Why American Football Lost
Why American Football
Lost
Why America lost Football is a difficult question. While the NFL is the richest sports league in the world. They make more money than the NBA, NHL, and Premier League combined. But they still can't get enough.
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| Why American Football Lost |
So they are trying to
enter new markets. And with such deep marketing pockets, it is no wonder they
are able to sell out a stadium abroad. In November 2022, 70 thousand of fans
celebrated the NFL game in Munich.NFL Munich crowd sings "Take Me Home,
Country Roads" The clip of the German crowd singing country roads went
viral because it showcased the successful melting of two very passionate fan
cultures.
Even Tom Brady said it
was one of his greatest football moments ever. And the guy has won pretty much everything
there is to win in his sport. But as successful as all of this sounds, there is
another, slightly weird part to the story.
One about a bizarre
league that involves Donald Trump, an elephant, and how they accidentally helped
association football some very valuable marketing lessons.
Welcome to Athletic Interest and how the NFL failed in Europe. American Football has one big problem. There’s a seven-month break between the Super Bowl and the beginning of the next season.
It’s the biggest gap without any matches in all of the US sports. So the NFL and TV broadcasters saw an opportunity: to host more games in the spring.
In the late 80s, they
agreed on expanding - to Europe. By bringing their product to a new market, the
NFL hoped for a lot of new fans – and cash
.
It was a very lucrative
time to enter the market. European football was nowhere near as big as it is
today, and a huge market was up for grabs. They were also hoping to create a
farm league to develop talents.
But the project got off
to a rough start: it was even difficult to find a name. And the NFL can blame
Donald Trump. He had acquired rights to the name “International Football
League”, the preferred choice of the NFL.
Trump was not willing to
sell, so the NFL went for ‘The World League of American Football’. In 1991, the
league started to tackle Europe.
Funded by the NFL
franchises which invested 50 thousand dollars each to get the World League
running.
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| Why American Football Lost |
TV broadcasters paid
more than 25 million dollars for the first season.
And probably none of
them ever saw their money again. Although the World League had a promising
start.
An average of 25
thousand people attended the first games. But the hype didn’t last long - the
TV ratings were miserable, the league made a huge loss and after the second season,
the NFL decided to close it. But giving up was not an option.
After two years of
brainstorming and re-branding, the World League came back - with a narrower focus
on Europe. The NFL then tried some really weird things to gain traction.
Why American Football Lost
For example, they
decided to let an elephant, an animal neither native in the US nor in Europe,
present the league’s trophy. Tailgate parties attracted more people than the
actual games. And the cheerleaders were bigger stars than the players.
Rebranding the league
again, first as NFL Europe League, and later as NFL Europa didn’t do much besides
proving the lack of vision by the NFL.
The project was burning
30 million dollars a year - almost half a billion in total. So eventually, the
NFL pulled the plug. The two reasons why the league was originally founded,
backfired in the long run.
Yes, there are good
examples of NFL players who started their careers in Europe before successfully
returning to the US and eventually winning the Super Bowl.
But overall, it wasn’t
easy to sell a minor league without the sport’s biggest stars. Besides the lack
of vision, there was simply a lack of quality.
The games were never near the quality of the NFL - and viewers quickly realized that and shifted their focus to watching the real NFL instead of the less exciting European sister League.
It’s like trying to
convince your friend to watch an MLS game instead of El Clásico. But the NFL
learned its lesson. Instead of trying to sell a cheap copy, they started selling
the real thing.
The same year that the
NFL Europa folded forever, their big sister NFL started to play regular season
matches abroad. First in London, then in Toronto, Mexico City, and in 2022 in
Munich.
While England, Canada, and Mexico are logical fits in terms of language and geography, Germany is no
obvious choice at first sight. It’s neither a direct neighbor nor does it share
the language. So, why Germany? After the second world war, Germany was divided
into four sectors - including one American.
In the following years,
more than 200 American military bases were established in Germany. The larger
bases especially looked like tiny American cities.
With American stores,
American schools - and American sports.
Which attracted curious
Germans. People would go over to the bases, looking through the fences, and the
American soldiers
would bring them in and
teach them how to play football.
It was a cultural
exchange that paid off. Over 40 years ago, the German Football League was formed
as the first of its kind in Europe.
When NFL Europa folded
in 2007, five of the six competing teams were based in Germany. All this set the
groundwork for the biggest American football spectacle so far on German soil:
The NFL's Munich Game in 2022.
The organizers received
three million ticket requests. Enough to fill the Allianz Arena more than 40
times. A recent study revealed American Football as the second-most watched
sport in Germany
- only behind reigning
king football.
Also thanks to these
three guys and their TV show. They popularised American football in Germany. Providing
expert analysis on TV and online, but also never getting tired of explaining
the game to new audiences.
It is a great example of
what the NFL got wrong in the first place.
American Football can be
very confusing. Sebastian Vollmer won the Super Bowl but was quoted that even
after 2 years of playing
the game, he didn’t know
all the rules.
So instead of trying to
make the game more interesting with elephants and cheerleaders, it’s better to
focus on explaining the beauty of it to new viewers.
Takes more time, but has
a higher reward. The NFL certainly understood that point and started promoting
flag football as an easy and more approachable version for kids and fans to get
in touch with the game.
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| Why American Football Lost |
With the Olympics in LA
in 2028 and the NFL pushing hard for flag football to become an Olympic sport,
this strategy could turn out to be a masterstroke.
The second challenge
that the NFL faces in its competition with other sports: is a lack of
international stars. Just think of what Yao Ming did for the popularity of the
NBA in China.
But the NFL also has a master plan for that problem: The International Player Pathway Program (IPPP). The
main objective of this program is to increase the pool of talented
international players and ultimately increase the global popularity of
American football.
It was established in
2017 and has seen success in placing international athletes in NFL practice squads,
with several players earning promotions to active rosters.
It looks like the NFL
has learned its lesson. There are already more games confirmed to take place in
Germany and there is even talk about moving one franchise permanently to
London.
Arguably a huge market,
but also a city with plenty of very established football clubs already. This brings
up a major question.
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| Why American Football Lost |
In today’s globalized
world, it might ultimately come to a battle between American and Association Football
for the hearts - and cash - of the fans. Both would be well advised to pay
attention not only to the money but also to how to sustainably grow the sports
entrusted to them. In the end, the fans will make vote.
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