because of his balky knee -- drew an average of 29,285, well above this year's MLS average of 16,770. If nothing else, many sports fans who couldn't name a single player in MLS a year ago can now at least name one.
But there are signs of an even greater Beckham effect. MLS Internet traffic was up 80% this year. Ratings for games on U.S. cable sports network ESPN2 were up 25%. MLS jersey sales were up 780% -- and up 280% when not counting Beckham's Galaxy jersey, which the league says is currently the No. 1 selling player jersey in the world.
'OFF THE CHARTS'
"The signing of David Beckham delivered on our expectations on every measure," commissioner Don Garber said yesterday at his annual state of the league address. "He certainly raises our awareness and credibility here and abroad. The interest in our league in England is off the charts. Before David Beckham, we weren't covered on the BBC."
Onward from Aug. 2, shortly after Beckham played his first game for the Los Angeles Galaxy, attendance rose league-wide by an average of 49% for the rest of the season -- yet more tangible evidence that his arrival spurred interest in the league as a whole.
"The Beckham effect wasn't just an effect on those five games," Garber said. "But it's how he raised the overall value of the league, which he did effectively do."
MLS completes its 12th season Sunday when Houston and the New England Revolution meet in the MLS Cup.