This autumn, the NFL will host its first-ever competitive game in France. The match, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints, will be played at the Stade de France, which is unsurprising, given that the games tend to be played only at the biggest stadiums. It will be packed to capacity.
The NFL will also be playing in Madrid, having also played there last year, packing out the Bernabeu. It will be in Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena, too. It comes to London every year now, playing two games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one at Wembley. Selling these games out for Europe’s biggest arenas has become a formality.
Should European soccer clubs be worried about the rising popularity of the NFL across the continent? It depends on how you look at it. For starters, there are limited scheduling clashes. NFL games played in Europe are designed to (mostly) coincide with the International Break, allowing the teams to play in those iconic club stadiums.
Game clashes are rare
When it comes to broadcasting games played in the US, there’s also scheduling and time difference. Tuesdays and Wednesdays aren’t usually NFL nights in America. If you ask an American about Thursday night football betting, they’ll assume you are talking about the big game held on that evening, but the Europa League and Conference games are wrapped up by the time that fixture is played.
The problem may lie on a Sunday, when the NFL plays the majority of its fixtures. There’s a bunch of Sunday afternoon games at 1 pm ET in the US, going out at 6 pm GMT in the UK, which can tend to clash with key fixtures in La Liga and Serie A. It’s not a major headache, but in some scenarios, fans will be forced to choose. The Premier League and Bundesliga are largely unaffected by this.
One area of concern, however, might be what will happen in the future. The NFL has recently hinted that it will expand to include international teams. For what it’s worth, the NBA is set to launch an NBA Europe league, too. Having an NFL London franchise, for example, seems a future possibility, and such a prospect could have an impact on gate receipts for London soccer clubs.
NFL is a money-making machine
There’s also the money involved. The NFL contains the most valuable sports teams in the world. European heavyweights like Real Madrid and Manchester United tend to claim that they have the biggest sports fan bases in the world. There may be some truth to that, but the financial might still lies across the Atlantic. The league and its 32 teams have a well-oiled, well-financed marketing machine, and it is having an impact.
