NFL goes global?

This week-end, the United States “super star” event?was staged in Los Angeles: the?Super Bowl?with the Rams winning against the Bengals. Big figures everywhere. An average 30 second advertising on NBC costed around 6.5 million USD, the most expensive ever for a Superbowl and twice more than 10 years ago. One of the reasons:?it is?the one time of year that viewers?really?want to see commercials is during the Super Bowl, it has become a tradition as it is a tradition to watch the half time show, which welcomed this year?Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar. Tickets for the game were reaching records as well, with an estimated $8.000 USD average price, this considering that the 49ers did not make it to Super Bowl (it could have been more). And if you look at media rights deals beyond Super Bowl, the NFL is breaking all records as well with long-term deals (until 2033) with fours major channels in the US, even though audiences are not doing that well. It is still a must have product for channels in a competitive media world.?CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, and NBC?are said to have agreed?to pay $89.5 billion over 11 years,?with +100% increase versus deals that ended. Adding the Amazon deal, we are talking about more than $100 billions USD in 11 years.?

Having said that,?NFL is not yet a truly global show and American Football not a truly global sport. Still NFL has lots of potential to grow its fanbase and incomes if it becomes more international. Unlike other sports such as football and basketball, American Football is not played in many countries. Less than 3% of the NFL players are foreign borne (mostly from Canada), when the NBA has more than 100 players from around 40 countries, nont speaking about football (soccer).?

The name itself of the sport is confusing internationally, and the fact that the league is called National Football League tends to close barriers unconsciously. Historically, there has been different initiatives to become more global.?From 1986-2005 the NFL played an extra pre-season game referred to as the American Bowl, which took place in various international locations such as London, Japan, Germany, and Spain. The globalisation initiative then turned to developing international clubs in London, Barcelona, and Frankfurt as part of the World League of American Football, which also included teams located in the United States. By 1997 this international presence had evolved into NFL Europe, a league with club representation in Germany, Spain, Netherlands, and the UK. I personally worked on bringing a team to France and Lyon was selected, but at the conclusion of the 2007 season however, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that NFL Europe would be disbanded immediately, citing yearly losses of more than $30 million and limited success with player development as was originally intended. Efforts were still made, and the NFL has expanded into the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Canada and games hosted in these countries have typically been met with success.?

The NFL has now big plans to become more global. When using terms such as globalisation and international strategy in reference to professional sports leagues, there are many different initiatives which play a role in this process (e.g. games on location, television access, websites and social media, merchandise sales, player appearance, etc). In the case of the NFL, here are two main initiatives.

NFL international home marketing area teams and markets:?The NFL announced that 18 teams have been granted access to 26 International Home Marketing Areas (IHMA) across eight different countries. This ground-breaking, new initiative grants teams access to international territories for marketing, fan engagement and commercialization as part of an important, long-term, strategic effort to enable clubs to build their global brands while driving NFL fan growth internationally. This for at least five years. Clubs will have rights to pursue activities in that international market that are consistent with what they can do in their domestic HMA. This includes in-person and digital marketing, corporate sponsorship sales, fan events and activations, youth football activities, merchandise sales and co-marketing relationships with other sports and entertainment properties in the market. I spoke this week with a leader of a team having as HMA Mexico and Germany, and they will invest heavily in localized content in those markets to connect with fans, and playing in those countries is strategic for their fan base growth as well as incomes development. Coupled with the League's commitment to International Games, all 32 clubs will play at least one international game in the next eight seasons – the League will use its best efforts to ensure clubs play their international games in their International HMAs, where possible.

NFL International games:?NFL has announced this week that Munich (Germany) is to host first-ever regular-season NFL game in Germany during 2022 season; Frankfurt also to host future games. After England, where rumors have said for some time that there could be a franchise in the future, Germany is becoming a key market., having an estimated 19 million fans (with interesting purchasing power). Roger Goodell is clear:?"We look forward to staging our first game in Germany at FC Bayern Munich's fantastic stadium later this year and to exploring areas of broader collaboration with the Bundesliga" and cross-marketing campaigns with FC Bayern have already started and are all over. Mexico will also host one game and United Kingdom three. Teams are yet to be confirmed but with recent strategies, it is way more appealing for teams to play international games that it was before.?

The NFL is investing, its teams are investing, and no doubt the NFL will keep growing internationally. Still, one of the challenges will be to grow the practice of the sport and not only the show and make NFL become a lifestyle internationally.

Interesting future coming in a competitive entertainment world!?