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OK, I was waiting to see something like this ... an explanation of what Beckham's "$250 million contract" really means.

 

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Is Beckham's contract with the Galaxy really worth the reported $250 million?

No, and it's not even close. Leiweke refused to discuss the details of Beckham's deal, but league sources confirmed that Beckham's guaranteed salary will be around $50 million over the entire five-year length of the contract. That's hardly chump change, but it's still less than the salaries of a lot of U.S. sports stars.

 

Nor will Beckham's salary bankrupt MLS. Per the league's new designated-player rule, MLS's owners (who otherwise share the costs for all player salaries) only have to contribute $400,000 a year for each of the league's 13 designated-player exceptions. (Right now Beckham is the only one.) The rest of Beckham's salary comes from Galaxy owner Phil Anschutz. The result: Anschutz is on the hook for around $48 million guaranteed with Beckham, while MLS owners only have to pay $2 million.

 

Don't worry about Uncle Phil's ability to pay: He has a net worth of $7.8 billion, according to Forbes.

 

There is more to Beckham's deal than the guaranteed salary, however. Beckham will also earn 40-to-50 percent of Galaxy jersey sales and an undisclosed share of ticket revenues. And that's not all. "There are certain aspects of the deal that are ultimately about the upside value of the league as a whole that David can participate in," says Leiweke. "Our partners all had to sign off, and they did. We had a couple of interesting board calls, but they did."

 

Long story short: Beckham may or may not earn $250 million over the next five years, but the majority of his income will continue to derive from endorsements and not from the Galaxy or MLS. From my perspective, it's a shame that the phrase "$250 million contract" became gospel in the media, because it's terribly misleading and just not correct.

 

In any case, Leiweke feels confident about the agreement. "This is an economic deal that makes sense for everybody," he says, and as long as Beckham doesn't suffer a serious injury or become a total bust on the field, I'm inclined to believe he'll be worth the investment.

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By the way, why don't American's like cricket?

I probably would like it if I understood it a bit better.

 

There are some guys who play cricket during the summer out in front of the nearby high school. I've been meaning to walk over and watch them some evening.

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It's not really that confusing on one level, but the finer rules (the LBW - Leg Before Wicket rule can be a little hard to understand, for example) are definately a little tricky to fully grasp I guess. I would have thought it was the time length of the whole thing that would have put people off more than the rules, but kids in India play it in the street without worrying too much about all the rules, so it's not essential to know all that. I guess you end up loving the games you grew up around - I grew up in a small village where people played cricket, so that's why I prefer it to any other sport - plus there aren't many sports where people from all ages get to play together (at least on an amatuer level). I don't think I've ever played a game of cricket, apart from when I played for the county (youth team) where there haven't been at least a couple of old timers and some teenagers in the same team. Plus Roy Harper's song - When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease is the greatest song about sport ever written!

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That was great! My life-long love affair with baseball has led me to the conclusion that there are few prettier sights than seeing a well-struck ball arc across the sky and travel over a fence.

 

Yeah, I've never played Baseball, but I've done that in softball and rounders (Baseball's little brother and sister), and there really isn't anything better in sport than hitting a six in cricket - scoring a goal in football doesn't even come close (in my personal experience).

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Yeah, I've never played Baseball, but I've done that in softball and rounders (Baseball's little brother and sister), and there really isn't anything better in sport than hitting a six in cricket - scoring a goal in football doesn't even come close (in my personal experience).

"There is no real substitute for a ball struck squarely and firmly..."

 

--Billy Bragg

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