A recent eBay search found some tickets for sale to see David Beckham play in Toronto on August 5. There are only three ways to get a ticket to this game, which was a sell-out long before a ball was ever kicked at BMO field. You had to own season's tickets, know someone with season's tickets (maybe you saved his family from a burning building and they owe you one), or buy them scalped.

Beckham's contract with Spanish Champions Real Madrid has expired, but he will take some time off before joining his new LA Galaxy teammates in July, meaning that the game on August 5 will be his first game in Major League Soccer. To say that there is some hype for this game would be a gross understatement. Beckham is a cross-cultural, world-renowned celebrity. Of course the ticket prices are going to see a little jump.

The south end stands at BMO field, where these particular seats were located, already have a bit of a reputation. In a brilliant marketing move, the club's owners, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, made these season tickets very accessible to fans. For $220, you could have bought tickets to each of the 15 home games, plus a few international friendlies. A pretty good deal when you consider the cost of other professional sporting events.

The fans in that section stand for the whole game chanting and singing and picking on players for the opposition in unison. People want to be in the south end as much for the experience as the game itself. It's a fun place to be and near impossible to get a ticket in these stands without connections, David Beckham or not.

The "Beckham Game," as it is known, is considered a "premium game," meaning that the face value of the ticket is slightly higher than most of the other games. A ticket in the south stands would normally go for $15, and $30 for a so-called premium game. The pair of tickets I saw online in this section were going for $600. I figured the seats would be marked up a bit, but that represents a mark up of 4,000%. The question is then, what makes Beckham so special?

Is he a good footballer? Sure, he's good. But, there are a lot of "good" soccer players out there and he is far from the greatest. The late George Best, who also famously wore the No. 7 shirt for Manchester United and arguably was the greatest footballer of all time, described Beckham by saying: "he cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right." Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Best was also hounded by the media in his day, when 30 or 40 years ago, the media might have been considered a little less intrusive, unless you can account for such a thing as media inflation. Like Beckham, he was followed as much for his looks and off field activities as much as for his play, though in Best's case his "activities" would better be described as antics.

Where Best's star began to fade under the pressure of the bright media spotlight (his battles with alcoholism are well documented), Beckham seems to shine. He has something we'll call "Promotional Intelligence," and it has made Beckham a very wealthy man and one of the most recognizable people in the world.

Beckham never seems to shy away from the cameras or the attention – you never read about him punching a cameraman. Having a pop-star wife doesn't turn the cameras away either. But they don't fight the media, quite the contrary – they embrace it. He allows his family to be photographed all the time. He even models, having graced the cover of countless magazines and advertisements from donning the milk moustache to promoting his own cologne.

While, he's not known for his wit, he always manages to say the right things. He takes his responsibility as a role model seriously, keeping himself out of any serious trouble. It's the small things he does that garner big attention because of that. Take his hair for instance – getting his hair done in a Mohawk is about the most controversial thing he's ever done off the field. As a result, his haircut made front-page news in the UK.

Up until now he's only ever played for the two biggest soccer clubs in the world. When you play for powerhouse teams like Manchester United and Real Madrid the spotlight follows, even if you sit on the bench – and in Beckham's case, the fact that he is on the bench is front-page news.

He says all the right things in media scrums and is never critical of anyone but himself. When he was benched at Real Madrid by coach Fabio Capello earlier this year, he told the media that he respected the coach's decision, and that he'd have to work and train harder to earn his place back in the starting line-up. He did. As a result, many people credit Beckham for Madrid's turnaround this past season and their eventual League Championship.

As much as anything else – the pop star wife, the looks, the lifestyle, the oddly named children, the hair cut –  it's stories like this that make him who he is. His attitude, his ability to battle adversity and still come through a champion.

Does that help explain why people are willing to pay a 4,000% mark-up on tickets to see him play? No. Some people will just get caught up in all the hype, and want to be there just to be able to say they were there. Others just have more money than commonsense.

The one thing you can bank on if you live in one of the 13 cities that hosts a Major League Soccer team is that the hype and inflated ticket prices are just something you'll have to get used to. The David Beckham Traveling Media Circus is on its way.