Germany and American football -- what's the attraction?

[Snooooopy]

I discovered today that the German city of Cologne has snagged itself an NFL Europe franchise. That means that four of the six franchises in the league – Rhein Fire, Frankfurt Galaxy, Berlin Thunder and Cologne Centurions – are German. Why have Germans taken to American football more than other European nations?

[silenus]

They may have just been exposed to it more than other European countries. This could be caused by the presence of countless US GIs on German soil for the last 50+ years.

[kferr]

My theory is that there isn’t another ‘big’ sport played in Germany to so American Football fills a niche. Rugby is big in both the UK and France so American football can’t compete.

[Yookeroo]

@kferr

My theory is that there isn’t another ‘big’ sport played in Germany to so American Football fills a niche. Rugby is big in both the UK and France so American football can’t compete.

Rumor has it that soccer is pretty popular over there.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Yookeroo

Rumor has it that soccer is pretty popular over there.

Now THAT was hilarious.

Attendances at NFLEL games are pretty universally terrible. Average attendance for every team except the Fire is less than half of the capacities of their respective stadia, despite NFLEL tickets being astonishingly cheap.

Basically, sticking all the teams in Germany means lower transport costs between games. NFL Europe has much more value as a farm league for the NFL than it does for actually entertaining Germans (and the 10,000-odd people who show up to the 55,000+ seater stadia that the Dragons and Claymores play in).

[Snooooopy]

@Really Not All That Bright

Now THAT was hilarious.

Attendances at NFLEL games are pretty universally terrible. Average attendance for every team except the Fire is less than half of the capacities of their respective stadia, despite NFLEL tickets being astonishingly cheap.

Basically, sticking all the teams in Germany means lower transport costs between games. NFL Europe has much more value as a farm league for the NFL than it does for actually entertaining Germans (and the 10,000-odd people who show up to the 55,000+ seater stadia that the Dragons and Claymores play in).

Heh … the Dragons already gave up the ghost. I think they were replaced by the team in Cologne (whose uniforms are so similar to those of the Cincinnati Bengals that I kept wondering why they weren’t getting their asses kicked in the game I was watching yesterday). The Claymores are the only team in the league not in Germany or right next door to Germany (i.e., Amsterdam). I can only imagine which team is the likeliest to fold next?

[EllisDee]

There is an article in the current Sports Illustrated that discusses this very topic. I couldn’t find an online version of it, so here’s a quote:

It’s no coincidence…that NFL Europe has established its biggest foothold in Germany, which has the Continent’s most advanced youth development system. While the Europe league has struggled to muster 10,000 spectators for games in Amsterdam, Barcelona, or Glasgow, the Frankfurt Galaxy and the Rhein Fire have regularly filled their stadiums with more than 30,000 fans, almost all of them German Gen Xers whose enthusiasm puts Oakland Rauiders diehards to shame. With the pickups of Berlin (which replaced London in 1999) and Cologne (which supplanted Barcelona this year), Deutschland is now home to four of NFL Europe’s six teams. (The other two are the Amsterdam Admirals and Glasgow’s Scottish Claymores.) In fact, says NFL International vice president Gordon Smeaton, the Europe league may eventually become an all-German affair.

Oh man, I need to learn how to type. That took forever.

[The_Scrivener]

You have to wonder how many of those fans at any given game are actually expat Americans, desperate to see a football game… any football game.