<table> </table> <em>David Beckham</em>.</p><p>Does the name mean quite what it did a year ago?</p><p>In 2007, Beckham meant a $250 million contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy, sold-out stadiums, <em>Sports Illustrated</em> covers, photo shoots, a reality TV show featuring him and his wife, talk of a new era in American soccer and a rock star leading the sport in all things on &#8212; and off &#8212; the field.</p><p>Beckham version 2008, which makes its way to Kansas City next Saturday, has been a bit different.</p><p>&#8220;The buzz on any significant signing will never remain anywhere near the same for five years,&#8221; said Major League Soccer deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis, &#8220;much as a new movie that&#8217;s been released comes out with a big splash and there&#8217;s a natural tapering.&#8221;</p><p>This year, 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 &#8212; but he&#8217;s not the savior for his sport in this country. Not anymore.</p><p>Last September, when the Galaxy arrived at Arrowhead Stadium, the Wizards announced a crowd of 32,867, eclipsing the team&#8217;s record of 30,308 for a 2003 game.</p><p>This Saturday, the team has moved the game from its temporary home at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, which seats just more than 10,000, to Arrowhead to accommodate the crowd. But the influx of early sales has given way to more moderate enthusiasm. The Wizards say they&#8217;ve sold about 76 percent of the tickets they&#8217;d sold last year at this time.</p><p>&#8220;Basically, it&#8217;s a different buying trend,&#8221; said Rob Thomson, the team&#8217;s director of marketing and communications. &#8220;With what happened last year when people bought tickets early &#8212; we had a huge bump the first two, three days, then slowed due to his injury as people waited to see what he was doing.&#8221;</p><p>Wizards officials hope the sales will come as the week ticks closer to Saturday&#8217;s game.</p><p>&#8220;I think the walkup this year will dwarf the walkup from last year,&#8221; Thomson said. &#8220;I think it&#8217;ll smash it. Last year, five days out, we found out he wasn&#8217;t coming. So the tickets stopped. This year, I think it&#8217;ll be the exact opposite. Once he comes to town, lands in KC, we&#8217;ll get a good buzz, and that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m anticipating.&#8221;</p><p>League officials are quick to point out that ticket sales across the league remain steady and that sales for Beckham games have edged up. They&#8217;re also quick to remind you that Beckham&#8217;s worldwide popularity and reemergence on the field adds benefits to MLS that aren&#8217;t apparent if you simply study ticket sales.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a complicated matrix because attendance is one measure, but a lot of the effect and benefit for us will continue even after David Beckham has left the league,&#8221; Gazidis said.</p><p>Some other facts to ponder: The Galaxy&#8217;s season-ticket sales are up 20 percent from where they were in 2006. Adidas has sold about 500,000 of the new Beckham Galaxy jerseys &#8212; a huge chunk of them in countries outside the United States. The attendance for Galaxy road games has gone from about 28,000 last year to about 29,000 this year. In 2007, ESPN and ABC nationally televised seven Galaxy games. They&#8217;ll televise six this year.</p><p>&#8220;We went and played in front of 40,000 people in Boston, and in New York 50,000,&#8221; said Galaxy assistant general manger Tom Payne. &#8220;Obviously, he&#8217;s having that impact.&#8221;