Report on The globalization of NFL

Reasons NFL was unsuccessful in globalization attempts

National football league (NFL) tried to go global since 1991. They have made great efforts but could never succeed to gain attention of international fans or have well known international reputation such as other globalized games. The question that arises here that was it wrong to globalize an American game or it was a brilliant idea which was poorly executed due to lack of innovative and strategic planning and marketing. The football which we watch nowadays has contents of both soccer and rugby. In 1920, the American professional football association was formed in Ohio. The team renamed itself as national football league (NFL) in 1922. Another football team emerged in 1926 which was named as American football league (AFL), it was a rival team of NFL. In 1970 both football teams merged together. In 2010, NFL was a league of 32 teams and 16 games. This league turned out to be extremely successful and it obtained position among top ten positions in valuable sports franchise from all over the world.

In 1950, NFL flew abroad and organized game in Canada. Outside North America, first game was hosted by Tokyo in 1976. And several small events and games were played in between from 1986 to 2005. Whenever, a sports team is to globalize itself, strategies are designed and results are produced. NFL had great success within London but failed to globalize itself outside London and it is due to lack of proper planning and lower efficiency of management. There are several initiatives which play a major role in globalization of a sports league. These several initiatives include publicity of the league through digital and print media. NFL failed due to lack of strategic planning. More initiatives could have been taken to publicize the event in several grounds in order to establish fan following as the event went global i.e. Was to be played and showcased on television etc. (Hitchcoock, 2017)

Along with several other issues, another issue is the name of the league. In us it is known as soccer while rest of the world now it is as football. So it turned out to be an unfortunate event not as expected. And promoting a national game on international platform without using name of origination is more likeable to upset few national fans. If the teams are referred in national terms it will present national values and national content on international level, expanding the boundaries. In order to grow the game at wide level, equipment has also to be more and expensive. The expensive equipment include helmet, pads, gloves etc. This increases the risks of health among players and ham the quality of sport.

Strategy NFL should use to continue Globalization efforts

In order to continue globalization of the sport the first mandatory step is to increase awareness about the sport. Emotional or compelling ads should be made and marketed worldwide via digital and print media. The ads should be displayed on social media and on televisions and brief description of schedule should be made available for a common man. Another strategy can be to have sponsorship of known and well reputed international brands. Management should change itself and new strategies should be implicated. Better investment and marketing strategies are needed for the promotion of the sports league. Quality leadership planning is required and in order NFL to succeed long term connection should be established with the audience. (Volpe, 2012)

Reference of The globalization of NFL

Hitchcoock, A. (2017, March 03). The Globalization of the NFL. Retrieved from http://daily.unitedlanguagegroup.com/stories/editorials/nfl-globalization

Volpe, N. A. (2012). The NFL’s Strategy forGlobalization. 5(1), 14-53.