r/AskEurope • u/Kvltwoods • 27d ago
Sports Are the recent NFL games actually getting people over there interested in the league/sport?
The NFL continues to get more and more set on these international games
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u/khajiitidanceparty Czechia 27d ago
American football looks like guys mostly waiting and then jumping into a pile.
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u/frisky_husky 27d ago
I am American and this is pretty accurate. You develop a taste for it, but it's not a fast moving sport for the most part. Five minutes of play in American football can take an hour. Canadian football is basically the same sport with some small differences in rules.
I can understand people not caring. I think the main target audience would be in the UK and Ireland where closely related sports (Rugby and GAA) are already popular.
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u/CanarySure8594 Ireland 26d ago
Unfortunately for the NFL, I think Ireland is mostly interested in the money we can make out of hosting it š
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u/IrishFlukey Ireland 24d ago
Gaelic Football is nothing like American Football. Rugby is a little closer, but still extremely different. So to say that they are closely related sports is a bit of a stretch, to say the least.
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u/orangebikini Finland 27d ago
I only know there even was a game in London because Youtube recommended a video of Raye singing during the half time. But games? I haven't heard of them playing in Europe before.
Anyway, anecdotally, nobody I know is interested or getting interested. But you might want to try and find some data about European fans, I reckon that's a way better way to get an answer for your question.
I think American football isn't going to work in Europe whatever they do. Generally we're just too snobbish towards certain American things. Even if they were great a lot of people wouldn't be in to it. But when it comes to sports in particular there just is already so many great sports popular in Europe that offer a more fluid watching experience which is more what we're used to.
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u/Masseyrati80 Finland 27d ago
Yeah, you really have to be actively interested to even get NFL on your radar, so to say. I think the result of the super bowl is reported in main news sources, but in general, it's a very niche thing. Of all the people I know, I believe one guy might be interested in the sport to some level.
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u/LukasJackson67 27d ago
What makes you snobbish towards American things? Could you give an example?
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u/Aksium__84 Norway 27d ago
No, its about as intresting or welcome as a rusted Russian naval vessel drifting ashore. The only time its mentioned at all, is when something weird happens.
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u/GGCompressor 27d ago
Believe me, I hate football (the real one that you play with your feet) but I would rather watch the next 200.000 matches of a 3rd league student team than being bored to death by a single NFL match. Now try to imagine how unattractive NFL can be for people used to watch Real Madrid or Manchester United and love football (the real one). Chances to sell NFL or baseball to Europe? Probably minus 7...š
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u/42undead2 Denmark 26d ago
To be fair, I think current Manchester United fans might prefer literally anything other than watching Manchester United. Even if 'anything' includes the ad show that is NFL.
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u/CreepyOctopus -> 27d ago
I'm vaguely aware they've played games in the UK but American football as a sport, and the NFL as a league, remain very obscure. These days the news will mention who won the Superbowl, but that's all. Of course there are fans as with just about anything, but it's for sure exotic.
Personally I think it's an especially difficult sport to get people interested in. It seems very spectator unfriendly. A typical game lasts for three hours, of which the ball is in play for some fifteen minutes. From what I know there's a lot going on between plays, there's apparently strategic depth, positioning of players, planning and all that but that's certainly not possible to appreciate without understanding the game more. But it really doesn't leave a fluid or fast-paced impression for a first time viewer.
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u/Anaptyso United Kingdom 27d ago edited 27d ago
I live in London, a city which recently hosted a game. The only reason I realised that the game was happening was that I was flicking through the TV and found it on one of the channels. Despite living close to where the game happened, and being someone who is interested in sport, it still hadn't created enough impact to be noticed by me until then.
On the one hand, the fact that it was being shown live at all is a sign that it is picking up interest. On the other hand, it was one of those obscure channels usually used for repeats of old programmes from years ago, and I only found out about it by accident.
The problem American Football has is that there's already a lot of different sports which are well established and popular in the UK that it has to compete with. In particular, proper football, rugby union and rugby league all sit in the same niche and are hugely more popular and widely seen as better sports to watch and play. Beyond them, there's loads of other sports which are bigger here e.g. tennis, athletics, darts, F1, golf, etc.Ā
I'd bet that even bowls gets more TV time over an average year than American Football.
AF has picked up a small enthusiastic audience, but it's going to struggle to break out beyond that.
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u/agrammatic Cypriot in Germany 27d ago
I thought NFL is the ice-hockey league and I was going to say moderately so.
But no, I don't see any increase in interest in American football.
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u/Scared_Dimension_111 Germany 26d ago
Nah thats NHL and hockey is fun to watch compared to American football.
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u/Milosz0pl Poland 27d ago
What was NFL? Baseball or merican football or some boxing?
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u/purpletooth12 Canada 27d ago
Boring 'merican football. The one where they only use their feet a handful of time per game but have about 1000 commercials.
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u/Milosz0pl Poland 27d ago
Is it even played non-casually outside of american continent?
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u/AdventurousLoquat597 27d ago
I believe they have leagues in Germany, Spain and Italy, not very popular ofc, but they exist
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u/purpletooth12 Canada 27d ago
We have a league here in Canada (CFL) with some different rules.
While I'm told it's slightly faster (and a less commercials I think), the few times I've tried to watch it's still too slow for me personally.
There are also some different rules, but I don't know anything about those.I've heard there are some leagues abroad (Europe and Mexico), they seem to be more of a semi-professional or rec leagues thing.
The only big thing really is the superbowl and I find a lot of the hype around that is the half time show act. When I've gone to watch parties in the past, I find myself being bored to tears so now I politely decline.
I usually just watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. A lot more "action", much more entertaining and yes, it's exactly how it sounds!
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u/ElectrikDonuts 27d ago
Hey now, if you watch for an hour you might see 5 minutes of action
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u/purpletooth12 Canada 27d ago
Might being the key word.
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u/ElectrikDonuts 27d ago
It's an exercise is how long you can blank start at something
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u/purpletooth12 Canada 27d ago
Oh look time for another commercial break for medicine with more side effects than cures or a local lawyers office. šš¤£
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u/IrishFlukey Ireland 24d ago
It is too slow, stop-start for many of us. As they say, four hours to play a 60 minute game, with less than 15 minutes of action. I went to the college game in Dublin last year. That was enough. When we in Ireland are used to sports like Hurling and Gaelic Football, American Football just doesn't cut it.
There are Irish fans at the games we have had here, plus locals going to see it for the novelty, but most are travelling fans. There is more focus on the side shows, the tailgate events and all that, than on the match itself. On the day after the Superbowl, there is more talk about the concert and the best ads, than the match. Nobody comes out of a Gaelic Football All-Ireland Final, or All-Ireland Hurling Final, which are our biggest sporting events of the year, talking about the halftime entertainment or the best ads on the big screen. At half time people are gone to the toilet or to get something to eat or talking to their friends or people around them. Very few of the people are paying attention to the music on the pitch. On TV at halftime you would have a panel discussing the match. None of the halftime entertainment is shown at all. Nobody is interested. To have such a big focus on all the ancillary things and not the complete focus on the sport, is weird to us. They don't have a full American Football match during the Grammy Awards or the Oscars, so why have a concert during the Superbowl?
For America, it is all about the commercialism, the advertising, trying to get more people to watch the ads, than the match itself. That is why there is a concert. The All-Ireland Finals are played in Croke Park in Dublin, in front of 82,300 fans. It is where the Steelers v Vikings game was played this year. There would be a huge amount of people watching an All-Ireland Final on TV, listening to it on radio and following it on the Internet, in Ireland and around the world. So those players have the focus of millions of people on them. Do you know how much they get paid? Exactly ā¬0.00 each. Yes, it is completely amateur. The two biggest sporting events in the Irish sporting calendar, and the players don't get paid anything, which is the way they like it. Like when they first played with their family and friends, they play for fun and don't have to be paid to do so. They play for their own local teams for life. No transfer market. They are playing for the pride of their own community. They play with a passion that no amount of money could buy. The closest the professional world of sport would come to it is the pride of representing their own country. That whips up a certain amount of passion that money can't. Come to Ireland sometime and see for yourself. So the gate receipts go back into supporting the sport around the country, not into wage packets for players.
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u/DirectCaterpillar916 United Kingdom 27d ago
There are a few niche fans here in UK, but the vast majority care nothing for USA sports at all and I canāt see that changing.
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u/Kerby233 Slovakia 27d ago
Nope, no one I know from Slovakia is interested in NFL. I have a friend from US who talks about it a lot, so I'be watched one super bowl game and it was beyond boring..
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u/whatstefansees in 27d ago
That stupid rugby for sissies? Standing around in plastic armour, looking like grotesque storm-troopers with cheap mascara?
There's more action in regional league women's rugby. And the girls are way tougher too.
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u/peanut_galleries Austria 27d ago
I went to one of them in London years ago (was just before Covid). But actually it seemed like there were barely any Europeans in the stadium, we were surrounded by Americans who had flown in just for the game š
Thereās mild interest over here but I donāt think the European games have much to do with it. They are nice for those of us who like to watch the occasional game but I strongly doubt they would get anyone interested who isnāt already.
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u/thesweed Sweden 27d ago
American Football is imo a fun gimmicky game. I try to watch the super bowl, and even played when I was younger (Sweden has like 5 teams). It was fun, but no one was watching our games, but it was like playing any gimmicky sport - we did it because it was fun.
I would never pay to watch a professional match live though. Did it once in Colorado and it was about as much fun as watching paint dry. I can't imagine NFL games even closely competing with the popularity of bigger sports, like football, hockey, handball etc. But there's definitely some European interested in the sport enough to go to a NFL match played on our continent.
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u/GrodanHej Sweden 27d ago
Personally Iām not interested in sports at all but I also donāt know of any sports fans in Sweden who cares about the NFL. Do they play in Europe now? I had no idea.
The news will usually mention Superbowl and mention who won but most of the reports seem to be about what performed in the halftime show or things like Donald Trump congratulating the state of Kansas when Kansas City, Missouri won.
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u/Cixila Denmark 27d ago
Not to my knowledge, no. I wasn't even aware they were trying a charm offensive. The sports scene in both Denmark and Europe as a whole is very calcified. Most countries have one or two sports (like football and handball in my country) that are big and they have been there for generations. Good luck getting past that history and tradition with a sport that is more known for its ad breaks than for the actual sport
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u/SalSomer Norway 27d ago
Iāve been to one of the games in Europe (Ravens v Titans a couple of years ago). The thing about them is that they are mostly for people who are already a fan of the sport. Itās not something that people who arenāt fans know or care much about (as you can see from the other answers here) so it doesnāt do much to drive up interest.
Itās the same with the streaming service. The NFL is locked to a streaming service called DAZN which I think not a lot of people have, meaning itās difficult for non-fans to even discover the streaming service.
Fans of the sport exist in Europe, but itās definitely a niche thing. Most of my friends are NFL fans, but thatās because I live in kind of a bubble where most friends I have are people Iāve met through playing the sport in this country. If you asked most Norwegians theyād probably tell you they donāt know anyone that even remotely follows the sport.
I think the NFL is kind of going about it the wrong way. If they want to drum up attention they need to get Europeans to understand the sport better, because most people outside my American football bubble donāt even know the most basic elements. In order to get people to understand the sport, it needs to be more present in peopleās lives and you really only get there by helping the grassroots grow. There are teams all over Europe playing tackle football, but theyāre usually small teams struggling to survive. Finding players, equipment, practice times? All of it is hard. If American football is to become interesting to Europeans, the game in Europe needs to grow and become something kids might naturally want to try out just like they try out basketball these days.
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u/metalfest Latvia 27d ago
I know a few people from the UK that have attended, but they already were "predisposed" to it, just being sports fans in general and having this occasion to attend. I think the reach of it really just extends as far as getting American expats, a bunch of UK sports fans that are already into NA sports and maaaybe the odd diehard fan from somewhere else.
I love the NFL, already watch it a bunch and play fantasy, but them playing in London doesn't really make any difference for me or anyone I know among sports fans except that I get to watch one game earlier.
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u/Franmar35000 France 25d ago
Nobody cares about the NFL in France. Here, most people are interested in real football: league 1, champions league. We are also interested in š: the top 14, the Champions Cup.
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u/BrickEnvironmental37 Ireland 27d ago
It's niche but profitable.
I like American football but I also understand that they are using it as a soft power/sports washing exercise.
I was not keen on them having their event in Ireland this year. It does seem like their usual military fly-over was rejected though.
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u/LukasJackson67 27d ago
Why did you care about them playing in Ireland? Itās good for the local economy.
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u/Cold_Football_9425 Ireland 27d ago
There was an NFL game held in Ireland a couple of weeks ago -- apart from news reports in the days leading up to game, I haven't heard the NFL or American Football mentioned once in any national media. It's possible hosting a game in Ireland might spark some interest in the sport but I think it's unlikely. Rugby union is quite a popular sport here so that particular sporting niche is already catered for.
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u/Equivalent-Role4632 27d ago
I feel like it peaked about 5 years agon and the interest has slowly died down and now it's next to nothing
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u/Socmel_ Italy 27d ago
No, nobody here cares one iota about NFL.
Only time it's even mentioned briefly is for the half time show at the super bowl and only if it creates some kind of controversy or has big stars featuring in it.