The big NFL cinema in London

The National Football League thrills with the Minnesota Vikings’ victory over the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with more games to follow. By Marcel Reich

London – A home win, 4,000 miles from home: With an interception in the last minute of the game, the Minnesota Vikings secured victory over the New York Jets on Sunday. In front of 61,139 spectators at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which was built to ideally meet the requirements of an NFL game. The entire stadium was redecorated in Vikings purple, even the oversized Gjallarhorn, which is blown before every game, made the trip across the Atlantic. An enormous effort, but worth it. In the days before the game, thousands of fans from all over the world visited the British capital, stayed in hotels, ate and drank in pubs and restaurants. A secure source of income, with three games every year.

Fans all over the world

53 percent of tickets for the three London games this year were sold to fans from Great Britain. Nevertheless, the appeal of the globally expanding sport remains extremely high worldwide, as tickets were also sold to NFL fans from 41 different nations.

The attractiveness of the individual games is also reflected in the distribution of sales. The game between the still unbeaten Vikings and the Jets with NFL legend Aaron Rodgers was mostly attended by fans from outside the United Kingdom (53 percent foreign, 47 percent UK). The game next Sunday will attract the most fans from the USA, who will travel to London specifically for it. And the game between the now below-average New England Patriots and the London “home team” Jacksonville Jaguars, who play in the capital several times every year, will be attended by 69 percent of British fans.

And then there is this year’s Munich game, on November 10th in the Bavarian capital. With the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers, two teams will meet that have legitimate hopes of getting the first pick in the next NFL draft and are therefore allowed to sign the best talent from college – because they both play poorly.

Four losses, only one win for Carolina, New York is only one win better. Last year, Frankfurt got one of the absolute top games of the regular season: the Super Bowl winners Kansas City Chiefs met the Miami Dolphins, who were playing brilliantly at the time. The game was so attractive that many US fans were dissatisfied that this game, of all things, was not taking place in the USA. However, for the NFL it was the best advertising in Europe. Munich isn’t so lucky this year.

Location in Düsseldorf

Nevertheless, it will definitely be a celebration for all fans of the sport; jerseys from almost all NFL teams will be visible in and around the stadium. The enthusiasm for the sport itself is in the foreground. And that’s worth it for the NFL, which opened a German location in Düsseldorf last year. Many local companies have discovered the sport for their advertising purposes, such as Cyberport and the DKB. “We chose the NFL because we have a sport here that, according to current figures, is the second most popular TV sport in Germany,” said Marcel Schwarzkopf, Strategic Marketing Manager at DKB in the “Sports Maniacs” podcast last year. NFL fans are attractive to advertisers because they are considered to have above-average purchasing power. Many belong to the advertising-relevant target group of 18 to 45 year olds.

The European League of Football is also becoming increasingly popular in Germany. Although it is a European league, a large part of it is run outside of Germany. There was a new record crowd for the league at the championship game at the end of September with 41,000 spectators, which is constantly getting bigger, more athletic and tactically more complex. Only the clear balance of power sometimes stands in the way of the tension there. The differences are too clear: the winner Rhein Fire from Düsseldorf dominates at will, behind them are the Vienna Vikings and the Stuttgart Surge, teams that can stand up to it. Many teams in the league have now come together to support each other. But in this league too, the focus is on celebrating sport itself.

London will now celebrate two more NFL games, then Munich can show how big football already is in Germany.