Soccer star's brand value

David Beckham is clearly one of the world's most popular football stars.

He was leaving Real Madrid at the end of the season in 13 July, 2007 to join the Los Angeles Galaxy. The 32-year-old, one of the most recognizable figures in the game, has triggered unprecedented fan interest at Los Angeles Galaxy.

For Los Angeles Galaxy, Beckham is like a money-spinner. There has never been a player who brings such direct economic benefit to the club like him.

After David Beckham joining in, 300,000 Jersey No. 23 were sold. 3 months later, the turnover of the club’s products increased by 40%. And the club welcomed 7,000 new members. Of the whole competition season in 2007, 7.8 more times of jerseys were sold than last season. The club received more than 500,000 jersey orders from Europe and Asia.

In 2007 season, Los Angeles Galaxy raised its ticket rate from 21.5 $ to 32 $. But fans loved to pay for the tickets for Beckham. The income of box office was up to 7,430,000 $, taking up 21% of the total ticket income of the Major League Soccer. In 2008 season, the effect of Beckham kept expanding. 25,513 fans on average were attracted to see the match in the home court every time. Before, the seat occupancy rate in home court was just 16,000. When Los Angeles Galaxy was on the road, number of occupied seat was 28,814. In 11 matches out of 14 when they were in the away ground, new attendance record was created. According to statistics of ESPN, Los Angeles Galaxy’s audience rating increased 1.5 times when Beckham participated.

Because of Beckham’s arrival, Herbalife, a giant in US health-care product industry, renewed the contract with Los Angeles Galaxy, whose total amount was almost 30,000,000 $. Jersey sponsor Adidas also brought Los Angeles Galaxy fund between 5,000,000 $ and 6,000,000 $ every year.