SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The Chargers performed host to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on Friday within the first of the NFL’s file seven worldwide video games, with upcoming matchups between completely different groups in London, Madrid, Dublin and Berlin. Subsequent season, the Rams will plant a flag in Australia with a regular-season recreation in Melbourne, the league’s first foray Down Beneath.
The NFL is concentrated on a long-range worldwide technique, not a sequence of one-off curiosities.
“It’s the other of the circus involves city,” stated Peter O’Reilly, NFL govt vp of membership enterprise, worldwide and league occasions. “It’s not one-and-done. It’s play the sport and be engaged year-round. All golf equipment now have the rights in no less than one market and that’s a long-term dedication. We’re investing in the long run to change into a real international sport property.”
That may take some doing, particularly in nations similar to Brazil, the place American soccer barely registers a blip on the sports activities radar with curiosity dwarfed by the eagerness for soccer.
Nonetheless, Corinthians Enviornment was crammed to the brim Friday night time with almost 50,000 individuals, and followers — overwhelmingly adorned in purple Chiefs jerseys — who stood nearly all of the sport.
O’Reilly calls it the pebble-in-the-pond impact. Stage a recreation and watch as ripples unfold all through the area. Final month, the NFL signed a multi-year cope with Globo, Brazil’s largest media firm.
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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Chiefs proprietor Clark Hunt pour beers for followers throughout a Chiefs occasion in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday night time.
“Finally, it’s about constructing followers and offering as a lot attain as doable,” he stated. “Sure, the financials are vital on the finish of the day, nevertheless it’s actually about attain. How will we convey the NFL to extra followers? This recreation was streamed free on YouTube all over the world. We’re simply opening as much as a a lot wider viewers.”
Stated NFL commissioner Roger Goodell: “We all know we’ve got 36 million followers in Brazil. … Our gamers, and even our coaches, take pleasure in being on the worldwide stage.”
The person groups are getting extra concerned as properly, reasonably than leaving the heavy lifting as much as the NFL. For the most recent Brazil recreation — the second in São Paulo and solely the second regular-season NFL recreation within the Southern Hemisphere — each the Chargers and Chiefs hosted ticketed events for his or her followers and varied influencers from all over the world.
At Chiefs Home on Thursday night time, Goodell and Chiefs proprietor Clark Hunt participated in a panel interview then bought behind the bar and poured beer for the attendees.
“That is my favourite job, being a bartender,” stated Goodell, standing beside an ice chest of Budweisers and filling plastic cups. “You make individuals glad… They don’t boo you right here.”
Recording artist Karol G performs at halftime in the course of the Chargers’ win over the Chiefs in São Paulo, Brazil, on Friday night time.
(Buda Mendes / Getty Photos)
Within the panel dialogue, Hunt stated: “We’ve been very clear about our want to change into the world’s crew. Now we get to come back to crucial nation in South America and introduce them to Chiefs-style soccer.”
After a pair hours, the person typically voted probably the most highly effective govt in sports activities hopped in a sprinter van and made his method to the Chargers social gathering, the place membership proprietor Dean Spanos did some mingling with party-goers, posing for pictures with a big crew flag a fan handed him.
By recreation’s finish Friday, it was Spanos who left glad, with the Chargers upsetting the defending AFC champions, 27-21, beating Kansas Metropolis for the primary time in eight tries.
Chargers proprietor Dean Spanos attends a crew social gathering in São Paulo on Thursday forward of the crew’s win over the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on Friday.
(Sam Farmer / Los Angeles Instances)
Not like final 12 months, when the Philadelphia Eagles and Inexperienced Bay Packers had bother discovering their footing on a taking part in floor designed for soccer, the grass held up this time. It was a newly put in hybrid area of rye and artificial grass that would endure the damage and tear of 300-pound combatants.
“No complaints in any respect,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh stated after the victory. “The ambiance was nice. The sector was nice. Every thing was a plus-plus. Brazil has an actual good place in my coronary heart any longer.”
The NFL feels the identical means.
“We’re nonetheless a challenger; we all know that soccer is clearly No. 1,” O’Reilly stated. “However we consider we’ve bought the runway to essentially develop. There aren’t that many boundaries for us. It’s actually nearly our dedication to getting after it and constructing the fan base. We’re seeing outcomes.”
