The NFL is a completely American experience. While attempts have been made to expand it to other parts of the world, these have never been successful, including the ambitious NFL Europe.
NFL Europe was a bold attempt to bring NFL to the Europe and let European teams participate in it but it was an abysmal failure. Let’s dive into the history of NFL Europe and what exactly went wrong with it.
NFL Europe: What is it?
NFL Europe began as the World League of American Football, created as the developmental minor league of the NFL. It operated from 1991 to 1992 and included six US teams, one Canadian team, and three European teams. The European teams that were included were the Barcelona Dragons, London Monarchs, and Frankfurt Galaxy.
The WLAF then vanished in 1993 and made a comeback as the World League in 1995. This time it added three more European teams: Rheine Fire, Amsterdam Admirals, and Scottish Claymores. In 1988, it was re-branded as NFL Europe.
This League was a little different from the NFL as it featured some different and experimental rules to appeal to the fans of soccer and rugby football as well.
NFL teams would allocate players to NFL Europe, with incentives such as additional training camp positions for each allocated player. Each team in this league was required to employ a certain number of “local” players, who were mostly converted to rugby or soccer players later.
The purpose of this new league was to help the NFL bring in some great players and coaches. Some of the iconic players and coaches the NFL got through this process include the HC Sean Payton (Leicester Panthers), QB Jake Delhomme (Amsterdam Admirals and Frankfurt Galaxy), Super Bowl-winning QB and MVP Kurt Warner, and the NFL’s All-time greatest kicker, Adam Vinatieri.
However, NFL Europe couldn’t work for a long time as it was closed on July 29, 2007.
Why did NFL Europe fail?
There were multiple reasons why NFL Europe failed, with the major being the lack of revenue it was generating. The league had been losing a reported US$30 million a year, which compelled the NFL to take this hard decision and put an end to it.
The NFL also decided to shift its strategy for marketing football abroad from NFL Europe to organizing regular-season games abroad.
In 2003, voting was done, in which eight of the 32 NFL owners voted against funding this league, one short of the nine votes needed to end it. This league also failed to get a television contract, one of the most important aspects of generating revenues.
The league couldn’t find stability as it was renamed frequently, franchises were relocated often, and also it had a poor quality of play. Because of all these reasons the NFL Europe was described as an “abysmal failure.” While it was famous in Europe, it didn’t garner a lot of interest in North America, another reason it couldn’t work out.
Although the league has given the NFL some of the best players and coaches, it hasn’t been successful. Despite many suggesting giving it another try, no attempts have been made again to make it work out.
