On Sunday, October 28, 2007, the first ever
NFL regular season match to take place outside of North America occurred in
London, England.
The
New York Giants and the
Miam
i Dolphins made the trip across the pond to square off in
London’s
Wembley Stadium (pictured right with the Dolphins' mascot).
81,176 people packed into the stadium to see the team’s play.
There is no question that the league played this game in
Europe and has plans of playing another game internationally next season because they are hoping to capitalize on the international market.
NFL commissioner
Roger Goodell was quoted saying, “The international popularity of the NFL grows every year.”
He noted that many of the leagues supporters in
England have been watching since the NFL was
broadcast on terrestrial television in the 1980s.
However, it unclear whether the league would be able to generate ticket and gate sales from multiple games in Europe for a profit, or if the best they could do internationally is benefit from TV revenues.
Just because the market seems to be growing, and there was a large turnout for the game this weekend, does not necessarily mean that the NFL and American football will be able to have staying power in
Europe.
Europe is not exactly a stranger to NFL football. NFL Europa, which was a development league, existed for sixteen years before folding this past June. Commissioner Goodell said that folding the league was the best “business decision for the NFL”because the league was reportedly losing about $30 million a year. The commissioner also suggested that one of the reasons why NFL Europa was not very popular was because it was “second-rate football.” Therefore, Goodell hopes that by playing regular season NFL games in Europe the league would be displaying the highest level of play. The league planned to showcase the exciting nature of NFL football to Europeans and others around the world, in hopes of spurring their interest in the game. However, that did not exactly happen this past weekend.
The game between the Giants and the Dolphins was full of sloppy play, whic
h was not aided by the fact that there was a light drizzle throughout the whole game that created a muddy field (pictured to the left). Journalist Eddie Pells states, “It was hardly a clinic of American football at its best." The fans actually booed at the completion of the event, after the game was basically decided, and the Giants ran out the clock by taking a knee. Tom Coughlin, coach of the Giants, attributed the boos to the fact that the Englishmen did not know the intricacies of football. He may be correct, given that England has a variety of other sports that as a whole the country is much more passionate about, such as the "other" football (soccer). This was made clear when this past weekend the game failed to make it past Champions League soccer on to the front page of the sports pages of London newspapers. The chance for the NFL to be able to come in to Europe and become one of the most popular sports would take a lot of work and seems to be highly unlikely.
There is no doubting the fact that many people in Europe have become NFL fans. For instance, there is a group called Dolfan UK, which is a Miami Dolphins fan club that has more than 100 members. There were many Europeans who showed up decked out in gear (pictured below) to cheer on their favorite NFL team this past weekend. However, Bryan Tyrell, the catering director of Bodean’s, a Kansas City-style barbeque restaurant with four branches in England notes that during a
typical week, most of his customers are British, but during the weekend when college football and the NFL are on, the crowd is mostly American. Ladbrokes, Britain’s largest sports betting agency says that betting on the Dolphins vs Giants game was up 10-15% over other NFL games this past Sunday. However, wagering on NFL games is not even one-fifth of what the British spend betting on Premier League Soccer matches. Therefore despite the large crowd this past weekend, it seems as though the NFL has some more work to do to get Europeans excited about soccer.
Beyond the fan interest, the well-being of the NFL athlete also plays a large role in whether league games overseas will be plausible in the future. Jet lag from the trans-oceanic flight played a part in the quality of the game on Sunday. Coach Tom Coughlin of the Giants was most concerned with transportation, and the general inconvenience that was caused by playing a game so far away from home. The teams flew on red-eye flights that arrived in London on Friday morning for the game that took place at 5 pm local London time on Sunday. Ordinarily, Friday is a key practice day for teams to prepare for their Sunday game. However, by flying in on Friday morning and being jet-lagged, they lost the ability to practice.
Overall, it seems as though the NFL has a long way to go in making overseas regular-season games a common event. Fan interest in Europe should continue to be fostered. This game was a good first step, but more still needs to be done if the league wants to capture more than TV revenue from this potential market. Europeans need to be shown by the league why they should become as interested in American football as they are in soccer. The NFL needs to demonstrate that football is a meaningful game, with a clear goal and top-notch athletes. Future games held in Europe will be important with fostering interest in the NFL, however, summer pre-season games that do not affect regular-season standings may be better for the league because of the jet-lag, travel, and poor Fall weather problems. After this past weekend it is clear that there are a lot of kinks that need to be worked out and changes that must be made before the NFL can really invest their brand of football in Europe.
i Dolphins made the trip across the pond to square off in 
2 comments:
Blimey Mate, sure hard on us - we like football, just not your Yankee type. GMC
I enjoyed reading your post. I thought the topic was well-chosen and pertinent, and that you addressed it with level of diligence sufficient enough to inform even the least informed football fan about the NFL’s developments overseas. In addition, I really like your choice of links; of the ones I visited, I thought all but one of them were pertinent to your argument and helpful for the reader in understanding all the ins and outs of the situation. On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed your post and thought that it was exceedingly well done. However, there were a couple small details which I feel, if adjusted, could make your post even more effective: the one link which I felt failed to enhance your argument, and the lack of links on your images.
The one link which I didn’t find particularly helpful was the one following your comment on New York coach Tom Coughlin’s willingness to discuss the London game’s impact on his players with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, which you mark “opinions”. The link takes the reader to a general article about the game, as opposed to an article or statement elaborating on or reflecting Coughlin’s opinion. As a reader, I was disappointed by that, and felt more inclined to close the link rather than read the article in search of Coughlin’s opinion. I understand, however, that there may have been no particular article providing only this information, and therefore, this article does serve as an acceptable, although not ideal, substitute.
The one other small detail which, as a reader, disappointed me was the lack of links on the images you chose. I thought the images were well chosen and pertinent in and of themselves, but when I clicked on them, hoping to explore the page from which they came, I was disappointed to only see larger versions of the images themselves.
Even with these two minor detractors, I thought this was an outstanding post. As a reader, I thoroughly enjoyed both the topic selection itself and the way in which you addressed that topic. I thought your argument was well stated and well executed. Great job.
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