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London Has Been Calling; League Finally Answers

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By PAUL STEWART, Special to the Tribune

Published: October 24, 2007

LONDON - This weekend's matchup between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants in England's capital city has been a long time coming.

The teams will fly across the Atlantic on Friday for two days of practice and acclimation before taking the field at the new Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

Having staged preseason games around the world the past two decades and a 2005 regular-season game between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City, the NFL is now taking its main offering out of North America for the first time.

The NFL has been part of UK television programming since 1982 when a fledgling TV network, Channel 4, started airing one-hour highlight programs, while explaining the rules to the soccer-crazy Brits. Twenty-five years later, three different networks cover the NFL with as many as six live games each weekend, with the NFL Network airing highlights and news shows.

Sunday's game drew a half-million ticket requests and sold out in two hours.

'This is tremendously exciting news for the sport of American football in this country,' said Alistair Kirkwood, managing director of NFL UK. 'It is a chance for our fans to see, in their back yard for the first time, a game that counts in the race to the Super Bowl, and an opportunity to show the excitement and passion of the NFL to a whole new audience.'

In 1986, the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys played a preseason game at the old Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 fans. Now, Wembley has been rebuilt, and a crowd of more than 85,000 will be on hand.

'This is going to be the most amazing experience for NFL fans over here,' said former British Gridiron League running back Andrew Brown. 'It really doesn't matter who is playing in the game. It is the game itself that is important.'

The name of the game for the NFL is merchandising revenue. The NFL is making huge returns on its merchandising arm from around the globe. Taking its product outside of America is part of the long-term plan for increasing those revenues.

'At Wembley itself, there are 33 merchandise stands,' Kirkwood said. 'This includes 18 larger ones, where fans will be able to buy merchandise from all 32 NFL teams, the commemorative game-specific merchandise that will include T-shirts, polo shirts, caps, fleeces and game-day programs, as well as a large range of Miami Dolphins and New York Giants gear.'

The NBA and NHL have played games in London in the past month, and Major League Baseball has taken its regular-season openers to Japan in recent years. And following the success of the Cardinals-49ers game in Mexico City, many felt it was only a matter of time until London got the call for this latest stop in the American sports world tour.

'After our success in winning the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games, we wanted to bring to Londoners the greatest of non-Olympic sports,' London Mayor Ken Livingstone said. 'Bringing the NFL to London, after also winning the right to stage the start of the Tour de France this year, was a great step forward in this.'

The NFL could push soccer, rugby and other regular British sports off the pages of the tabloid press this week by scheduling a wide range of events. There are photo shoots with leading soccer players in NFL uniforms, giant animatronics all over London and the Dolphins cheerleaders will be performing at soccer matches.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell recently said the NFL could hold a Super Bowl in London. 'There's a great deal of interest in holding a Super Bowl in London,' Goodell told reporters. 'So we'll be looking at that.'

Starting with Sunday's historic game.

Paul Stewart, is the president of the Bucs UK Fan Club and a Bucs blogger for TBO.com.

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