The economically most successful sports league in the world is attacking the German market with full force. The US professional league NFL wants to make money with American football outside of North America. In Germany, the league games in Frankfurt are only part of a broad strategy.
On Sunday (from 3:30 p.m. live in the radio report at the Sportschau) the second game within eight days will take place in the Frankfurt Arena – this time between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. Defending champions met here last weekend Kansas City and the Miami Dolphins each other.
Frankfurt hotel floor becomes NFL office
And when the NFL comes, it’s right. An entire floor has been specially reserved in the exquisite Steigenberger Hotel in Frankfurt. Several rooms were converted into an NFL office for the two league games in Germany. And league boss Roger Goodell clearly enjoyed the trip to Germany very much; among other things, he ceremoniously signed his name in the city’s Golden Book.
“We always knew that Germany had a huge NFL fan base, but the intensity and passion for the sport surprised even us a little.”said Goodell.
Numbers, not emotions, drive the NFL
And it is already certain: there will be another NFL league game in Germany next year – then in Munich. The NFL boss said there were around 4.5 million ticket requests for the two games in Germany this year. “That would be difficult to achieve even in the United States.”said Goodell.
That’s why the economically most successful sports league in the world has set out to conquer the German market. And she makes no secret of it either. Emotions play less of a role, in the end it is more of a cool calculation of numbers. “Germany as a market is in first place behind North America in many key metrics relevant to the NFL”clarified the head of the NFL in Germany, Alexander Steinforth.
Germany boss Steinforth: “Fan growth is the main goal”
“We have come to stay. Our presence here is not a flash in the pan, on the contrary: we want to build something lasting here“, said Steinforth. And when the NFL comes, it comes properly. The 38-year-old Steinforth leads the fortunes of the footballleague in this country, recently inaugurated the new headquarters in Düsseldorf.
NFL Germany boss Alexander Steinforth
In order to capture as large a share of the German market as possible, the NFL is pursuing a multi-layered strategy. “Our core goal is to generate fan growth”, revealed Steinforth when asked by Sportschau. “We want the points of contact with football and the NFL among people in Germany.“
Over 3 million fans, over 18 million interested people
To achieve this, the league has entered into a long-term media partnership with RTL. The Cologne television station broadcasts at least two games on free TV every Sunday during the season. An average of around 750,000 viewers have tuned in to the games at 7 p.m. so far this season, many of them from the advertising-relevant target group between 14 and 29 years old.
The NFL, however, estimates the fan potential to be much higher. Surveys have shown that there are around 18 million people interested in football in Germany and more than three million Hardcorefans. The goal of the league is to activate precisely this mass of people.
The fans of the Kansas City Chiefs clearly had the say in Frankfurt.
Support program for German football talents
“I’m convinced that American football will become even more popular in Germany if more people actively play the sport and we manage to bring more German faces into the league“, said Germany boss Steinforth. For this reason, the NFL is involved with one Flag footballprogram in schools and youth facilities and tries to get children used to the sport and get them excited about it using the contact-free variant.
This is done by Germans football-Talents in ever-increasing numbers Loughborough University mediated in England. Eight young German players alone managed to get accepted there this summer and dream of securing a place at one through the support program US college and later to play for an NFL team.
Also part of the strategy: four of the 32 teams are already particularly active in Germany. The New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers have secured exclusive marketing rights for Germany. The teams had to actively apply to the NFL and present explicit plans on how they wanted to win over the German market.
NFL games in Germany – even after 2024
“The league defines which markets should be targeted. The local clubs’ commitment not only benefits themselves, but also contributes to the overall NFL product.”explained Alexander Steinforth.
And league boss Goodell has already announced that he is fully expecting league games in Germany beyond 2024: “We will not say goodbye to the markets that were important to our growth. And Germany was crucial to our growth.“