Football fans take note.The National Football League (NFL), the US professional American football league, is returning to Munich's Allianz Arena in 2024. The Carolina Panthers will play a match there against an as yet unknown team. The opposing team, as well as the date and kick-off time for the match, will be announced in the spring.
After 2022, this is the second time that an official NFL league game has been awarded to Munich. The reason for this is the growing enthusiasm for football in Germany.
Thousands of fans from Munich, Germany and all over Europe cheered on the match between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks at the Allianz Arena on 13 November 2022. The City of Munich and the Free State of Bavaria put together a huge supporting programme. For example, flag football was taught in 16 schools for three months (a child-friendly version without the hard knocks) and there were lots of parties in Munich city centre. Anyone who couldn't get tickets for the game at the time could watch it at the fan festival on Odeonsplatz or in numerous Munich pubs. We can certainly look forward to another great atmosphere around the 2024 NFL match.
“At the beginning, the rules of football were still secret knowledge: only those who lived near a US barracks could find out what they were by listening to the American Forces Network radio station. The first fans in Munich invited veterans from Frankfurt to teach them the game; a colonel stationed at McGraw Barracks was one of the first Cowboys coaches. Some of the players from the early days were still there in 1993 when the male Cowboys clinched their first and so far only German championship title; that final in Munich was attended by over 12,000 spectators. The women's amateur team won the title in 2005 and 2006.
In Germany, new fans were mainly attracted when the US professional league NFL became accessible through the media – in the 1980s with the introduction of cable television, and in the 1990s with the pay-TV channel Premiere. From 1995 to 2007 there was also an NFL Europe, an offshoot of the US franchise. The level of popularity was high, with some matches attracting more than 30,000 spectators, especially in Frankfurt, which is a major centre of the sport. There was no Munich team in this league however.
Since 2015 the NFL has been regularly shown on free TV, which has led to popularity soaring like never before: the last Super Bowl – the NFL final – was watched by almost two million viewers in Germany from half past one at night until four in the morning. But the sport is not just gaining a following on the couch with beer and burgers: local football clubs are especially popular among children and youngsters.
One reason for this is that in football, young people of any stature and height can get involved. There’s a lot of emphasis on team spirit: nobody’s an outsider. Around 72,000 men and women now play football in Germany. This puts the sport in 32nd place in terms of membership, and the trend is upward: unlike many other sports, American football continued to grow during the pandemic, too.
The Munich Cowboys still play in the national league and have been very successful so far in 2022, but they’ve also made headlines because they had a female Bundesliga head coach on the sidelines for the first time: Nadine Nurasyid.
A new, Europe-wide league has now also been launched, with a strong German focus. The Munich franchise is the Munich Ravens.
A new Europe-wide league has now also got under way with a strong German focus. The Munich Cowboys still play in the national league and have been very successful so far in 2022, but they’ve also made headlines because they had a female Bundesliga head coach on the sidelines for the first time: Nadine Nurasyid.
