The NFL is one of the world’s biggest sports franchises, but has always strived to increase its visibility outside of North America. With other American franchises such as the NBA and MLB growing in popularity around the globe, what steps can the NFL take to expand effectively into other parts of the world? Let’s take a look.
Entertainment
The NFL has long been tapped into different spheres of entertainment, such as video games with the iconic EA Madden series, but there are other avenues within that to explore. Licensed online slots have been a major boon for movies and TV shows in enhancing their global appeal to new audiences, with such franchises as Deadliest Catch, Friends, and Rocky all boasting their own exciting games at low minimum deposit casinos. Perhaps a similar approach could work for the NFL, given the online gambling market’s vast variety of players from across all demographics.
There is also scope for movies and TV shows themselves — the success of the Netflix series The Last Dance about the Chicago Bulls’ NBA heyday shows just how popular sports documentaries are. Although 2023’s Quarterback didn’t quite capture the imagination in the same way as Formula One focused Drive to Survive did, it still proved popular with fans, though there is room for improvement in an apparently green-lit second season.
International Fixtures
One of the NFL’s bedrock ways to expand its global footprint has been the International Series, which took over from the American Bowl series of pre-season friendlies before it, and has been running in the UK, Mexico, and Germany since 2005. It’s due for expansion into Spain, and could make strides in other parts of Europe — an important market for any sports franchise. Asia and Australia also seem ripe for expansion, with passionate fans and massive stadiums — both have already shown they have the infrastructure for huge sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.
But the International Series hasn’t been without criticism. It’s been noted that many of the games in London have been contested by teams without winning records, so the NFL could do well to bring over some of the more high-profile fixtures the season has to offer. There is surely scope for the NFL to organize a more permanent presence in the form of a European franchise, which would foster a more permanent connection to the sport and the league abroad.
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Playing the game
Another way to promote growth is to get people from outside North America playing gridiron football. The NFL already invests in grassroots programs and football clinics in the US, and does have some presence in Europe, but expanding this to popularize the sport in schools and other organizations will ensure a raft of fans, and potentially a previously untapped well of superstar players.
There is an NFL Academy based in London and expanding this to other areas, especially those which host International Series fixtures seems the perfect way to promote and develop American football from youth level.
The NFL certainly has the potential to be one of the world’s leading sports franchises. Boosting awareness of the game via other areas of entertainment, getting bigger names to play in the International Series, and getting young people playing the game at grassroots level are all surefire methods in promoting and enhancing the game’s global footprint.
