Bench it like Beckham

The New England Revolution will play before a sellout crowd at Gillette Stadium Sunday, mostly because the Los Angeles Galaxy's $250 million man, David Beckham, is coming to town. But there's a hitch: Beckham might not play in Foxborough.

Since joining the Galaxy last month, Beckham has taken the field for just one of five Major League Soccer and exhibition matches, and has barely practiced because of an ankle injury. Galaxy officials have him listed as "questionable" for the team's next match tonight against D.C. United in Washington.

His absences could be hurting a strategy being used by the Revolution and other MLS teams, which have required fans to buy season tickets or bundles of several games to see Beckham play. The hope was that after attending several matches, fans will enjoy it enough to keep returning.

"If we can get the soccer fans who aren't MLS fans to come to other games, they can see that we have a pretty good product here, to watch us on TV, come to more games, get some season tickets," said Brian Bilello, the Revolution's chief operating officer. He compared Beckham's injury to similar situations in other sports. For example, even though there's no guarantee that every New England Patriots player will appear in every game, Gillette still sells out.

"When you buy a ticket to see a professional sports team play, you're buying a ticket to see a team," not an individual, said Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy's president and general manager.

Dick Fischman, a Dover resident who coaches a women's soccer team that bought 80 tickets to Sunday's match, echoed that sentiment.

"If you don't want to watch the Revolution, you shouldn't go to watch Beckham," Fischman said. "What happens if you buy tickets to the Red Sox game and you wanted to see Matsuzaka pitch? What happened if you picked the wrong game?"

But anticipation for Beckham is arguably a bigger draw for the nascent soccer league than a star quarterback is for the National Football League, which has plenty of other well-known players and millions of loyal fans. The Revolution sold out the 32,000 seats available for Sunday's match, a feat considering the team normally opens only 20,000 of Gillette's more than 70,000 seats and has an average attendance of 14,364 so far this season.

The Revolution and other teams are also using Beckham as a way to sell tickets to matches that don't involve the Galaxy.

There were three ways to obtain tickets to the Aug. 12 match: Season ticket holders could buy extra tickets; fans could buy a four pack that included the Galaxy match and three others; or groups of 20 or more fans could buy tickets to the Beckham match only.

The Revolution charged $60, $84, or $112 per person for four-packs of tickets that included Sunday's game and three others. Normally, single game tickets sell for $18, $25, and $34.

The New York Red Bulls and D.C. United sold tickets in tiers, allowing season ticket holders to buy extra tickets to the Beckham match, then selling multigame packages for several weeks before selling remaining seats to fans who only wanted to see that game. All three teams said they expect their stadiums to sell out.

Other teams, including FC Dallas, Toronto FC, the Colorado Rapids, and Columbus Crew sold Beckham tickets only to season ticket holders or as part of a package. Toronto sold out its 20,000 seat stadium within a few hours on April 9, said Marcus Cerioux, the team's group sales executive. That's despite the cost of a ticket having been raised to $30 to $75 Canadian from their regular $15 and $60.

For at least one team, Beckham's arrival won't likely boost sales. Chivas USA plays in Los Angeles' Home Depot Center, the same 27,000-seat arena as the Galaxy, meaning Chivas fans can see Beckham there several times this season -- provided he gets healthy.

"We're the only city that has two teams, so our marketing has focused more on the rivalry than on the presence of David Beckham," said Chivas USA spokesman Keegan Pierce. Though the team averages 13,013 fans for each game, Pierce said matches against Galaxy routinely sell out. He attributes it to the large number of soccer fans, particularly Hispanics, in the Los Angeles market.

Beckham was signed in January by the Galaxy under a rule that allows every team to break the league's salary cap for one player. So far, the three teams that have used the rule -- the Galaxy, the Chicago Fire, and the New York Red Bulls -- have all opted for players from overseas.

"They're trying to present him as the genuine article, direct from where football is real," said Stephen A Greyser, a Harvard Business School professor who studies sports marketing.

When Michael Jordan made a comeback to basketball in the late 1990s, his presence helped lift attendance for the Washington Wizards' franchise and by extension helped other NBA franchises when the Wizards played on the road. Beckham could have the same impact on MLS, Greyser said, and if not, the league doesn't stand to lose much.

"What are the consequences if it doesn't work?" he said. "The consequence is somebody doesn't go anyway. It's not as though some fan is being turned off by this. This is an opportunity to scratch the itch of soccer curiosity."

Keith Reed can be reached at reed@globe.com.