NFL Teams in London Working to Create Lifelong Fans

In Shoreditch, one of London’s trendiest districts, the New York Jets are hoping to convert casual fans of American football into die-hard members of the Gang Green community. The franchise is setting up shop at a former service yard, where it plans to host an interactive fan experience event on Saturday where lads and others can immerse themselves in the same Jets culture often displayed on fall Sundays in the parking lots at the Meadowlands.

The team’s ‘Touchdown Tailgate’ activation will feature former Jets players like Wayne Chrebet and Laveranues Coles signing autographs. Those in attendance will get a chance to dance to live music, grub on classic American dishes and sip on glasses of Jet Fuel, a signature cocktail. Others will take on football challenges like the vertical jump and quarterback toss while trying their luck at popular American tailgate games like cornhole.

“Our whole purpose is to give people a chance to experience American football and Jets culture firsthand,” Jets vice president of finance and analytics John MacCarter said in a video interview. “We’ll be having a great time.”

This is the latest fan activation for the Jets, who acquired international marketing rights in the United Kingdom in 2021. The pop-up event comes one day before the Jets kick off the 2024 London Games against the Minnesota Vikings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The Jets are one of four teams—along with the Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars and the Vikings—competing across the pond this year who have U.K. rights (the New England Patriots are the only team playing in London that does not, focusing their efforts on Austria, Brazil, Germany and Switzerland).

It’s the first time since the NFL started regularly playing games in the U.K. in 2007 that the majority of participating teams in the London Games have rights to market and build commercial activations across the country. Backed by the Global Markets Program, which launched in 2022, this year’s three-game slate represents a shift in which visiting teams are no longer satisfied with short-lived league-driven activations and are coming into town to build on their own ongoing year-round local efforts, which they believe will create lifelong fans and next generation customers.

“The clubs are leaning in,” Henry Hodgson, NFL general manager of the U.K. office, said in a video interview. “They are creating moments for existing and future fans in the U.K. to get closer to their brand and know what it means to be a Vikings fan or a Jets fan. That gets us even closer to the experience one would have at a game in the U.S.”

The Jets’ Saturday party just adds to the growing investment the team has made in the U.K. (and, soon, Ireland after acquiring marketing rights there earlier this year). The AFC East franchise, which has a television deal with British broadcaster Sky Sports, is planning to host a ring ceremony for its U.K. girls flag football league, in addition to other festivities at the event on Saturday. The reigning champs (Ealing Fields) will unbox their personalized rings, highlighting the Jets’ ongoing U.K. investment in youth flag football, which is integral to the globalization push.

The Jets’ U.K. girls flag football league was done in partnership with the Bears and just wrapped up its second season. The tag-team approach is an example of how NFL teams are collaborating more than competing across the market, where four other franchises also have rights. The Jets, who partnered with the Miami Dolphins to do a joint Black Friday watch party in Manchester last year, are in talks with the Jaguars to plan an experience that’ll serve both fan bases.

“It’s a small community of us who are solely focused on this type of stuff,” MacCarter said. “So we have our own reoccurring meeting just to see what’s working and what isn’t. I think more than anything it’s collaborative, but we will go check out the Vikings (activations) and compare notes.”

While London has created the blueprint for executing non-domestic games, the league continues to prioritize global growth, with plans to play its first game in Madrid next year after staging a game in Brazil earlier this year. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated this week that he would like to eventually play 16 international games during the season.

The expansion of these games coincides with the development of the Global Markets Program, which has 25 teams participating spanning 19 international markets. The more NFL games played outside of the United States, the more visiting teams are positioned to gain brand awareness in the countries where they are planting roots.

“The teams that have leaned into the Global Markets Program are inevitably going to want to show up and play games (where they have rights),” Hodgson added. “The more they do that, the more they can use it to celebrate and grow their existing fan base but also use it as a springboard for what’s next in the market from a fan development and commercial standpoint.”