The NFL in Europe, history and expansion plans

The Camp Nou seeks to host National Football League games (nfl) once the remodeling works are completed, scheduled for the end of 2024. The news, promoted by RAC1, will respond to the club’s ambition to project the Barça brand not only through its own sports production but as a showcase for other shows of universal reach. American football and its competition par excellence, the NFL, 17 years ago understood the need to open to new markets by moving its games outside the borders of the United States, with the idea . not yet crowned, to one day play Ziper Bowl in old Europe. In this new expansionist era of the NFL, London has become the preferred venue for Major League Soccer, with 33 of the 39 Major League Soccer games played outside the United States so far.

To date, there have been 38 NFL games played outside of its natural geographic area, beginning with Cardinals-49ers on October 2, 2005 in Mexico City. The last ‘colonization’ of the NFL is Germany, this 2022 is about to say goodbye. The Bayern stadium hosted the match between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Tom Brady at the controls, who defeated the Seattle Seahawks: 21-16.

In 2007 the first match was played in London. The series had an exclusive contract until 2015 to play matches at Wembley Stadium in London, which was later extended. Wembley, twickenham, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the Aztec stadium they are headquarters of the NFL ‘migration’. To them was added the Allianz Arena of Munich and Canada came out of the expansion plan. The ideologues of the League of the oval ball have always considered the possibility of promoting a permanent international franchise, with London as a good candidate, with the aim of increasing revenue by expanding the network of fans in worldwide. In 2019, Fox reported annual revenue of $16 billion. More than local, the money is coming out of any major league sport these days, whether it’s the NFL or the English Premier League, it’s what you earn on television. However, a whole crowd is also part of the television show. In Mexico City, it was calculated that, in 2016, the presence of the NFL had an economic impact of 45 million dollars in the capital.

London is the proxy home of the NFL. The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which has the capacity to seat 62,850 spectators, has been built with facilities designed to host American football. The NFL helped put together that project, which includes a specially designed retractable court and some of the largest locker rooms in the league.

Three years ago, the NFL estimated 15 million English fans followed the American Football League, four million of whom were active militants. Unlike the NBA, for example, the absence of many non-US players is seen as a factor that harms the NFL’s tracking loyalty. Former NFL international executive Mark Waller told FOX Business in 2017 that the league’s long-term goal is to play up to eight games a year in London. The Jacksonville Jaguars, who played many games in London, even made an unsuccessful bid to buy Wembley Stadium in 2018. Owned by Fulham owner Shahid Khan, the Jaguars are the NFL’s most frequent visitors in London, having played eight times since 2013. renew their relationship with Wembley and its additional 27,000 seats until at least 2024.

The Mail On Line, in an information published in September 2022, concluded that the popularity of the NFL has clearly increased in Europe in recent years, and that the American Football League is close to the goal of earning 25,000 million dollars. The strategic plan reaches 27,000 million in 2027, where the rise of the NFL in the old continent is important.

The interest in the NFL in Germany has always been remarkable. NFL Europa, developed from its original idea between 1991 and 2007, Germany was seen to have the infrastructure, stability and stadiums required by the NFL. Because of this, no one was surprised when Alenania was announced as the venue for four parties in four years: two in Munich, two in Frankfurt. Last November, Bayern’s marketing director Andreas Jung, which stated on the official website of the Munich club that the relationship with the NFL and its market possibilities arose “in 2014, when our team opened its office in New York”. “For the first time, a non-soccer event will be held at the Allianz Arena, with people traveling from all over Europe and millions of fans watching from the United States, that’s a great stage for Bayern.” “Within an hour all the tickets were sold,” he said, while with the initiative “Bayern is becoming more and more popular in the United States.”

November’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks at Allianz Arena saw a pre-sale of around 600,000 registrations according to NFL Germany general manager Alexander Steinforth. “There are about 800,000 people in the virtual queue at the same time,” he revealed. It is assumed that there will be more games in Germany and an expansion into new European markets. United Kingdom general manager Henry Hodgson assured. Sportsmail that “we have focused a lot on growth for the last five or six years in Germany and now we see what other markets are showing the same signs.” France and Spain are on the horizon. the great endorsement of his experience and his acceptance of the fans.

All 32 teams will play one game away from the United States, with at least four games at a neutral site each season through 2030. In addition to the United Kingdom and Mexico, which host four games in the regular season, Canada and Germany will host the matches. Some franchises have embraced the idea of ​​international expansion more than others. Last year, 18 teams took advantage of the opportunity to access international markets in eight countries.

The Jaguars join the Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers as teams that received the rights to England.

“We’re empowering clubs to build their fan bases around the world,” said Chris Halpin, NFL executive vice president and chief strategy and growth officer. Not turning away from the growth window is there for all big football clubs, also for Barça.