American Football Popularity Rising Throughout The UK

It was in 2007 that London first hosted an NFL regular season game. With 33 regular season games having been played since then, the league’s International Series has gone from strength to strength.

The games have been hugely successful with attendances ranging between 60,000 to almost 86,000 over the past 15 years – the highest attendance to date being 85,870 at Wembley Stadium in 2018. Regular season fixtures have also been played at Twickenham Stadium – The Official Home of England Rugby, and more recently the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, home to Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

This year will also mark the first time that a regular season game will be played in Germany. It was announced earlier this year that four games will be played in Germany over the next four years with two in Munich, and two in Frankfurt.

A sport on the rise

Last year, 18 teams took up the opportunity to access international markets across eight countries.

With the regular season growing to 17 games, all 32 teams in the NFL are now set to play a game outside America until 2030. As well as having games in Canada and Mexico, European countries such as the UK and Germany will be hosting games annually over the next decade.

In 2019 an NFL research survey indicated American Football boasts more than 13 million fans in the UK, but that number has bound to have risen even further in the three years since.

As American Football has taken off in the UK, the NFL’s Player Pathway Programme and Academy were introduced to provide more opportunities for young British players to make it in the league – with the likes of Efe Obada, Jay Ajayi, and Osi Umenyiora all being great ambassadors and success stories to inspire the next generation of talent.

With the demand to experience the sport live across Europe so high, it seems inevitable that further games in Germany and an expansion into newer European markets will follow soon.

American Football at the UK university level

As American Football’s popularity increases throughout the UK, so do your opportunities to play the sport alongside your degree!

With more and more students looking to get involved with the sport, UK university teams are able to provide opportunities for students at any level of experience.

There are over 4,000 students who compete weekly for over 80 different university teams. With so many opportunities to compete, we can help find you an opportunity to play American Football alongside your studies at a U.K. university.

Find out more about UK university American Football and how you can get involved below.