Contributions from fans who criticized the climate protection aspect of such international flights were also interesting. FC Bayern Munich in particular is one of the pioneers of internationalization in football in order to open up international markets. He has already worked in the USA, China, South Korea, Thailand and Qatar and has offices in New York City, Shanghai and Bangkok. Bayern also maintain a close cooperation with the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. A Bayern board member even sits on the Chiefs advisory board.
Numerous active and former Bayern players such as David Alaba, Marcel Sabitzer, Leroy Sane, Manuel Neuer, Jamal Musiala and Alphonso Davies were present at the game. Neuer even got to beat the Carolina Panthers’ big “Keep Pounding” drum and Musiala gave an interview to RTL NFL. But even that prompted some football fans to comment like “The players didn’t have any fun at all, they had to go” and “they were just forced to take part.”
The NFL had organized a choreo with 50,000 cardboard panels that showed the national flags of Germany and the USA as well as the NFL logo. Everyone took part and this biggest NFL choreo also caused a stir internationally. But even then, football fans were concerned about climate protection and paper waste. Much larger and more creative choreos take place in the football stadiums, which always create a great atmosphere. We cannot judge whether the materials used and the pyrotechnics are particularly climate-friendly?
But be that as it may, the fans in the stadium had fun again and during the two national anthems, the performers David Garrett and Florentina were not booed, on the contrary, the stadium sang along. We have experienced this differently at football games.
Apparently everyone enjoyed the spectacular halftime show by mgk (Machine Gun Kelly), who impressed with “Lonely Road,” a remake of John Denver’s “Country Roads.” And when the original was played in the Allianz Arena and the fans sang along, there was that typical American football atmosphere again with all the fans having fun and enjoying themselves, regardless of the team.
The NFL is continuing its international games and wants to even increase the number. This year, for the first time, a game was played in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The first NFL game in Spain is already scheduled for next year and will take place in Real Madrid’s legendary football temple, the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Ireland is also seen as a possible candidate for further expansion.
In Germany, in addition to the previous venues Munich and Frankfurt, Berlin is now also trying to host the next NFL Germany Games. This is not at all surprising given the economic returns of such events. The first game in Munich in 2022 brought the city an economic impact of 70 million euros, according to a study by “The Sports Consultancy Group”. The two NFL Frankfurt Games generated economic value creation of around 110 million in 2023. This also increased the visibility of the city of Frankfurt in the media, which corresponds to a value of around 34.5 million euros.
Despite all the isolated criticism of these international NFL games, the cities, clubs and stadium operators have long recognized the extraordinary value of these events and there will be more rather than fewer games in the future. The football fans have something to look forward to and the football fans will have to put up with it. The never-ending grass debate that American football in Germany has had to deal with since the 1980s won’t change that.
