Featured image credit: NFL
The National Football League (NFL) will play its first-ever regular season game in Berlin next year, with the Olympiastadion set to stage the inaugural event under a multi-year contract.
The deal announced today (Wednesday) comes after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last month revealed that the league is looking to play up to eight regular season games outside of the United States in 2025, with Berlin and Dublin potential new destinations.
Berlin will be a new German location for the NFL, with games having been split between Munich’s Allianz Arena and Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park since 2022. However, the NFL played five American Bowl games at the Olympiastadion between 1990 and 1994, and it was also home to NFL Europe’s Berlin Thunder from 2003-07.
Following Goodell’s initial comments, the City of Berlin officially launched a bid to become a new German destination for NFL regular season games. Senator for the Interior and Sports for the State of Berlin, Iris Spranger, said the Olympiastadion was being put forward to host three games across the period spanning 2025 to 2029. The City said it would invest €12.5m (£10.29/$13.13m) in the events, believing this would be more than covered through their impact on tourism.
In addition to the regular season game, the NFL will work with the Berlin Senate across their major sports development program to grow and develop flag football — the non-contact format of the game that will be included in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles — in Berlin’s schools and clubs.
“This long-term partnership with the NFL will continue to boost Berlin as a global sports metropolis, as well as excite fans at the Olympiastadion,” Spranger said today.
“The 2025 NFL Berlin game means worldwide visibility, numerous international guests, increased tourism and high economic value across the city. We’re looking forward to an incredible game and an ongoing successful partnership with the league, as we continue to strengthen the presence of American football throughout the state.”
Goodell added: “Germany has a rich tradition of American football, and the NFL has a deep history with the city of Berlin. We first held a preseason game at the Olympic Stadium 34 years ago, before it was home to NFL Europe’s Berlin Thunder in the early 2000s.
“Now, with almost 20 million NFL fans in Germany, we’ll make a historic return to the city playing a regular season game for the first time as we open the next chapter in our relationship with Berlin.”
A commitment to playing two regular season games in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one game in Madrid at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu – home to Real Madrid – have already been announced for 2025. Other games and locations will be confirmed in the weeks and months ahead.
The NFL has staged regular season games abroad since 2007, when the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants met at Wembley Stadium in London. The path to potentially enhancing the International Games calendar was set in December last year, when NFL team owners voted to permit an increase in League-operated inventory from a minimum of four up to a maximum of eight games a season, beginning in 2025.
The 2024 International Games was made up of three fixtures in London, two at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one at Wembley Stadium, along with the return to Munich’s Allianz Arena. The series was brought up to five in September as São Paulo’s Neo Química Arena hosted the League’s first-ever game in South America.
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