Great times awaiting Beckham?

Lean and fair-haired, extraordinarily skilled at a sport ignored by most Americans, his arrival in Los Angeles was hailed as an opportunity to awaken a city and a country to what they had been missing.

His wife was a star in her own right, giving him entry into a world that reached beyond the sports realm.

That was Wayne Gretzky in 1988, when the Kings acquired him from Edmonton and made hockey oh-so-chic.

For a few heady years there were as many Hollywood A-listers in the Kings’ locker room as sticks and skates, and a Kings’ ticket was the toughest in town. Gretzky gave the team a box-office draw and turned the country’s second-biggest market into a stronghold for the National Hockey League.

Like so many good Hollywood stories, this one is being remade with a few twists.

The role of Gretzky has been recast and given to Englishman David Beckham, who’s coming to Los Angeles to raise the global profile of Major League Soccer. The Woman He Loves, played by Janet Jones in the Gretzky saga, will be played by Victoria Beckham, formerly known as Posh Spice from the singing Spice Girls.

Gretzky, coach of the Phoenix Coyotes but still a part-time Los Angeles resident, isn’t a soccer connoisseur, but he knows star power when he sees it. And he sees it in Beckham, whose acquisition by the Galaxy and anticipated arrival next month have ignited MLS ticket sales.

“I don’t know anything about soccer except that I have a 6-year-old who loves the sport and he understands what California and the Galaxy are getting,” Gretzky said recently.

“There’s no player as much or more charismatic in the world today than David Beckham. He’s got as much charisma as Tiger Woods and he’s right up there with any great athlete you can name.”

There was no player more magnetic than Gretzky when the Kings got him from the cash-starved Oilers for two players, three draft picks and $15 million.

Then-owner Bruce McNall, whose high jinks turned into high crimes that sent him to jail for nearly four years, was shrewd enough to know Gretzky had the style and substance to stand out in a star-driven town.

“It was nuts,” McNall said. “I remember I was invited to a party when Wayne first came, a big Hollywood party. I left him for a minute, and when I came back there was this big line of people waiting for his autograph.

“We’d get Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman at the games, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Sylvester Stallone, John Candy. Former President Ronald Reagan would sit next to the glass. There probably wasn’t anybody in Hollywood you can imagine who wasn’t intrigued by the whole thing.”

They had reason. Gretzky was 27, in his prime. He won three scoring titles and a most valuable player trophy while representing the Kings. Beckham, 32, was thought to be on the downside of his career until he enjoyed a renaissance this season and was welcomed back into England’s national team.

“God knows, he’s the only name people know here,” McNall said Monday. “The U.S. wins the big Gold Cup thing and it doesn’t seem to have a big impact.”

Beckham’s impact could be considerable because -- Galaxy General Manager Alexi Lalas’ claims aside -- the level of play in the MLS is still inferior to Europe’s top leagues. And Beckham’s strengths are on set plays, free kicks and corner kicks, which don’t depend on speed and are obvious enough for even novice fans to grasp.

Off the field, his looks and the buzz he generates could rub off on the Galaxy and the league. “He’s a superstar, and if he’s willing to do the things Wayne was willing to do to help the game, it can be a big help,” McNall said.

“If a sport is not indigenous to an area, you need to make a dramatic move, I think. This is dramatic. If I’m in the position of [owner] Phil Anschutz and I have a huge investment in the sport, not just in the Galaxy, and I have the opportunity to do something dramatic, that’s really cool.”

McNall says the financial risk appears manageable because the Galaxy can profit from the merchandise and ticket sales Beckham generates.

“The biggest mistake I made was acquiring Wayne without acquiring ancillary rights that would have allowed me to recoup my expenses,” McNall said. “I didn’t own the arena, marketing rights or concession sales. I had seats and a slight increase in TV rights, but that wasn’t enough.

“I wasn’t able to cash in as much as they probably will. From a business standpoint, it sounds to me like they’ll do well. For what they’re trying to do, which is making soccer a viable sport here and nationally, it’s a smart move. It’s got a chance to work.”

Although Gretzky didn’t win a championship before he requested a trade in 1996, he set off a youth hockey boom in Southern California that’s sending streams of kids to colleges and junior leagues, and he popularized the game enough to inspire the NHL’s expansion into the Sunbelt.

He believes Beckham can have a similar effect over time.

“Selling the sport is not only what happens on the field, it’s off the field too,” Gretzky said. “One guy can definitely help, but everybody’s got to be on the same page. When I came to L.A., the whole organization worked tirelessly to promote the game, people like [broadcasters] Jim Fox and Bob Miller and a lot of others spent hours selling the sport in the community.

“You can do all the marketing and selling you want to do, but the reality is that you’ve got to accomplish feats on the field. If he does well on the field, people will embrace him. They want to see an exciting brand of soccer.

“If they can get everybody behind them and working together, they should do well. But it takes time. There are no instant fixes.”

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.