© dpa
The NFL will be stopping off in Berlin next year.
© dpa
The Olympic Stadium is ready for the NFL games.
For German football fans, it is a reason to rejoice. For the NFL, it is the logical response to the boom in this country. The North American professional league is committed to Germany in the long term and will host at least five more games by 2029.
"There will be up to three games in Berlin within this cycle," Alexander Steinforth, head of the NFL in Germany, told the German Press Agency.
Next season will kick off at the Berlin Olympic Stadium with a regular-season game. It is not yet clear where the remaining five games will take place. "We are initially planning one game per year and are fighting for more," announced Steinforth. A return to Munich or Frankfurt, where the NFL has played twice since 2022, is possible.
It is also unclear which teams will meet at the stadium of second-division soccer team Hertha BSC and when. Most recently, the Detroit Lions and German wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown secured the marketing rights for German-speaking countries. "We know that the teams with the marketing rights for the German market are particularly interested in playing in Germany," said Steinforth.
There is huge potential for the NFL in this country. This is demonstrated by the millions of tickets sold for the games in Munich and Frankfurt alone. According to the league, there are around 19 million fans in Germany, 3.6 million of whom follow the NFL closely. TV ratings for the Super Bowl reach record levels. Around 2.12 million Germans watched the final in 2024."We are the number one growth market for the NFL. We had more viewers on TV last year than ever before. The highest sales in merchandising, the highest number of followers on social media," said Steinforth, visibly proud of the boom.
The German capital already hosted pre-season matches in the 1990s. "Back to our roots. In 1990, we played one of our first international matches on German soil in Berlin's Olympic Stadium," said Steinforth, speaking of a "historic moment". NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was also there at the time.
The city is hoping above all for a positive effect on tourism and is planning investments of up to 12.5 million euros in this context. The investment should provide a lasting boost for tourism through the many visitors. Sports Senator Iris Spranger recently referred to the added value generated by the Games in Munich (70 million euros) and Frankfurt (110 million euros). The tickets, for which there were millions of interested parties, were gone in a flash. Restaurants and hotels were full.