An NFL guest game is scheduled to take place in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in 2025 – and further dates are currently being negotiated. This means that Olympiastadion Berlin GmbH will receive additional income from further major events in the Olympic Park. American football in the Olympic Stadium is already a tradition: in August 1990, two NFL teams competed against each other in the venerable arena for the first time.
Text: Wolfgang Leffler
© Photo cover image: IMAGO / Rene Schulz
Last Sunday took place in the Munich Allianz Arena a regular game in front of over 70,000 spectators NFLthe National Football League instead of. The US professional league had already played two regular season games in Frankfurt am Main – and that’s the chapter NFL not yet finished in Germany. We had already reported in November 2023 that the NFL is planning further games in Germany.
„We are in discussions with the NFL about the possible hosting of NFL games in the sports metropolis of Berlin“, said spokeswoman Sabine Beikler at the time RBB. There is no concrete schedule yet, but there is a possibility that the event will take place NFLGames in Berlin could take place from 2026. How The Daily Mirror reported, things should now go much faster.
Olympiastadion Berlin: NFL boss Roger Goodell announces NFL game for 2025
League boss Roger Goodell commented on a report in Munich RTL/ntvaccording to which the capital with the Olympic Stadium is planned to be the venue as early as 2025. He explained that he would normally advise people not to believe rumors, but in this case he recommended the opposite. The deal has not yet been finalized, but they are working on it.
A spokeswoman for the Berlin Senate emphasized that Berlin would in any case strive to establish long-term cooperation with the NFL about hosting regular league games in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. How RTL According to reports, the city is prepared to invest several million euros. This means that German fans can continue to expect visits to the world’s most prestigious football league.
Olympiastadion Berlin GmbH stands to gain additional income from future NFL events
For the state’s own Olympiastadion Berlin GmbH, which coordinates the events in the Olympic Stadium, there is the prospect of additional income from newly generated sporting events, not only in the coming year, but also in the following years NFL-Events will take place in the 74,475 spectator capacity stadium. But that is still speculation at the moment. Loud NFL Germany is the strongest sales market outside of the USA.
NFLCommissioner Roger Goodell therefore brought up the city of Berlin as a venue last year. Than that NFL When it announced its move to Germany almost two years ago, the capital was not yet in the running. At that time there were problems with the sports funding law of the state of Berlin, which required an application to host NFL-Playing was not allowed. Munich, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf were the applicants at the time and the first two cities were awarded the contract.
Berlin had to change its sports funding law to attract the NFL to the capital
However, the spokeswoman for the Berlin sports administration recently confirmed that the requirements for hosting games have now been changed so that implementation in Berlin is possible. Because of Berlin’s great reputation and popularity in the USA, it is ultimately logical to host the games in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. By the way, it wouldn’t be the first time that American football was played in the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
Already in the 1990s, teams from the NFL in Berlin. On August 11, 1990, less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the National Football League their sport in a city in transition. The strategy worked: around 55,000 enthusiastic spectators flocked to the Olympic Stadium to watch the preparatory game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs to experience. It was the start of a total of five NFL-Test games in the German capital.
NFL and Berlin Thunder: American football has been a guest at the Berlin Olympic Stadium several times
In the years that followed, football icons like Joe Montana and Dan Marino would show off their skills on the Berlin pitch. But despite the initial enthusiasm, the era of the American Bowls in Berlin ended in 1994. The NFL pursued new marketing strategies and instead founded a European league in which the team also played for several years Berlin Thunder was active.
Played later Berlin Thunder also in the Olympic Stadium. The team initially played their home games in Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Sports Park in Prenzlauer Berg. In 2003 the team moved to the stadium in Westend, which significantly increased the number of spectators. The record average was 16,848 fans per game in 2005, the fifth home game of the season against the Cologne Centurions attracted the largest crowd to date with 20,927 visitors.
In 2006, the number of spectators across the league fell, mainly due to the early start of the season due to the FIFA-World Cup 2006 was in Germany. Due to the tight schedule, the fifth home game of the season took place again in the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark. The American Football chapter then ended again in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. However, it could see a new edition in the coming years.
Sources: RBB, NFL, Der Tagesspiegel, SAT.1, RTL/ntv, Wikipedia, Berlin Thunder
