NFL + LA = ?

The question isn't whether the NFL needs Los Angeles (it doesn't), but rather does Los Angeles need the NFL. Or really more to the point, does Los Angeles want the NFL?

No franchise will be allowed to move to L.A. in the foreseeable future, if for no other reason than the politics of building a proper professional football stadium in Southern California. The process would certainly take too long, and the people of California would not finance a stadium on speculation that a team might move there.

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Beckham's Impact in America

I would like to think that the impact of David Beckham coming to America to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy would be beneficial enough to thrust professional soccer in America into the mainstream. But I'm afraid that that result is highly unlikely.

That said, David Beckham does, however, bring something to the MLS that it sorely needs, and that is celebrity. For the first time since the league's inception in 1996, the MLS has a player who has name recognition beyond the sports page. For the first time, an average American chosen at random on the street can actually name an active professional soccer player. David Beckham has, overnight, become the face of the MLS and soccer in America in general. And there is no way to underestimate the need for such a face, a face that soccer in America has not had since Pele.

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