This Halloween, Wembley Stadium played host to its fourth competitive National Football League (NFL) game, this year between San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos. It was a game won by the 49ers 24-16, and witnessed by more than 83,000 NFL fans. The popularity of the league’s annual pilgrimage across the Atlantic has led to negotiations surrounding more UK-based games and maybe even a separate NFL franchise outside of America. But what has caused the sport to become so successful? What is the reason for American Football’s popularity in Britain? And what does the future hold for the sport in both its domestic and foreign markets?
Believe it or not, Channel 4 is the reason that NFL found its way to British television screens. Following its launch in 1982, the channel introduced NFL highlights on a Sunday evening, which proved a hit because it was scheduled in the ‘God Slot’; meaning its competitors were shows like Songs of Praise and the Antiques Roadshow. Therefore, young males in particular were drawn to C4s coverage simply because little else was on. Take-up on the coverage was so popular that more than three million viewers tuned in for Super Bowl XX in 1986 between the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots, despite it running into the early hours of a weekday morning. Furthermore, the American Bowl series was introduced, where pre-season friendly games were played in Europe. Its demise (the last American Series game was in Ireland in 1997) is largely attributed to the introduction of the Premier League to English football, and a patriotic following to a ‘British’ sport.
American Football experienced something of a resurgence in the UK largely due to the internet and the ability for fans across the world to follow a team and the sport in general. Sky pledged to show six live games a week, further increasing its saturation of the British sports agenda. The NFL return to British soil in 2007, pundits however have argued that the only game to produce a spectacle was that of 2008 between the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers. This year’s game attracted more than 83,000 fans to Wembley which, to put it into some kind of perspective, is just 4,000 under the stadium’s highest ever attendance. This is all the more surprising when you understand that some fans paid up to £100 for their NFL tickets. As well as this, 38,000 supporters descended on London the day before for a traditional NFL Fan Rally. However, despite these clear indicators of the sport’s popularity in the UK, the future of the sport away from its domestic market is threatened.
The primary reason for this is the Collective Bargaining Agreement, or CBA, an agreement between players and owners that underpins the finances of the NFL. The existing one expires in 2011 but negotiations on a replacement are currently at a stalemate. Currently, around sixty per cent of team revenue goes on wages which the owners argue is too high when they want to use income to modernise stadiums. On the other hand, the players have argued that their wages are justified by their sacrifices; the average career lasts only three and a half years, contracts are often not guaranteed if a team releases a player and it has been suggested that every season in the NFL can take up to three years of a player’s life expectancy. Therefore, the issue of post-career healthcare also forms part of the CBA and its ongoing discussions. Whilst NFL boss Commissioner Roger Goodell is confident that an agreement will be reached by the March deadline, others are more sceptical.
So where does this potentially leave the NFL in the UK? To put it simply, without a resolution to the CBA, it leaves not only us without an annual NFL game but the American league itself will face a ‘lock out’ and no games will be played.
However, it is too early to be considering this as a possibility, so what does the future hold for the NFL over here? Well, both Commissioner Goodell and head of NFL UK Alistair Kirkwood see the possibility of more games being played in the UK and it would seem evident that the support would be there for it. However, there would be little scope for expansion beyond this; a European American Football League collapsed as it was deemed too heavily German based, so there is little expectation of a franchise any time soon. Providing the new CBA is sorted, though, it would appear the presence and support of the NFL in Britain can only get stronger.
By: Matthew Bird
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