Ftsis 2007: Becks Deal Took A Week Says Aeg’s Leiweke

Tim Leiweke, president of the Anschutz Entertainment and the man who took David
Beckham to the US, told the FT Sport Industry Summit that the deal took only one
week to complete.

The AEG chief, which owns LA Galaxy amongst a number of other US sports
franchises and stadia, stated: ‘We’d long been an admirer of Beckham but we
didn’t think for one minute that Real Madrid would blink on renewing his
contract but they did.

‘I’d already had a working relationship with Simon Fuller at 19 Entertainment
so when the opportunity arose we jumped at it. David was very receptive to the
idea and the whole deal only took seven days to complete which is extremely
quick.’

Leiweke explained that the target had always been to bring in a star player
that was not close to retirement and could make an impact on and off the pitch –
a goal that Beckham filled exactly.

He defended criticism of the move with many claiming that the injury-hit
Beckham would not provide return on investment.

‘David Beckham has been great on the pitch and phenomenal off it. I said that
he will have the biggest impact on US sport of any sports star in history within
five years and I stand by that statement. We’re only 120 days in – let’s see
where we are in five years.’

Leiweke also stated that the impact of Beckham in only his first season and
ensured that LA Galaxy and its Home Depot stadium and broke all its records in
terms of profit made putting it in the top 10 percent of US sports franchises.