Hurrah - NFL is back in London. 
My brother’s just booked us 5 x tickets for San Francisco 49ers vs Denver Broncos at Wembley Stadium, London at the end of October.
They had a similar game last year I think which apparently was very well attended, so hoping for a great atmosphere.
I was a huge 49ers fan when I was younger, so I’m dead chuffed - can’t wait!
Good for you! Here’s to hoping you get a good game to watch. I always feel a little embarrassed (for my sport/country/whatever) when these sorts of things turn out to be snoozers. Last year was a total mismatch, with the superior teaming blowing out the underdogs 35-7. In 2007 the final score was close, Giants 13 - Dolphins 10, but I remember the game as a wet, dreary affair in which the field became hopelessly chewed up and neither team looked particularly good. 2008 was a really good game, though, so there’s hope.
ETA: Wiki on the International Series.
What sorts of folks attend these games? Is it mostly American expats, Brits who actually follow and are fans of American football, or Brits who don’t know much about the game but who go out of curiosity?
I’ve been to all three of the Wembley games since Goodell started the International Series, sat in different sections each time and got talking to the people around us. I would say that the crowd is, in my experience, roughly split as follows:
20% Americans: in practise, these are mostly expats, although it should be noted that the “home” team has an allocation of tickets that are distributed to their own fans should they want to make the journey over. For the Saints-Chargers game in 2008, I was sat near a New Orleans “real” fan section. Not only was it easily the best game of the three we have had over here, but as a result of where I was sat, I had the best time at this game, as they actually really cared about the result (I’ll come back to this point later).
35% Europeans: it really needs to be pointed out that, even though I am a Brit, this is not a British game. It’s a game for the whole of Europe. Over the three years I have been going to this specific game, I have encountered French, Italian, Spanish and especially many Dutch and German fans (these guys tend to turn up in their old NFL Europe colours and are still pretty sad that, what to you guys, was a development/bush league has gone the way of the dodo). The Dutch and the Germans are generally the most rabid of NFL fans in Europe - we in Britain tend not to do rabid for sport unless it’s Association Football (in which case we like to get drunk and behave like idiots - but I digress).
35-40% Brits who know a decent to very good amount about the game: I don’t know how much people in America know about this but the American Football season has been broadcast in the UK since the mid-80s. When I was a kid, we always used to have a 1pm Eastern kick off live on one of the main terrestrial channels, along with an hour long round up of all the games every week, plus a reasonable schedule of games (though not all, from my memory) of the games in the post season. It used to be my special treat to be allowed to stay up and watch the game to the end when I was 6-7 years old, as it would finish past my bed time.
What I am saying is that there is a small core of people who grew up with the game and haven’t really lost their passion for it - so much so that we’ll spring for tickets every year and pay lots of money to watch the games on Pay TV. Now that I am pushing 30 and can afford a satellite package, I can watch a load of games on my pay TV package. Before I got a girlfriend and real life started intruding, I was watching both a 1pm and a 4pm game (Sky in the UK will pick the games that they want to show in this slot and try to get around as many teams as possible in the league before about Week 11, so that they can focus on the playoff races at the end of the season) and recording the Sunday night game and the Monday night game, thus watching 4 games a week. Of course, all post season games are televised. And I am still watching 2 or 3 games a week by recording them and watching them when the girlfriend is not around.
People like me make up most of the crowd whether we’re British or European. We have been watching the game for many years - and whilst I would doubt I could go up against an American for knowledge - there are people in the crowd who are not American, who really know their shit.
5-10% people who are tagging along for the ride. I have no problem with these guys turning up but they tend to be the guys who make the most comments about the cheerleaders, boo when a team goes into kneel down mode and, for instance, didn’t understand why the Patriots last year didn’t try and score more points even though they were clearly much better than the Bucs and already 20+ points to the good.
The game itself however is a bit weird. Because of the disparate nature of the crowd, you find that the everyone turns up with the colours of their favourite team on and that, as a result, pretty much every single team (plus quite a few throwback jerseys) are represented in the crowd. It is in no way as noisy as a crowd sounds on the TV from the US - but then the audience is not really pulling for anyone. We’re just there to see a game and be thankful that a game that matters has been put on where we can more easily get tickets. Actually, one of the reasons I always get tickets is because I want to make the game a success so that it continues to happen. I appreciate that nobody except Goodell thinks that this game is a good idea, no one wants to come over here and that it is, in general a royal pain in the arse for the teams and fans involved, but we appreciate it and will take what we can get whilst it is on offer.
It’s more like the European Super Bowl (without the game being as important). Though I should note that as a Cards fan, I will be pulling for Denver this year to do us a favour and beat the 49ers. I will have a great day and I would recommend that the OP get there early, soak up the atmosphere, go to the tailgate party and talk to as many other fans as possible, because it is a superb day out. I will also concede though, that I would love to see a game in the US, and that I don’t really see, logistically, how a team on this continent could feasibly work.
Hmmm. Very long post. Apologies. I’ll go back to lurking now (indeed, I mostly lurk around here to read what people have to say about the sport and, in particular, the NFL - you’re all well informed and give me plenty to think about when I am watching the games)
No apologies necessary, that was very interesting. I’ve always wondered about the crowd at the international games.
I know that when I’m watching a sporting event, I can’t really enjoy it unless I’m rooting for one team or the other. If none of my favorite (or anti-favorite) teams are playing, I still have to figure out some criteria at the beginning for which one I like more (usually either geography, or based on who the folks I’m with are rooting for).
Fascinating post, Cumbrian. Thank you.
This is where I am - my brothers and I used to watch all the highlights shows in the mid- to late-1980s, and it was a real treat to stay up to watch the SuperBowl.
Teams were chosen at random - I supported the 49s, one brother supports the Bears, and I had friends who were fans of the Cowboys, Dolphins, Giants etc.
This is us too - although we enjoy watching the games we’re don’t follow teams each week any more. I’m just looking forward to watching a pro-football game with 80,000 fans… it helps that it’s the 49ers playing, but I’d have gone whoever was playing.