Derek Armstrong
Economics A3
Mr. Reuter
10/27/2015
Football in London
In September two of the smallest NFL teams of the past decade, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Buffalo Bills, played out a minor classic in front of 84,000 people. The following weekend, another sell-out crowd participated in the whole fist-bumping, XXL jersey-over-hoodie wearing experience all over again when the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions came to town. How many sports – football aside - could sell out Wembley twice within a week? And how many could do it with teams of the equivalent standard of the Jaguars, Bills, Chiefs and Lions, who between them have won a grand total of eight out of 28 matches this season? This idea of having an international sports event has a great impact on the UK’s economy.
Back in 2014 a study carried out by the Sports Business Group at Deloitte found out that two NFL international football games played in autumn of 2013 contributed 32m euros (300 million US dollars) to the London economy. The International Series, which first touched down in the UK in 2007, attracted a cumulative audience of 167,000 across two games played at Wembley Stadium last year.
More broadly, the sport’s chains appear to be moving in the right direction too. It is believed that there would be at least four regular-season games in the UK by 2018. The NFL also reports that the average audience for the 6pm and 9pm Sunday games at Wembley Stadium have doubled in the past couple years. Meanwhile, in a fortnight the BBC, which has broadcast both Wembley games this season, will start a weekly highlights show.
As you read above there has been a lot of impact on not only the UK’s economy, but on the NFL as well. If something as little as a sports league can bring in as much revenue as it did obviously something is being done right. The average Cowboys home game at AT&T Stadium has drawn an average of 89,536 fans this season. However, the Jaguars played in front of a Wembley Stadium crowd in London that was far bigger than the average crowd at EverBank Field.
Many barriers remain. There is the travel, with all that pinging back and forth through time zones. Then there are the logistics of shipping tons of team equipment, which is often sent months in advance to London (how would that work in the play-offs?) In addition there is the lack of a permanent stadium. Overall, the idea of having an international NFL game is a smart idea. It’s a different thing because many other countries don’t participate in American Football. It broadens the horizon of everyone because everyone is affected in some sort of way.
Works Cited
"London's NFL Love Affair Shows Signs of Growing More Substantial Yet." NFL Sports Blog. Sean Ingle. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
"NFL Contributed £32m to the London Economy." - London & Partners. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
"Seven Years until London Jaguars?" BBC Sport. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
MLA formatting by BibMe.org.
American Football is widely spreading and more people want to see NFL teams play against other teams. I believe that if the NFL will expanded soon out of the US. Right now the NFL is talking about moving one team will move to LA. So anything is possible right now.
ReplyDeleteIt is very possible that could happen with these stats supporting it. The Rams are very likely going to be shipped off to LA in the next few years and will go for a record price. When it comes to London there are a lot of barriers for them to get over, but based on the income of the few games that played there, the investment might be worth it. Also the teams that have played there are just teams from the U.S, imagine if London had a team to call their own. It might be one of the biggest and most passionate fan bases in all the NFL in a very short amount of time. At the moment the demand seems very high for a team in London and I could definitely see it happening as soon as 2020, depending on how much London is willing to spend.
ReplyDeleteAmerican Football is obviously on the rise during the season you can now watch games three days out of the week rather only two and it easily the most popular sport with how many viewers it's easily pulling in at home. In London, American Football is obviously fairly new and with it being something that only comes around up to twice a year and it being something so big there is a high demand for when it comes in town. it would be smart not to bring it there as a whole but to only play a few games there so that people there do not get bored of it and it stays in high demand.
ReplyDeleteIf playing more games in London brings in more money for the NFL, it should definitely continue to happen. American football is something that growing in worldwide popularity, so maybe if the NFL can spread to other countries, there could be more teams which would benefit their countries economies. Of course, there are plenty of boundaries in doing so, but if they can make it happen over the next few years, I think it would be good for everyone
ReplyDeleteAmerican Football is obviously on the rise during the season you can now watch games three days out of the week rather only two and it easily the most popular sport with how many viewers it's easily pulling in at home. In London, American Football is obviously fairly new and with it being something that only comes around up to twice a year and it being something so big there is a high demand for when it comes in town. it would be smart not to bring it there as a whole but to only play a few games there so that people there do not get bored of it and it stays in high demand.
ReplyDeleteThe only way international american football could legitimately become a perminate thing that would happen regularly, would be if they made a team of there own or maybe after a while a league of their own, if other countries made a team it would cost billions of dollars, and would also change things like the play-offs and the Superbowl, would the Superbowl become an international event? Many people would be very upset at the idea including already existing teams which could cause many problems. I say that well it may seem like a good idea but we should keep american football american, having occasional visits to the UK is a great idea, but if you make the visits to often it wont be as special and people wont care anymore.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Ryan! I think it is an interesting idea to have American football teams go to visit the UK on occasion, but is there a demand for that really? It may bring extra revenue, but that will only happen if the demand for American football in the UK is the same for other sports in the UK. Also, you mentioned how they could sell out "Wembley", but I'm not quite sure what that is. If you could explain that, it could just clarify some confusion in the article. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteDoes this have a significant impact on our economy. Wouldn't moving more games into a country that doesn't even have a team take away from the revenue of home games for the team that must sacrifice one of their own home games to generate revenue in another country. I don't see home fans being okay with having a so called home game away from the stadium as well as season ticket holders that would miss out on some of there games.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great idea to have football in London, it is a way to make even more money. The only problem with doing it is the travel and getting everything there. It would be hard to do that on short notice. But overall football will continue to spread across the world and more games in London will happen.
ReplyDeleteAll football fans want to see their team win every week against the same teams over and over again. I think that this will be a good thing for both sides to start playing against each other. Mostly because it is a new and interesting thing to see two teams that have never played each other face off for the first time. This also creates a wider fan base because of the face that in is also something for people to see in general not just football lovers.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be a great idea to continue to spread the NFL to other places around the world. I think the reason they sent the worst teams in the league to other countries is people overseas don't know what good football looks like so it probably satisfies the consumers need, and it's also good that these games are selling out because then we know there is interest. I think the best that could happen in the future is for other countries to join the NFL and make their own teams. And really they could start in countries closer by to make the trip not as much as a hassle.
ReplyDeleteHonestly American football being played in other countries is just a terrible idea until they have stadiums and all the equipment in the other country. The NFL had to spend money shipping all the teams equipment out to the stadium, which costed them quite a bit of money. For example, if the Lions had their own stadium and equipment in the UK, it would save a lot more money then using a random stadium and shipping the equipment. Even though it brought in money and not many games are played in the UK, but as of this time period it wouldn't be the best idea.
ReplyDeleteI don't even like football and yet even I'm impressed with the fact that a foreign sport can sell out Wembley Stadium. And maybe in the future with the NFL having more games in the UK then maybe their will be a rise of European football teams.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great idea to have football in London, it is a way to make even more money.Your site & I post is very nice. I love this Ports .I am sports lover and always share some good news with everyone regarding every sport Please Visit My blog is here Fx TecH Thank you
ReplyDelete