David Beckham only played the final 10 minutes of his country’s World Cup qualifying game in Andorra at the weekend, and his international career isn’t the only thing on the slide. Compared with last season, ticket sales for his appearance with the L.A. Galaxy at the Kansas City Wizards this Saturday are down too, writes Bill Reiter.
The Wizards have moved the game from its temporary home at CommunityAmerica Ballpark (capacity: 10,000) back to its old home at Arrowhead Stadium to accommodate anticipated extra ticket demand. “But the influx of early sales has given way to more moderate enthusiasm,” says Reiter. “The Wizards say they’ve sold about 76 per cent of the tickets they’d sold last year at this time.”
Sales are steady, but the Beckham buzz is, “well, sort of normal. No hysterical fans running to their seats at the All-Star game clamoring just to see him. No talk of soccer being raised, immediately, to the pantheon of sports in the United States. Beckham might be a soccer player and a pretty face and a good story — but he’s not the savior for his sport in this country. Not any more.”
But Wizards’ spokesman Rob Thomson is optimistic that “the walkup this year will dwarf the walkup from last year. I think it’ll smash it. Last year, five days out, we found out he wasn’t coming. So the tickets stopped. This year, I think it’ll be the exact opposite. Once he comes to town, lands in KC, we’ll get a good buzz, and that’s what I’m anticipating.”