Munich, Düsseldorf or Frankfurt. In 2022 or 2023 at worst, the NFL will settle down in one of these cities.
On Tuesday, the league released a statement to explain that the three German cities have been selected to move on to the “candidacy phase” and thus have further discussions for the organization of a regular season NFL game.
“In addition to identifying a stadium that is fully capable of supporting the logistics of an NFL game, we want to work with a consortium comprising local and regional authorities, stadium management, local players and potential business partners. We want this to be a long-term partnership, ”said Brett Gosper, NFL director for Europe and UK.
The Allianz Arena in Munich can accommodate 75,000 people. In Dusseldorf, the Rheinstadioon has 51,000 seats. That’s roughly the same capacity for Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, with 48,500 seats in American football configuration.
Munich seems to be the favorite, thanks to its stadium, but also the power of its economic fabric.
The NFL estimates it has 19 million supporters in Germany. A figure that came out of nowhere since it would mean that a quarter of the total population of the country would be interested in the league. What is more verifiable is that the match audience has increased by 20% on DAZN and ProSieben since 2017.
Germany is also the largest market outside the United States for sales of NFL Shop products, participation in Fantasy Football, and sales of the Madden game.
