Wake up and smell the NFL
Fans who gasped when they discovered that football is a business have been hiding behind the sofa for the past decade. Premier League officials are only following a worldwide trend by planning to stage matches in some of the world’s big cities. American football has long been trying to ransack lucrative markets and the plea that they are only looking for fans and not cash can be taken with a large dollop of American pie.
Fans mean cash, not only through ticket sales but merchandising, tourism and, most important, television revenues. Which is why the National Football League (NFL) is searching for someone to fill a key job: head of marketing, on a six-figure salary, to help to sell American football to Britain. The NFL has had one competitive game at Wembley Stadium and a further three are scheduled, with the Americans targeting the 16-24 age group, hoping that they will be ready to soak up the NFL global brand.
Going, going, gone?
Some sports merchandise is more valuable than others, though. We wonder what Reebok, the NFL’s “official apparel supplier” has done with 300 hats and T-shirts saying “New England Patriots - Super Bowl Champions”, which were on the touchline on Sunday, just as the Patriots lost to the New York Giants. Collectors’ items, perhaps?
Advertisement
Of course, football is not the only money-grabbing sport. The press release announcing that British Airways was to be a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic Games had not reached The Insider’s inbox this week before the official Olympics airline had sent its e-mail with Executive Club offers to fly to Olympic destinations.
Just how much has changed is illustrated by the charming Andy Appleby, the head of the consortium that bought Derby County. When The Insider grew up, he wanted to be Denis Law or a fighter pilot. Preferably both. Appleby told the Derby Evening Telegraph that he grew up dreaming of being general manager of the Boston Red Sox. General manager? See, the age of sporting romance lives on . . .
Any of the top four Barclays Premier League teams playing anyone else will be no problem to export to a host city, but even we do not believe all the hype surrounding the rest. Stan James are offering odds on which of the dullest fixtures today will feature last on Match of the Day. We are going for Middlesbrough versus Fulham, a match that would conjure deepest apathy in any city outside of, well, Middlesbrough.