NFL Expansion, is there an appetite for a team in Europe? If so, where?

The NFL has been playing regular season games in Europe since 2007 where Eli Manning’s 59 passing yards were too much for Cleo Lemon and the Dolphins. Since then the game has grown rapidly in England and Continental Europe, with rumors of an expansion division, relocation or even a Super Bowl being the next step, let’s take a look at where the game could go next.

NFL and American Football as a sport has grown at an incredible rate in Europe over the past decade and a half, with 81 teams competing in the British University American Football League and multiple professional leagues playing in Europe.

The major league in Europe is the European League of Football, comprised of 17 teams from across Europe, with Germany boasting seven of those teams.

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The most recent winners of the ELF, Rhein Fire, are a new and improved version of the NFL Europe team that ran from 1995-2007. Reborn in 2022 under the stewardship of former NFL head coach Jim Tomsula, the Fire won the ELF Championship in 2023 in front of 31,500 fans, per XFLNews.com.

According to John Affleck of Forbes, the NFL decided to play games in Germany as, "half the London crowd was German, so the NFL should play games [t]here." He goes on to suggest that as there are no explanations of penalties during games in Germany (there are at games in London), the fanbase is already knowledgeable enough to host an NFL team.

Later in this gallery, we will look at the possibility of moving a team to London, but given Germany's love for the sport already, could it be a more logical place for a team to relocate to?

Flights from the east coast of America to Germany are only slightly longer than flights to the UK, so that should not be an issue. According to Front Office Sports, the Chiefs "have even been consulting with a group of CEOs from German companies over the past two years to learn how to best capitalize on local consumers," as they look to capitalize on the rapid growth in the sport.

Kansas City Chiefs are unlikely to move to Europe given their rapid home fanbase, but their work with German businesses and sponsors could lay the groundwork for a team to move, or perhaps even be created in Germany with the money tap already turned on.

Alongside the continued growth in fans following the sport, the NFL has invested in the NFL Academy, described on its website as an, “elite football development program, for student athletes aged 16 – 19,” intending to send players from Europe and beyond to Division 1 schools on football scholarships.

International Series games have been played at three stadiums in London, Wembley, Twickenham, and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, drawing huge crowds to each. Wembley averages well over 80,000, whilst Tottenham is always close to its 61,000 capacity.

Last year, when tickets became available for the inaugural NFL games in Germany, more than 770,000 people attempted to access the ticketing website at once, more than 10x the capacity of the Allianz Arena in Munich.

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For fans in Europe, this popularity is no surprise, with domestic, full-contact Gridiron leagues playing all over the continent, flag football growing in popularity with multi-day tournaments regularly taking place, and games shown on major TV networks.

According to Front Office Sports, the NFL is aiming to, “expand its international business to $1 billion over the next 10 years,” from an article in 2022. For context, the NFL as a whole generated a total revenue of $18 billion last year, making NFL a significant percentage of their revenue generation.

Given the popularity of the sport, there will certainly be moves to increase fan engagement even more of the coming years, but how far they take it will be interesting to see.

Could the NFL create a permanent beachhead in Europe by initially relocating a franchise? London would seem the logical location, but which team would be moved?

The Jags have long been mooted as the team to move, with little success during their existence and owner Shahid Khan’s business interests in London, the links seem to make a lot of sense. Recently, a poll suggested Jacksonville locals are less than impressed by a proposal to spend $1 billion of taxpayer money for much-needed stadium upgrades, per TotalProSports.com.

The Jaguars have always been a key part of the NFL International Series, playing at least once per season for a decade. This season they were the first team to play back-to-back games in London, perhaps a sign of things to come.

Another option that seems to be on the table is to move, or potentially even create a brand new division within Europe. Presumably, there would be two teams in Britain, one in Germany and one elsewhere.

Front Office Sports reported back in March that an NFL owner had told them, “We don’t know if it’s going to happen in two years, five years, or whenever, but there’s going to be an international division”.

Given travel concerns, teams would almost certainly be required to ‘tour’ Europe if they were to be playing the European division, staying for multiple weeks to limit excess travel. The same would need to occur in reverse with weekly transatlantic flights seemingly an improbable proposition for elite athletes.

Despite protestations from players around the quality of the turf, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would be the obvious choice for a permanent home for any London-based team. With a capacity of a little over 61,000 and a retractable field purpose-built with NFL in mind, it seems a logical choice.

Perhaps the most shocking option to take the NFL’s international interest to the next level is the possibility of playing a Super Bowl in London. Commissioner Roger Goodell told fans in London, “It is not impossible, and it is something that has been discussed before”, when asked.

A Super Bowl in London seems far-fetched at this stage, despite Goodell’s statement. It is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and to take it overseas would be met with huge resistance from the general public in America.

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