FAIL
We’re shocked, honestly, that something involving the gel-haired, middle-aged midfielder could be done without a media orgy, but it’s true.
In December, the David Beckham Academy based in Carson, CA closed. And very, very quietly. Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) laid off the small full-time staff and followed up with a barely-circulated memo that made it around AEG and few other places (thank mercy it did escape their grip, else we still might not be aware).
While admittedly it was a tiny piece of the Beckham Empire and Brand, it’s still a notable failure considering that the 2005 launch was presided over by Beckham, AEG’s big chief and American Idol creator Simon Fuller, a guru and moneyed friend to the Beckhams.
So what went wrong? As with all things Beckham, it revolved around money.
According to a page still active on the Home Depot Center’s website (I wasn’t aware either that it needed a website, but that’s the internet for you), the David Beckham Academy was billed as “the premier youth soccer academy in the United States” and boasted such features as “state-of-the-art fields and facilities” and a curriculum designed by “Beckham’s legendary Manchester United FC Youth Coach Eric Harrison.”
For a time, it probably was all of these things, though as Beckham’s popularity in the LA area waned and people suddenly stopped having as much disposable income to lavish on their kids, the Academy became a rather barren landscape. $500 for a five-day camp for 8- to 15-year-olds? Err, no thanks. Camps for younger children? No money for that either. How about just summer camps, priced appropriately and designed to get them off your hands while they’re off from school? Can’t afford those either, I’m afraid. Cut to December, 2009, and the Academies in Carson and England were closed, and all plans for future incarnations of the Academy in Asia and Brazil(?!?!?!) were put on hold.
We’ll ignore the fact that David Beckham and his business cohorts thought they could seriously open a soccer academy in Brazil, a country abundant in more talent than Beckham may ever possess, and chalk this whole thing up to a very boring, very ordinary corporate restructuring in these difficult, grim economic times.
Not that they lost money or anything, says Simon Oliveira of 19 Entertainment, a promotions group affiliated to Simon Fuller and, indirectly, Becks: “David and AEG invested in the academies in London and Los Angeles on a not-for-profit basis as all revenues went into the day-to-day running of the academy so any talk of losses is misplaced.”
Funny, as that contradicts what AEG spokesman Michael Roth, author of the press release, had to say to the Daily Breeze, the California news outlet that broke the story: “As a private company we don’t discuss finances in this way,” Roth said Friday. “However, it was not in the millions of dollars.”
Regardless of which arm of the Beckham/Fuller/AEG family is telling something closer to the truth, the fact remains that Beckham’s academy was probably as independent as it could get from the player/icon himself, therefore robbing the excited kids and parents of the one major attraction to the academy in the first place: Beckham himself.
That’s the problem with trying to be a global brand AND also trying to play in the media game that you deeply care about “the children” and have lots of passion and energy and feelings and, most important of all, tons of spare time to earnestly devote to helping children learn how to play soccer. I’m guessing that the bulk of those who did fork over the cash for these camps left disillusioned and unwilling to go back, simply because the man running drills was someone they’d never heard of. One or the other, David, and the decision to can all Becks-branded academies without so much as a sniff of the media says it all.
I’m sure the group has some new, bold, hip plans to revive the notion of a Beckham Soccer Academy, probably something that’ll take root wherever David fancies playing next. Having failed in LA and in London to inspire the youth to get elite soccer training, one wonders just whether it’s even worth it.
Sometimes, it’s just best to cut your losses and run.
“David and AEG invested in the academies in London and Los Angeles on a not-for-profit basis as all revenues went into the day-to-day running of the academy so any talk of losses is misplaced.”
That might be the dumbest statement in the history of business. All companies use their revenues to fund the day-to-day running of their business (except maybe Chelsea FC… Hey-O). In a strict sense, if they weren’t making a profit, then yes, they were ‘not-for-profit’ businesses. But I think Mr. Oliveira is confusing “not-for-profit” with “unprofitable.”
But then who will teach Tom Cruise’s kid to play soccer? The humanity!
Yeah, PR, pretty much. A statement trying to avoid the question if ever there was one. I’m guessing they lost a lot of money in trying to run these academies.
ben: Zenu