Taryn Batey, Zoe Shelley and Crescenzo Spagnoli
\n\u00a0|\u00a0 For the Knoxville News Sentinel<\/p>\n
This article is part of a series reported and written by students at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville as an assignment for a course offered by the School of Journalism and Media. During the course, Sports Communication in the U.K., students traveled to Great Britain to learn about the country’s sports history, culture, and professional communication practices.<\/p>\n
LONDON \u2014 Nearly 18 years ago, the National Football League played its first international game when the New York Giants faced the Miami Dolphins on Oct. 8, 2007, at London\u2019s Wembley Stadium.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
From that point on, the plan was for Wembley to host one game each season. But fan interest took off and London now hosts multiple games each year, regularly attracting over 80,000 fans for each contest at Wembley, and expanding to games at North London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium,<\/p>\n
The NFL has played games in the U.K for less than two decades, yet the sport\u2019s drastic rise in popularity is evident through increases in merchandise sales, dedicated fan culture, record breaking attendance and the increased media coverage on not only the professional athletes but the environment that British fans helped create.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.K. previously had no ties with the NFL and Brits only knew what they saw on television. But now the nation is home to a dedicated fan base. Some have even argued that the U.K.’s passion for the sport makes London a contender to be the next home of an expansion NFL team.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
London marked the beginning of an era for the NFL overseas<\/strong><\/p>\n The U.K’s first exposure to the NFL began in the 1980s when Britain\u2019s Channel Four started broadcasting American football. Despite the time difference \u2013 depending on the time of year, Britain is either five or six hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone \u2013 fans in the U.K. embraced the sport.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n British NFL media personality Ash Byrne-Hansen has witnessed the rising popularity of American football in the U.K. Byrne-Hansen, a committed fan of the Green Bay Packers, said it all started with the Chicago Bears, whose 1980s teams were known for performing the \u201cSuper Bowl Shuffle\u201d and for a stifling defense that led to the franchise\u2019s last championship season in 1985.<\/p>\n \u201c(The Bears) were massive over here in the UK,” she said. “They were just so good and they were always shown on TV over here.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the Bears\u2019 quickly vanished from the NFL’s top ranks, British broadcasts of the league continued and the appetite grew for a distinctly American product. \u201cThanks to that, obviously (the NFL) started playing a game in Wembley and the appeal is kind of just like that taste of American stuff,” Byrne-Hansen said.<\/p>\n The spectacle baked into the NFL really struck a chord with British audiences, aiding the league’s U.K. growth.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, especially with the London games (and) having that NFL community in the UK,” Byrne-Hansen said.<\/p>\n Though she acknowledges the American fooball fan base is relatively small, it’s \u201cgrowing substantially\u201d and she enjoys being a part of the game’s growth overseas.<\/p>\n The NFL fan experience in the UK<\/strong><\/p>\n Soccer isn’t just a sport in the U.K., it\u2019s a way of life deeply rooted within the\u00a0 culture. But in recent years, American football has been making noise across the country and it\u2019s bringing a fan experience far different from the soccer one.<\/p>\n At soccer stadiums across the country, fans bring the game to life. From the moment\u00a0you step into the stadium there\u2019s a buzz in the air that never really lets up. Fans don\u2019t just watch, they fill a role as important as the action on the field. They sing in unison and chant for the whole 90 minutes of\u00a0game time. We witnessed this firsthand, attending a match at Wembley between the England and Portugal women’s national teams.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no need for cheerleaders or video distractions on the scoreboard. The focus is completely on the match, allowing all of the energy to be there as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In contrast, according to British fans we spoke with, the crowd at an NFL game is energized and invested in the game, but it\u2019s a different type of energy, more party-like.<\/p>\n The structure of the event feels more like a celebration than a competition. Fans from across the country and Europe come not to just support a team, but to be part of the spectacle. The stop-start nature of football means there\u2019s more downtime, and it’s filled with music, giveaways and entertainment on the big screens.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe atmosphere is almost like a festival,\u201d said Arsenal supporter Arthur Taylor. \u201cYou\u2019ll see jerseys from loads of different teams, not just the ones playing. It\u2019s more about celebrating the sport than backing one side.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey do a solid job of bringing the American spectacle over here with fireworks and anthems.”<\/p>\n Both sports bring their own kind of excitement. Soccer offers a fierce, focused passion\u00a0that\u2019s been passed down through generations. NFL games bring a sense of occasion and vibrant celebration of sport that invites fans from all backgrounds to take part regardless of allegiance.\u00a0<\/p>\n NFL makes strides in engaging UK fans<\/strong><\/p>\n While the NFL has grown in the UK, that doesn\u2019t mean that there isn\u2019t room for improvement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Byrne-Hansen believes the London games are starting to \u201cfeel just like a regular season game,\u201d due to the NFL focusing more of its efforts on newer international locations such as Madrid and Sao Paulo. Byrne-Hansen would like to see more events for fans set up both outside and inside the stadium at the London games to garner more fan engagement.<\/p>\n She recalls Battersea, a southwest London district, hosting an event for an NFL game in 2023 at which \u201call the Super Bowl rings (were displayed), cheerleaders for both teams were out and big name players were available to chat to.\u201d<\/p>\n That event stood out to Byrne-Hansen, tapping into the spectacle that made the NFL so popular in the U.K.<\/p>\n London is not home to an NFL team, but the hunger required for the sport to maintain a regular presence appears as strong as ever, even as the league seeks opportunities in other international locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taryn Batey, Zoe Shelley and Crescenzo Spagnoli \u00a0|\u00a0 For the Knoxville News Sentinel This article is part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[12634,24398,748,393,94,4884,13415,103509,257,6096,12069,12,22138,3577,5179,5185,5180,79,6924,27727,103510,16,2739,15,5178,126759],"class_list":{"0":"post-360682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-kingdom","15":"tag-knoxville","16":"tag-london","17":"tag-national","18":"tag-national-sports","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-of","22":"tag-overall","23":"tag-overall-positive","24":"tag-positive","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-sports-news","27":"tag-tennessee","28":"tag-tn","29":"tag-uk","30":"tag-united","31":"tag-united-kingdom","32":"tag-university","33":"tag-university-of-tennessee"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115063825636191970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}