Why is this European country the No. 1 target for NFL teams?

This weekend the NFL heads to another new venue as Berlin becomes the third German city to host a regular season game.

The Indianapolis Colts will take on the Atlanta Falcons at the Olympiastadion on Sunday, continuing the league’s expansion into Germany. The Colts and the Falcons are just two of the 11 NFL teams with commercial rights in Germany, the most of any nation in the NFL’s Global Markets Program (GMP). Germany has attracted a lot of interest from NFL teams, and with good reason.

“We don’t think it’s crowded. Germany is a big country, 80-plus million people living here,” explained Alexander Steinforth, the general manager of NFL Germany.

“If you look at the numbers, you still have a lot of potential to tap into — sports fans that are not NFL fans yet. And even if you look at the NFL fans, it’s less than 50% who have already picked their team. So, most of the people here are fans of the league.”

All 32 teams are not members of the GMP, with international marketing rights agreements now in place across 21 international markets. The initiative was launched in 2022 in a bid to build brand awareness beyond the United States, awarding international marketing rights to teams to allow them to promote themselves and the league through events, commercials and fan engagement initiatives.

Germany appears to be the most attractive market for NFL teams and is just beginning a five-year agreement with the league. That deal will see Berlin games in 2025, 2027 and 2029, with other German cities getting games in 2026 and 2028.

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