Earlier this month, American football’s NFL hosted its fourth game in Germany. Staged at the Allianz Arena, home of German soccer giants Bayern Munich. The game, a 20-17 overtime win for the Carolina Panthers over the New York Giants, drew a crowd of over 70,000 fans from across Europe, the US, and further afield.

Although this year’s NFL international games saw only one fixture in Germany, compared to two a year prior, the experience was indicative of the growing bond between the NFL and the Bundesliga, German soccer’s elite tier.

Even though the two teams are far from the biggest draws in the NFL currently (each held a record of two wins and seven losses in the 2024 season going into the game), Munich was filled with a festival-style atmosphere as NFL franchises with marketing rights for Germany descended on the city’s historic beer halls for in-person activations across the week preceding the games.

This even included franchises such as the Seattle Seahawks that did not play in Germany this year, but still activated around the event to touch fans in Germany.

Why activate in Germany?

Speaking to a media roundtable including Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) ahead of the game, Seahawks chief operating officer David Young explained why Germany is such an important market for the franchise and the league at large, stating that “the natural fandom made it the right place to be.”

“One of the biggest reasons that we chose Germany [as a global market], is the size of the nation and the size of sports fandom here, and we feel like there's room for everybody here,” he says.

“As we're understanding the [German] market more and taking a look at sports fandom, [authenticity is] what's expected here as well. When you take a look at the support of the… Bundesliga teams, there's a certain ownership. Literal ownership, and then personal, figurative ownership that folks take in their teams. So that really resonated with us, because it's a lot like the way that we treat [Seahawks fans].”

This is best exemplified not only in its activations around the NFL international games, but in the Seahawks’ year-round presence in Germany, which takes the form of flag football camps, watch parties, NFL draft appearances for German-based fans, and more.

Germany is also a jumping-off point for the rest of Europe that the Seahawks can exploit, despite not having rights to those markets.

“Germany is a focal point for sure, but it's also central [to Europe] … You can get anywhere in Europe within a couple of hours from Germany. That was important to us, being somewhere where there was fandom, [and] where it was central between here in the UK where the two largest [European] fan bases are,” Young states.

Young adds that Seahawks fan group chapters in France, Spain, and across Eastern Europe have all shown up to Germany and even visited the US to attend games.

What do the DFL and the NFL bring to each other?

Activating in Germany is of course not a solo endeavor by the Seahawks, which is only given marketing rights to capitalize on the groundwork laid by the NFL itself.

Much of this groundwork in Germany comes from the fact that the NFL’s European arm and German soccer’s DFL governing body have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that sees them collaborate to grow their respective reach in each other's markets.

Beyond the simple hosting of NFL games at Bundesliga stadiums such as the Allianz, this also manifests not just in a co-branded content strategy, activations through the year, soccer tours in the US, and more commercially focused activities, but also in the sharing of data and technological innovations to enhance each other's knowledge of their respective markets while enhancing their offerings in each country.

The NFL and Bundesliga are first and second in the world respectively when it comes to average attendance at domestic sports league matches, and translating each’s fervent domestic support into the other’s international viewership and attendance is naturally at the top of the agenda as the Bundesliga seeks to compete with England’s Premier League and Spain’s LaLiga, while NFL looks to cement its grip on more international markets.

At a second roundtable, Brett Gosper, the head of Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions for the NFL, said of the ties with DFL: “The DFL relationship helps us in Germany. The relationship then helps the DFL in the US through marketing activities, joint content programs, helping summer tours for clubs from the DFL with stadia, all sorts of different areas.

“And just the dialog and the conversations that we have with the DFL raise other possibilities to collaborate with it, beyond technology and other innovative areas.”

The pair have already exchanged notes on media and content production strategies, added Peer Naubert, the chief marketing officer for the Bundesliga International commercial body, who was also in attendance.

“The NFL is dedicated to sustainability [and] community activities,” Naubert explained, continuing: “We have learned so much from [the NFL] guys in this regard, so that we are now, I would say, the most committed soccer league in terms of sustainability (the Bundesliga now has sustainability rules enshrined in its statutes).

“But also, we can learn a lot from each other in terms of media production. There were lots of innovation case exchanges where we guided colleagues from [the NFL] through our media production value chain.

“There are a variety of activities where we can really learn from each other, and we have already achieved a lot together.”

In total, it is a learning experience for all involved. This is a sentiment echoed by Michael Diederich, a board member at Bayern Munich. Bayern has had an office in the US for over a decade and visits the country regularly, and although soccer is not as mature in the country as it is in Germany, it is a worthwhile endeavour for the club Diederich explains, and one which the NFL supports.

He said: “If you look at what the NFL is doing, they are expanding the brand and the game to other territories. That is exactly what we want to do. We want to be close to the fan base which we have, which is an amazing one. We have a huge fan base in the US. [It’s a] huge market, very sophisticated when it comes to sporting [media] rights partnerships, etc. And that's why the US, for us is on paper, so attractive.

“Having said this, there are so many states and cities [in the US], and we are, in the end, a mid-size company. So, to collect info on such a market for us is not that easy… That's why it was also really attractive to have the NFL guys here to learn about how they enter into a market. What does it take on the other side to do that?”

The future of the partnership

Naubert also explained of the leagues’ similarities: “The US is the biggest economy in the world, Germany is the third biggest economy in the world, and in those huge economies, the NFL in the US and we [the Bundesliga] in Germany, are completely dominating the sports market.

“We also have the same idea and vision in terms of how to grow the brand, in that we want to grow the brand internationally.”

This partnership is already paying dividends, with Gosper continuing: “The first regular season game in Munich sparked something very special that I think served us as an example that would lead us to believe that we can do similar things in other markets around the world. Germany has played an exemplary role in our increasing international rollout over time.

“We've seen a growth in the number of fans in this market, the number of avid fans, and in broadcast viewing figures and so on. And of course, we've got more teams that want to come in and activate in this market, we've now got 10 global market program teams activating here.”

Although the NFL’s ventures in Germany have so far been purely the hosting preserve of Munich and Frankfurt, the coming expansion of the international program could widen the array of opportunities for other venues.

Around the time of the Giants vs Panthers fixture, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said “believe the rumors” when responding to reports that the NFL could be set to stage a game in the German capital Berlin next.

The Olympiastadion in Berlin, home of second-tier side Hertha Berlin (a league still administrated by the Bundesliga and the DFL), has a capacity of 74,475, outstripping even the Allianz Arena and could be ripe for hosting duties.

Currently, six international games are scheduled for 2025 out of a possible allocation of eight, which in the future could further rise to 16. Diederich added his belief that NFL team owners are clamoring for more international matches due to the global attention and uplift that they bring.

The likes of Australia, Ireland, and more have been mooted as potential future game hosts, however, it is only in Germany where the NFL is working hand in hand with the country’s top sports league to broaden its horizons.