“We could have sold more than three million tickets,” says Alexander Steinforth, referring to the next big sporting event at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
But he isn’t referring to Bayern Munich’s next Bundesliga home game, nor is the German national soccer team in town; Germany’s NFL Managing Director is in fact speaking about the exponential demand for tickets for a different kind of “football” as the United States’ National Football League stages its first ever live regular-season game in Germany.
“We have seen great development for the NFL and for American football in Germany over the past couple of years,” Steinforth tells DW ahead of Sunday’s showcase clash between the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Bavarian capital.
“Germany is our number one growth market. [We have] double digit growth when it comes to fandom, when it comes to social reach, everything we are looking at. We are really happy to finally be able to host the first ever regular season game here in Germany, not just for us but even more so for our fans.”
Tom Brady in Munich
Anticipation for the match was further boosted when legendary Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, who continues to push the limits of his own immortality on the field at the age of 45, reversed his decision to retire at the end of last season.
It’s not just fans of Brady and the Buccaneers who are looking forward to the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; the Seahawks also have an enormous following of their own in Germany. Indeed, the Seattle franchise has the largest German-speaking fan club, with the “German Sea Hawkers” boasting a 1,300-strong membership.
The Seahawks’ popularly is due in part to the successes of the famous “Legion of Boom” — the nickname given to The Seahawks’ defense during a highly successful period between 2012 and 2015, which coincided with the NFL being shown on free-to-air television in Germany.
“We’re playing in this very cool arena [ed.: the Allianz Arena] and it looks amazing in pictures,” Brady said on his podcast on Monday, via NFL.com.
“The place is going be rocking and if it’s anything like what I see in those German Bundesliga games, this is going to be one of the most epic games that we’ve ever played in. I’m super excited.”
The latest attempt to conquer Europe
Previous attempts to quench European – and particularly German – thirst for live American football included NFL Europe, which operated between 1991 and 2007 before folding after several loss-making seasons. The monetary issues that plagued the European arm of the league were due in part to an inability to reach the masses on television and radio.
However, fans of the sport, often US expatriates and young children introduced to the game by American teachers, developed deep ties to the German teams such as the Rhine Fire from Düsseldorf, the Frankfurt Galaxy and the Hamburg Sea Devils.
When Hamburg native and former player Patrick Esume helped revive professional American football in Germany through the independent European League of Football (ELF) in 2021, he worked with the NFL to ensure that the teams set up in German cities where previous teams had existed retained their former club names to continue the connection with fans.
Amid a changing digital and broadcast landscape, the venture paid off. In its inaugural season, a survey conducted on behalf of Online Marketing Rockstars (OMR) showed that American football was Germany’s second most popular sport among 14-to-49 year olds.
“We have obviously seen that there is a tremendous interest in the sport and the league, and that excites us,” says MD Steinforth.
“We are very much aware that there has been historically a very strong federation infrastructure in Germany, probably the strongest in all of Europe, and we are convinced that everything that is good for American football is good not just for the NFL, but also for all other German American football stakeholders.
“It makes everyone in the United States excited to see what the future holds but for now, first and foremost, we are trying to execute our first game to the highest standards possible.”
Steinforth: ‘We want to get kids playing American football’
Crucially, the NFL is not simply focussed on existing interest in American football, but also in ensuring that the passion and knowledge for the game begins at a young age.
In October, former Carolina Panthers defensive end Mike Rucker led a flag football session and local NFL flag football tournament in Frankfurt, which was attended by 90 players from co-ed leagues.
Frankfurt alone has 25 flag football teams, the non-contact version of American football played by youth teams, and Steinforth believes it is one of the most important ways to attract new fans to the game at large.
“The Munich game is one thing but for us it is trying to be active all year round,” he explains. “That is why we are investing a lot of time and effort in our nationwide flag football program. We want to get kids to play American football, we want to make sure it is not just a media product but really something tangible.”
The Panthers are one of four teams, alongside the Kansas City Chiefs, the New England Patriots and the Buccaneers, who were assigned a five-year international marketing rights contract for Germany in 2021.
The league has also committed to three more regular-season matches over the next four years: one more in Munich (in 2024) and two in Frankfurt (in 2023 and 2025).
Edited by Matt Ford
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