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NFL RETURNS TO LONDON WITH EYES ON EXPANSION TO NEW EUROPEAN CITIES

NFL Head of Europe and UK Brett Gosper discusses the return of NFL to London, expansion beyond the UK and the challenges of international growth.

Brett Gosper, who previously served as Chief Executive of World Rugby since 2012, last year joined the National Football League (NFL) as Head of Europe and UK to drive the next stage of the league’s growth in Europe.

As CEO of World Rugby for nine years, Gosper – a former Australia under-21 international who spent a decade playing club rugby in France – oversaw recordbreaking Rugby World Cups in England in 2015 and Japan in 2019. Now Gosper has a new challenge, after the NFL came knocking with an exciting new opportunity.

Gosper has always been interested in NFL, having lived in North America for nearly five years and followed the league in addition to Major League Baseball (MLB) and National Basketball Association (NBA) with curiosity as someone previously in the advertising business.

Having always had admiration of the NFL as an organisation, brand and business Gosper now has overarching responsibility for the successful execution of the NFL's business strategy across the UK and Europe, including fan growth, live games, and commercial success. It is a challenge the Australian relishes, with his experience at World Rugby teaching him many things that are of use also in the context of the NFL as there are many similarities in the sports and in the challenges the league faces outside of the US. It’s fresh, new and exciting for Gosper, as is the NFL’s desired strategic expansion into Europe moving forward.

What are the biggest challenges facing the NFL in international growth?

It’s a massive leader, brand, and business in the United States, but here [Europe] it’s a very competitive sports market. Obviously, football is universal and dominant in the European markets, but then there are a lot of other challenger sports also, let’s say, more home grown: Rugby, Cricket and then Handball in Germany and France.

NFL has to fight for its place in the sun, and even against other sports out of America like the NBA (National Basketball Association) and to a certain extent Major League Baseball (MLB). But those challenges are being met by the NFL.

The NFL is growing fast in the UK and in Germany both in terms of its fanbase and its television audiences, its consumer products ➡

NFL

business, its Maden NFL [video game], and game pass subscriber channel. There is double digit growth in most of those areas which is incredible and encouraging. It’s up to us to manage that in a way that continues to grow a fanbase that seems to already be there.

The Super Bowl provides great access points for a broad number of viewers and those interested in sport in general to look into the NFL window, but we do accumulate avid fans in all of these markets each year at a high rate. We have 19.2 million fans in Germany, 16.2m self-declared fans in the UK and about 3.8 million avid (those who consider themselves serious NFL fans in both Germany and the United Kingdom combined.

France is hot on the heels of those two markets as well, and we are seeing growth in Spain Italy and the Nordics as well. There are challenges but not too many obstacles and there seems to be a real appetite for the sport in this part of the world.

There is news around the NFL exploring the possibility of games in Germany: Is the league keen to expand into other European cities and how will this affect the number of games being hosted in London?

The clue is in the role that they have appointed me to, which is Head of UK & Europe – a position they didn’t have before. There is real appetite to target growth across Europe and of course in most of what we do its evidence based. We put a lot of effort into planning for the future and working through our data analytics to target those markets that we think will have particularly high growth in the coming years and the highest potential.

Certainly Germany, looking at the stats, is a huge market for us already. We have a bid process that’s being kicked off in Germany where a large number of cities in Germany have indicated an interest to host a game. At this point one game a year hopefully from 2022, if we see that the right city and host qualifies in the right way. We said we are working our way through that, and that generates huge economic upside for a host city and for us it generates a huge interest, not just in that particular city, but throughout the country and as London does, outside the country. 6,000 people from Germany travel to the UK games each year, as they do from France, Italy, Ireland and other parts. Having a regular season game in Germany would be fabulous in bringing that relevance and tangibility to the German fans but also allowing another opportunity for other European fans to come and see an NFL game.

France would, in our calculations, be the next big market that would attempt to grow in many ways, but whether they would get a game is debatable at this point. It’s possible.

We also have marketing and commercial programmes happening from teams in the States that weren’t allowed before, but from 2022 clubs can nominate an international market that they choose to commercialise in. We will limit that to about six per international market so you will have six clubs activating in Germany and in the UK.

That will also help growth and relevance to those local fans as those local club brands become more apparent.

What is it about Germany that is attractive to the NFL?

The size of the market itself, but also its economic strength. There is a great tradition of American football and there are more players in Germany

“France would potentially be the next big market that would attempt to accelerate growth, but whether they would get a game is debatable at this point.”

than there are in other markets in Europe. The former NFL European league was dominated by German teams as well. There are very strong playing numbers in Germany in both contact and flag football, so the participation numbers are already very high.

In Germany, unlike France and the UK, there’s not that contact sport like Rugby which fills that gap and desire. Perhaps the reason why the numbers are so high in Germany is because it’s really just going up against football and not another contact sport that has the strength that it does like rugby in France and the UK. We are also looking to set up an office in Germany to get it greater attention. A lot of what we do in the UK is to provide that relevance. The NFL Academy helps to develop local talent who can go onto US colleges to then go on to play in the NFL eventually. Investing in local talent creates more relevance that when they one day get to the NFL has huge attractiveness to the fans when they see someone from their own country playing and succeeding.

With German players in the past, like Seb Vollmer and Markus Kuhn, we are seeing the same effect in the UK with players such as Efe Obada. We have also got a charitable foundation in the UK so all those things add to a local relevance that you can only really set up when you’ve got a local office. That’s our objective in Germany in the coming months as well.

What is the difference between marketing the NFL in Europe compared to the US?

Firstly, is there a difference? We just have to localise and educate people more than you would have to do as part of their culture. People understand sport, understand the rituals around the sport that are appreciated but here it needs more explanation and so that educative part is very important but what is the most important element is visibility and so choosing the right partners that give the sport that visibility in Europe is incredibly important.

Sky Sports and BBC in the UK drive huge awareness and audience that spark that initial interest. ProSieben in Germany is the same thing and L’Equipe in France as well. So, we have a free to air and a pay channel, which works well in those markets and drives the overall visibility of the sport.

On top of that there is the overlay of the story element of the sport rolled out through social media channels, our own subscription channels and so on. I guess the key different is you have to hold the hand of the European consumer slightly more than the American fan. In the last 10 years, 17 of the top 20 rated broadcast programmes in the states are NFL games so consistently it is highly dominant across the four major networks in a way that those four major networks are all promoting the sport as well.

We all hear about the phenomenal visibility of the Super Bowl in the States and outside, but it is a complex sport, and it does need localising.

Creating success in Europe is not unlike creating success for rugby in other parts of the world where rugby is not known. The States is a very difficult place to break through because of the highly competitive nature of the commercial sports environment there, but even when you take rugby to Russia, China, Brazil and other parts, there are some real similarities in how you make that sport as visible as possible, how you get air time and then also how you grow out of the grassroots level to make it even more relevant to the youth population.

How important is it for NFL in Europe to reach and connect with people from both ends of the fandom spectrum, to attract new fans and to keep existing fans engaged?

It’s hugely important to do both ends of the spectrum in any sport and you can’t treat your existing fans as novices, they have to be treated with respect for the knowledge that they have and the love they have for the game, then you have your tent pole moments that you’re leading newly acquired fans into the family of the NFL.

It’s important that you keep your current fans delighted by what you are doing and just at the same time attract those new segments that are important to the sport going forward. You are always building on your existing fanbase and doing everything you can to retain them and satisfy them.

Pulling NFL fans out of a target audience, which is sports lovers, is not easy but it’s easier than pulling nonsports fans all the way to the NFL franchise. What’s really important is to hold onto those fans that you do have because they’ve come for a reason and you’ve got to keep them entertained as long as you possibly can and that requires a variation of messaging and monitoring the laws of the game to ensure that it continues to be as attractive as it possibly can.

Could you tell us more about the NFL Academy?

We’ve got about 80 students, 16-18 years-old which we recruit. I think it’s about 80 per cent UK based, mainly in the ➡

city of London. We have a partnership with Barnett Southgate College which is not far from the Tottenham [Hotspur] Stadium, our stadium home in the UK.

These students are recruited based on their athletic qualities, but we ensure that they receive the right kind of education academically, so they have time to play, train and develop their skills. On a third aspect we do everything to develop character too. Those three pillars are very important. Not all of them [students] will get an academic scholarship into the States, which is the main goal, but those who don’t we will help find homes in other academic institutions and we will try to ensure that we can bring change in a positive way to the lives of all those students that come through our Academy.

At the very top and ambitious end is getting a scholarship into American Universities and then hopefully onwards to contracts with NFL team ultimately. They are also a big part of our youth messaging. A lot of our social media and our NFL Academy platforms are followed by younger audiences than the NFL channel is. It does the right thing in terms of developing talent, but also says the right thing about the NFL as a brand in helping to change people’s lives at that player stage.

Is there any possibility of a team moving to Europe permanently?

That's totally in the domain of the owners. Should an owner decide that they would like to relocate their team then that’s going to be their concern. We are pleased about the [Jacksonville] Jaguars playing in London regularly and we are hoping that continues on outside of the two compulsory NFL games in London.

There are four international games now embedded in the 17-game season and in the schedules. From 2022 there will be at least two games in London and then the Jaguars might decide that they want to play one or two games outside of that compulsory cycle of all 32 teams coming through internationally over the period of the next eight years.

Any team can decide they want to take a home game to another market if they wish. But all we can do is prepare an audience and a fanbase to ensure, should that decision be made one day by an owner to go to London, it would be a good decision because of what we have done to develop the audience here for any team that may decide that.

What do you think makes an NFL team successful in Europe?

Winning Super Bowls. People are greatly aware of the teams that win the Super Bowl and star players like Tom Brady who have given their teams an edge.

But success is about how well they market themselves in the future and how well they capture the imaginations of the fans that they’re going after and personalising experiences because fans don’t just support the NFL they support a club and we know that avid fans have a

“We are seeing a lot of excitement around the games this year. They are both at Tottenham [Hotspur Stadium], a state-of-the-art and possibly the best stadium in the world…”

club that’s deer to them, and knowing the players is the next step. The more a fan knows, the more in love with the sport they are via those players and via the club itself.

It would be important when these clubs are able to market themselves internationally. Up to now they have only been able to market themselves commercially within a 75-mile radius of their stadium, so allowing them to now market themselves in key international markets is going to be a gamechanger.

Why were teams only previously allowing to market themselves locally?

I think it wasn’t organised internationally and there’s a very organised way of ensuring that the clubs don’t step on each other’s commercial territories. They are all organised within the catchment areas because the league is structured in a way that the commercial sharing and the interest of the total [revenue] is more important than the individual club.

The clubs will submit marketing plans for the markets that they are interested in and the league will work with those clubs to make sure they are optimise.

What can people expect from the upcoming games in London?

We are seeing a lot of excitement around the games this year. They are both at Tottenham [Hotspur Stadium], a stateof-the-art, purpose built venue - possibly the best stadium in the world… it’s a magnificent stadium where every single detail has been thought through and it’s a great fan experience as you're close to the game. There’s not a bad seat in the stadium and so we are expecting a full crowd for the two games. There hasn’t been NFL here for a couple of years, so there is some real appetite.

We’ve got some great match ups and great quarterbacks playing who were first and second pick in the draft - Zach Wilson (New York Jets) and Trevor Laurence (Jacksonville Jaguars). It’s all going to be incredibly exciting to watch so it’s a big part of the sporting calendar in the UK. It makes a great connection between the UK and America culturally and commercially which I think it’s something that fans here have missed in the last year and will be looking forward to getting back to. U