NFL International Super Bowl
October 28 National Football League Game in UK is a Sure Sell-Out
During the 41st Super Bowl, the NFL announced that Miami Dolphins will play New York Giants in a regular-season game in front of 90,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium.
The Wembley NFL game will sell 15,000 more tickets than Super Bowl XLI, which this past February filled 74,512 seats at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. Only 5 of the previous 40 Super Bowls had higher attendance than the upcoming game in the United Kingdom this October.
In only 90 minutes, almost half of Wembley’s 90,000 tickets were sold. In addition to European ticket buyers, some 10,000 American fans are expected to travel to London to watch the game.
Mexico City hosted the only other NFL regular-season game ever played outside the United States. A record 103,467 fans watched the Arizona Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers in 2005.
National Football League: An American Tradition
Despite strong global interest in the NFL, only 4% of the television audience for Super Bowl XLI resided outside the U.S. This contrasts with the following percentages of non-American fans:
- 15% for baseball’s 2006 World Series
- 28% for the final round of professional golf’s Masters.
Some critics argue that the NFL is seen principally an American sport, with U.S. expatriates generating most of professional football’s international fan base. Others write that NFL football rules are comparatively complex for first-time fans.
Unlike the National Basketball Association (NBA) which boasts almost 100 international players including Chinese giant Yao Ming, the NFL has very few foreign-born stars. Similarly, over one quarter of Major League baseball players originate from countries other than America.
Richest American Professional Sport
Given that the NFL is the richest American sport, one can forgive the NFL for delaying its search for greener pastures in the past. The NFL is expected to generate over US$6 billion in 2007, compared with some $5.5 billion for Major League Baseball and $3.5 billion for the National Basketball Association.
NFL revenue sources are: broadcasting fees (50% of total revenues), NFL ticket sales (25%), local broadcasting deals and team sponsorships (20%) as well as licensing deals (5%).
With major Super Bowl sponsors like FedEx and PepsiCo demanding global marketing platforms that give more promotional bang for each advertising dollar spent, NFL owners are now actively exploring the potential for growing professional football in international trade arenas.
NFL’s Global Trade Future
NFL owners understand that live games where the best NFL teams compete in foreign stadiums are key to building a loyal world-wide fan base. Anyone who doubts the offshore marketing buzz that the likes of quarterback Tom Brady could generate in live games should track the media attention that David Beckham receives in each city that the LA Galaxy plays. And, as the NFL builds its international audience, more and more fans around the globe will watch live NFL games via streaming Internet video feeds.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has discussed expanding the NFL season from 16 to 17 matches with at least one foreign game per week. Because the NFL schedules one game a week, also feasible is the possibility of European NFL teams.
For now, the NFL brain trust’s immediate goal is to grow American professional football in Europe, Mexico and Canada. But as the sold-out game in Wembley on October 28 shows, it’s only a matter of time before the National Football League runs regular season games - and, one day, the Super Bowl - live in huge international stadiums throughout the richest countries in North America, Europe and Asia.
Soon each of those sixty 30-second commercial spots will cost Super Bowl advertisers a lot more than the US$2.6 million required at Super Bowl XLI.
Sources for this Article
This article presents independent calculations and insights based on data drawn from ‘Super Bowl drives NFL’s rising revenues’ (Gail Schiller, Hollywood Reporter, February 2, 2007) & ‘NFL struggles to win on the road’ (Chris Isidore, cnnmoney.com, July 13, 2007).
