Over the past decade the National Football League has
continued its efforts to globalize the game of American football. The league is
trying to get new fans from all around the world in an attempt that I can only
see failing. Beginning in 2005, the NFL has held one regular season game
outside of the states to try to accomplish their goal of globalization. However,
the league realized that their best way to get American football popular around
the world is to emphasize Europe and since 2007 the annual NFL regular season
game not to be played in the states has been held in London.
Even though focusing on Europe to globalize the NFL might be
their only option, I still think it’s going to fail for many reasons. First of
all, there is only one game of football recognized in Europe, and that is known
in America as soccer. Soccer is so beloved in Europe it is a religion for most
fans and the tradition in most teams is so rich that it’s incomparable to any
teams history in the NFL. Therefore,
there is no way die-hard soccer fans in Europe will let American football come
in and be prominent unless they change the name of the sport. Another reason
why I don’t think American football will make it in Europe is because the way
the game is played and the pace of it. I went to an FC Barcelona game and it
took less then two hours. 90 minutes of that was non-stop action on the field
and the rest of that was an extremely quick halftime compared to any American
sports games. Now, if you watch an NFL game there are stoppages of play,
coaches timeouts, television timeouts, and the quarter and halftime breaks are
ridiculously long compared to soccer games in Europe. Because of that I just
don’t see an average European sports game wanting to sit down and watch a whole
game. They want to see action and in American football there are too many
stoppages of play compared to soccer.
Even if the average European sports fan did want to watch
the annual game in London they wouldn’t be seeing a good game. This was the
second time the New England Patriots have played in London and both times they
have blown out their opponent. If the NFL wants to show Europe why the NFL is
so great then they need to put a competitive matchup together every year with
their best teams. Ultimately, I don’t think the NFL can successfully expand
into a European market and these were some of the reasons why.
I agree with what you are saying. The NFL expanding into Europe may be impossible. Europeans take their sports and hobbies really seriously. Futbol is a religion over here among many other typically European sports (Rugby, cricket, etc.) It is such a huge tradition that there really isn't a reason to introduce new sports to Europeans. As stated in the above blog post, futbol attempted to break into Europe and it was only a semi-success in Germany. If you think about it, it can be compared to soccer in the US. We have our football, basketball, and baseball and as long as those remain strong, soccer doesn't have a very bright future in American eyes. It's just not one of our major traditions, so why change it?
ReplyDeleteNew marketing strategies may help but at the end of the day tradition is tradition and unfortunately most countries are set in their ways, especially when it comes to athletics.
This was a great comment. Comparing the NFL in Europe to the MLS is a perfect comparison. I think the NFL should look at the problems the MLS are having in America and try not to have those problems in Europe. This could help the NFL globalize into Europe a great deal.
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