On Friday, the big, heavy men from the American professional football league NFL floated into Munich: the Giants from New York and the Panthers from Carolina. The latter’s entourage drove up to the FC Bayern campus in eight coaches and eight black limousines, where the players shook the tiredness out of their muscles during a light training session. Of course, there were fewer fans than vehicles to welcome the team, although the arrival of the sport’s fans had already been announced on Thursday afternoon with a fanfare: a “Törööö!”
It’s hard to believe that it was actually Benjamin Blümchen, the radio play character known from dozens of children’s stories, who used his call sign to get in the mood for the long weekend of American football in Bavaria’s capital. The highlight is the game between Panthers and Giants in the Fröttmaninger Arena on Sunday (3:30 p.m.). It is the second guest appearance of the US professional league in Munich. At the premiere two years ago, the Seattle Seahawks, which are popular in this country, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dueled with their legendary playmaker Tom Brady. This time the NFL has not taken over the Munich city as obviously as it did in 2022, when the entire Odeonsplatz was lined with oversized helmets from all 32 NFL teams. But there is still enough bohei around the game.
And how does the tall and heavy, but not necessarily athletic, Benjamin Blümchen get into the game with the tough guys and the egg-shaped ball? Well, its parent company Kiddinx Media and the National Football League (NFL) have jointly created a clothing collection to mark the event, “that combines the imaginative world of the popular elephant with the exciting flair of the NFL,” as it is flowerily put in a media release . The collection consists of a T-shirt and a sweater, each printed and available for small and large, young and old.
At the presentation on Thursday afternoon, it was mostly adults of both sexes, most of them even gray-haired, who lined up in a long line in front of a pop-up store in the former Galeria Kaufhof am Stachus to take a selfie with Benjamin Blümchen. The elephant was forced into a football jersey with the number 1 on the back. From the fantasy figure that had mutated into a plush toy, the blissfully beaming visitors were then taken directly to the NFL fan merchandise.
Because the sales stands at and in the stadium on Sunday are only accessible to holders of tickets for the game, the NFL has opened a temporary shop in a prime downtown location for all other fans. Between Thursday and Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., sports fans can buy everything that has a league logo: pins (ten euros), key rings (15 euros), scarves (25 euros), T-shirts (35 euros), a set of mini helmets from all 32 NFL teams (45 euros), hoodies (85 euros), player jerseys with names and numbers (155 euros), team blousons with corresponding colors and emblems (165 euros), real game balls (170 euros).
Incidentally, the Benjamin Blümchen items are not the only items of clothing that were brought onto the market or into sports stores as part of the NFL guest game. Several companies have launched “capsule collections,” as it is called in modern German, all with “exclusive styles,” of course. Even more than two years ago, it is clear that sport and games primarily serve to boost the merchandising business.
In 2022, only four of the 32 NFL teams had secured marketing rights for Germany, but there are now ten. And with the exception of the Pittsburgh Steelers, everyone is more or less visibly represented in the city this weekend. The Augustiner headquarters in the pedestrian zone and the Hofbräuhaus on the Platzl are flagged as the headquarters of the visiting teams from North Carolina and New York respectively. Seven other restaurants are designated as meeting places for fans of other teams. The fans of the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts come together in the valley, and the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks have set up contact points around the Platzl. The Buccaneers can be found at Frauenplatz, the Kansas City Chiefs at Viktualienmarkt. They have even found a sponsor for the business they have taken over – the whole thing is now called “Kansas City Chiefs Haus presented by Strauss”.
While the Panthers are hosting a fan festival at Wittelsbacherplatz from midday on Friday and Saturday, the Detroit Lions are holding a party not far away on Brienner Straße on Saturday evening. It is not the only one that takes place in the NFL context: The magazine Sports Illustrated has booked the P1, the broadcasting television station, as in 2022 RTL invites you to a show in the new SAP Garden at the Olympic Park under the name “Bromania 3”. There will also be a so-called “watch party” there on Sunday afternoon, a broadcast of the game from the stadium and then other live games from the USA. Before the die-hard football fans go home, the Panthers and Giants will probably be gone again.
