The league hopes to play a game in the country in 2022.
Every week the National Football League takes a close look at Germany to see if the country is embracing its brand. The NFL seems to have enough evidence that Germany is interested in the NFL product and is ready to stage a game in the country. It doesn’t sound like there is much to do in terms of putting on a game, you rent a stadium, assign two teams to fly to Germany, sell some tickets and have a game. But it is not simple according to Brent Gosper, the NFL’s point man in Europe. The NFL is reasonably confident that London has become a reliable NFL city where a couple of games can be played annually. But Germany is a tougher sell.
“The Germany market, according to Gosper, “is the bigger one in most areas, whether it be fanbase, engagement, the consumer products business, the Game Pass, OTT digital streaming service business, Madden NFL. It’s bigger than the UK, yet we don’t have really a single person who’s 100 per cent of their time focused on that market. The UK has had far more attention and the games have kind of led us that way a bit. So, if we had a similar focus and resource over time in the German market, we think it will really see some huge benefits over time.” Representatives from three German cities, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich are talking to the league about hosting a 2022 game. Those representatives must possess pockets filled with money. Germany has had five NFL preseason games between 1990 and 1994, and there were five teams from Germany in the NFL Europe league . That European league folded in 2007. The league is far behind other sports presenting games around the world and that is a problem for the NFL, a league looking to attract foreign fans.
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