The Becks Effect

Well I wasn’t totally in favour of it (please see my blog for further details), and the TV ratings weren’t that impressive (average just over 1 million), but overall I have to say that the Beckham experiment was a big success. The game was entertaining, had enough niggle for the AFL fans over at Channel 10, it was a full house, and a bloke in white scored a free kick which seemed to please to rather a lot of people.

The real success of the match though will be measured not in dollars made, or shirts sold, but in how many bodies rock up to Sydney Football Stadium, or Bluetongue, or Energy Australia Stadium over the next few weeks. It’ll be measured by how many kids take off their Bulldogs jerseys or put down their Sherrin’s and head to the park for a kick about. That’s what football in Australia needs. For the previously apathetic to realise that ‘Hang on? This is alright this football lark.’

For long term believers Telstra Stadium was a surreal sight. 80000 fans watching an Australian side take on an American team on a damp Tuesday night. For the newcomers a word of warning; it won’t always be like that. There’s a famous story from England that the Bulgarian goalkeeper Bobby Mihailov joined Reading in 1994 on the strength of a DVD he saw of their play-off final. The deciding factor for the Bulgarian was the beautiful ground Reading were playing at, Wembley Stadium. Unfortunately for Mihailov the dilapadated Elm Park, capacity 12000 on a good day, was the Royals home ground, not the home of football! Needless to say, Bobby soon headed home.

The moral of that story for the newcomer is to look beyond the shiny packaging of Becks, and Telstra and Channel 10, and see and enjoy the game for what it is; the greatest single game in the world. There’s no denying that the game has been given a much needed shot in the arm following a post World Cup slump, exacerbated by the Socceroos wretched showing at the Asia Cup. The interest now must be harnessed and the momentum built on. A free-to-air highlights deal, better advertising of matches, and a better marketed comp (especially by Sydney) are the first steps. They mustn’t be the last.