The English sporting community’s attitude towards American football has historically come across as flippant to say the least. However, the negative stigma of the past seems to be fading, as the popularity of the NFL in Great Britain is growing rapidly.
TV viewership has been pivotal in the growth of American Football especially with the introduction of the NFL show, courtesy of the BBC. It is a show that allows all levels of American football fanatic to enjoy, as the heavy technical language is uncommon, and rules and fundamentals are explained in an easy to understand manner for UK beginners. The show consists of regular BBC sports host, Mark Chapman, and retired NFL veterans, Osi Umenyiroa and Jason Bell. Sarah Swanson, who has been with the NFL for more than half a decade and headed up UK marketing since 2015 said:
“The biggest asset we have in this market is the late-night show on the BBC. When you look at the number of people who see it – you can’t touch that anywhere else. It is very much designed for a broad audience. We contextualize what is happening on the field, who the players are and their storylines to a broad audience.”
What could also be considered one of the NFLs biggest draws for English interest, would be the live NFL London games, in which Stadiums such as Twickenham and Wembley are hosts to actual NFL regular season games. NFL teams fly out especially to London for the games, which is available to watch live in stadium or TV. And the NFL has seen success at the stadiums with last year’s game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Philadelphia Eagles attracting an impressive crowd of 85,000 at Wembley stadium. To put that into perspective, Tottenham Hotspurs played a game 3 days’ prier in the same stadium, in which they garnered a crowd of 36,000 people.
The public interest for the NFL is clearly developing, with NFL London and the BBC becoming the flagship for American football in the UK, it will be interesting to see where the NFL will go from here in Britain.
