The growing presence of American football in Brazil has expanded public interest and opened space for new event formats in the country. Recent estimates indicate that more than 40 million Brazilians follow the sport, a number that reinforces the entry of initiatives that dialogue with this audience.
After two matches of NFL in São PauloRio de Janeiro will host a college football game. Brasil Sports Business, responsible for the organization, projects that the event will generate more than R$400 million. This amount includes ticket sales, commercial actions scheduled for the week of the match and tourist expenses in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
The agenda of College Football involves activities parallel to the comparison between Virginia Cavaliers and NC State Wolfpacktwo traditional teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The proposal is to expand the reach of the sport and bring fans closer to North American university culture.
“The match will be just another detail of all the initiatives we are planning. For the Brazilian public, we want to bring athletes closer to fans, promote social actions and solidify American college football in Brazil. For foreign tourists, we will have special packages for fans to connect with Brazilian culture, get to know Rio de Janeiro and have the best possible experience here”, commented Bruno Guilherme, CEO of Sports Business.
The organization works with the expectation of full capacity at the Nilton Santos Stadium, which holds around 46 thousand people. The projection is that approximately 20,000 Americans will travel to the country exclusively to watch the match.
“The fans who follow American college football have a more passionate relationship than with other sports there. This season, we had a game in Dublin, Ireland, which was attended by a large number of Americans who traveled to Europe. The universities requested a quota to sell tickets directly to students”, added Bruno.
The event is also part of the city’s sports calendar, which seeks to diversify the portfolio of sports hosted throughout the year, as reported by Guilherme Schleder, Municipal Secretary of Sports of Rio de Janeiro.
“We now have almost 400 events annually in the city: marathon, races around the city, you have all types of events. And, when we hold events like this, different, bringing new sports that Brazilians don’t know, that Rio people don’t know, you bring an even cooler audience to this type of event. We hope it will be another recurring event on the city’s calendar for the coming years”, he said.
