FEATURE: American Football Growing Rapidly in Frankfurt

The National Football League has made their wish to expand American football to Europe obvious. Throughout October and November, they organized five international games during the regular season.

Three games were in London in October, and the last two have been at the Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany. The Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Miami Dolphins on Nov.5 and the New England Patriots are hosting the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday, Nov.12.

Europeans are excited about the NFL coming to Europe

Wesley Moore, a Frankfurt local who was born in the United States said there has not been a consistent number of NFL games available in Europe compared to the United States.

“Through the time of living here in Europe, I haven’t the opportunity to see a lot of games,” Moore said.

Yet Moore believes the NFL is moving in the right direction in trying to expand American football to European fans.

“They’re doing everything right, all the media, commercials and TV,” Moore said. “The people all here are very interested in the NFL and it’s just spreading throughout Europe,” said Moore.

International Games are growing the Game 

American football is growing in Europe and the international games allow Europeans to get a deeper sense of what the sport is.

“(American football) is becoming more worldwide,” Moore said. “Europe has been more of a FIFA-soccer type of land and now it’s intergrading with football,” said Moore.

Growing the game in Frankfurt

 The game is particularly growing in Frankfurt, Germany. The city has its own American football team, Frankfurt Galaxy.

Lucas Bendix Frenkel is a current marketing employee for the Galaxy. His job is to bring more awareness of American football to Frankfurt and Germany.

“Most of the fans know the NFL but not European teams,” Bendix Frenkel said. “We have to do a lot of social media.”

Marketing to make American football more apparent in Germany

 

The International games in Germany have proven that the demand for the game is high there. Locals have emphasized that they hope the NFL International games may open doors for American football in Europe.

“I hope someday we have European conference,” said Ricardo Huwe. “In Germany, usually they play soccer and football is not yet so famous, but it grows.”

The International games have been successful so far as they’re bringing both American and European fans together, showing Europeans have an interest in American football.

The attendance for the Kansas City Chiefs vs Miami Dolphins was 50,023. When tickets first went on sale in June, they sold out within 15 minutes.

The last 2023 international game is Sunday, Nov. 12, with the New England Patriots hosting the Indianapolis Colts.