NFL international expansion has been a topic of discussion as of late. The NFL is trying to become a global brand. Other leagues, like MLB and the NBA, have had great success with expanding globally. However, the NFL is fairly new to the game. The NFL has been playing regular season games in London since 2007. This year, a record amount of games are being played internationally with Munich, Germany being added to the list along with Mexico City and London. The goal seems to be to expand internationally at some point but there are a lot of issues with that. Let’s look at 3 challenges for NFL international expansion.
Time Zone Changes
This is the most obvious challenge for the NFL international expansion. Outside of anything in North America, the stress of travel internationally to play games is a lot on players and coaches. Teams have intense regiments in order to try and combat the jet lag and quickly get on a new schedule. Football is already a tough sport. Anytime a team travels to the west coast there is a slight adjustment period for the body clock. Trying to add intense time zone changes as a normal part of the league will be a tough ask for players and coaches. There is also the question of logistics for a NFL team especially in Europe.
Let’s say the NFL international expansion plan goes forward and they decide to give London a team. They have put the most games there over the past 15 years. What does that team’s schedule look like? If they play a normal NFL schedule, they are traveling to the United States every couple of weeks. This would put that team at a massive disadvantage as their bodies would constantly be adjusting to the time change. I suppose they could do 8-9 straight home games followed by 8-9 straight away games but that schedule sounds just as awful for players and coaches as well. The time zone change is a huge challenge for NFL international expansion.
Emphasis On Flag Football
One of the big ways that the NFL is trying to gain international recognition is through flag football. The NFL is trying to get it into the 2028 Summer Olympics. In order for the NFL international expansion to happen, it has to be known to the world. The sport was recently featured in the 2022 World Games with Mexico winning the gold medal. This seems like a good strategy as flag football has less start up costs because you do not need pads, helmets, and any of the other safety equipment for tackling. The challenge comes in the fact that flag football is a completely different game.
For starters, the field is only 70 yards long. There is no blocking or screening as it is a completely non contact sport. This also means very little pass rushing. There are zones where you can only pass the ball. All passes have to be beyond the line of scrimmage and the quarterback cannot run the ball. Watch a couple of minutes of a game and it just looks completely different. It has the bones of the same game but it isn’t the same. This is a huge challenge for NFL international expansion. If people are used to one game, it will be hard to convince them to get behind another one.
Past International Failures
NFL international expansion apparently already had been attempted. Did you know that there was an NFL Europe league? I have no shame in admitting that I did not. (Though I have to say I do have vague memories that a Madden game had the Europe teams). It was founded in 1989 and ran through 2007 when the NFL decided to play regular season games overseas. It went through many different iterations but at its core, it was a development league for the NFL. It was a place that they could test out new rules and experiment with the game. While many people were fans of it, there were two things that doomed the league.
First, it was clearly an inferior product and the fans knew it. As the NFL became easier to watch globally, people chose to watch that rather than the inferior NFL Europe. This is seen in other football leagues attempting to start up in the United States. Remember the Alliance of American Football? It didn’t even make it a full season because the product just wasn’t as good as the NFL. If the NFL wants international expansion, it has to be the same level of quality on the field.
The second was what dooms pretty much every failed product, money. NFL Europe hemorrhaged money during its operating years. If an organization is not making money, it is hard to stay in business. It ultimately became more profitable to simply play a couple of regular season games over there. The NFL then put international expansion money into media deals that would help grow the game. The question really becomes did the NFL learn from its past failures? This will be key in NFL international expansion.
There are many challenges for NFL international expansion. However, the demand definitely seems to be there. Football is definitely growing in popularity globally. The fact that the United States of America did not sweep the gold medals in the World Games 2022 says that football has popularity elsewhere. The games sell out every year which isn’t nothing. The NFL will have to decide exactly how it wants to proceed in the coming years when it comes to international expansion.
