Are you ready for Super Bowl 53!?
On February 3rd, the biggest game in American sport is being played in Atlanta, Georgia. The 53rd Super Bowl in the NFL will see the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots face off against each other for a chance to lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
While this is a huge national event in the USA, it’s not as big for the rest of the world. In recent years, this is drastically changing, especially within the UK. More people are braving the early hours of Monday morning for them to catch the Super Bowl, many having to book the next day off work for it, which in itself is a huge dedication to the sport!
Within this infographic produced by Jacamo, shown below, it shows the huge growth currently underway in the UK, with help from the NFL International games that are hosted in London every year. Starting out at around 80,000 people attending per year, the demand shot up, resulting in the NFL in providing 4 games a year up from just 1 to start with. Even a 10-year deal with Tottenham Hotspur in early 2018 to host 2 NFL games a year, with their stadium even incorporating NFL features into their pitch. Although the amount of people attending dropped in 2018, due to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium being delayed, 4 games have been announced for the 2019 season with attendance numbers expected to smash the 2017 record of 316,988.
These numbers speak for themselves, this is a growing business in the UK and will only get bigger. As a business, it’s a huge market to take advantage of, with a wide scope to work with as comes with many sports. Whether you’re a clothing range or fast food retailer, you’ll be able to find a target audience. Businesses such as Subway, Microsoft, Budweiser and Just for Men just to name a few have already jumped on the wagon. While they aren’t related in the sector they cover, they’ve all targeted the NFL to cover a large audience with a variety of interests. While a viable option it’s sure to come with a big price to become an official partner of the NFL. There are other, cheaper ways of getting your business involved with the NFL hype. If you’re a pub or restaurant, it’s a bit easier, ensure you start off by advertising NFL matches and events. You’d be surprised how many people are interested in the sport but don’t openly advertise it on a daily basis. Actively advertise deals for the NFL season, Playoffs or Super Bowl and you’ll soon see dividends. It’s always important to self-evaluate your business, even if you’re successfully growing at a good pace. Constantly look for ways that you can improve upon yourself and your business.
UK universities have been growing their American Football teams as more young people have shown a growing interest in the NFL. The BUCs American Football league has already grown to 83 university teams and with more teams growing by the year, this number will likely grow in the years to come. Becoming a major supporter of these youth teams through working directly or sponsoring their league, is a great way to become ingrained within the American Football sphere as a business.
As we know, the younger generations interest in sport is great for business. Sport allows businesses and marketers to reach the younger generation in new and interesting ways. With coverage of sport and shows so easily accessible on a multitude of devices, there’s often very little time where you can’t be marketing to them.
Even big Rugby stars are making the transition over to the NFL, most likely for their much larger contracts. NFL stars can make up to $25 million per year depending on position which far outweighs Rugby wages. Some recent examples of this would be Christian Wade, Wasps Winger began training to convert to the NFL and Alex Gray who played for England Sevens made a place on the Atlanta Falcons practice squad as a Tight End.
It all makes sense too, while the sports may be completely different, the athletes themselves are actually quite similar in physical ability. In the infographic below it shows that they’re very similar in all but weight, as Rugby players usually have to condition themselves to be on the field for a very long time. While NFL players are more specialised, some being on the field for only a few plays at a time, each play only lasting 5-15 seconds. Some may be very heavy and only be used to block other players, while others are very light and used to purely run in a straight line as fast as they can. The transition from Rugby to the NFL is not easy, as so very few people have successfully done it. But, despite that, we’re seeing more and more players doing so. This is not only a great sign for the sport but one for viewers and businesses alike.
