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American football’s quest for global domination rolls into Dublin
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Groups of American tourists, mostly decked out in the black and gold motif of American football team the Pittsburgh Steelers, amble around the entrance to Dublin Castle to the Eagles’ 1972 hit Take It Easy, which plays from a speaker.
Beyond it, in the castle’s upper courtyard, where power was transferred to Michael Collins’s provisional government in 1922, fans test their field goal-kicking skills on a shrunken American football field. On the perimeter of the square, a merchandise tent lures in Steelers and Minnesota Vikings supporters eager to part with their cash.
Responsible for this spectacle in the city’s historic heart is the National Football League (NFL), which has rolled into Dublin, a whistle stop on its march towards world domination.
In Croke Park on Sunday, the Steelers – one of six teams to which the league has granted Irish rights as part of its massive global expansion push – will face the Vikings in week four of the NFL regular season.
Out of the crowd of fans and security staff appears Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice-president overseeing club business, international and league events.
“Just from the moment I got on the flight in New York at JFK,” he says, “and saw every other row, someone wearing Steelers gear – a little Vikings in there too – you felt that energy and that specialness of what this week and this game will be.”
It’s not too surprising that the Steelers are the better represented of the two franchises. Through its billionaire Irish-American owners, the Rooney family, the organisation has long-standing connections to the Republic and to Croke Park. In the push for Ireland to host a NFL game, the Steelers have been the tip of the spear.
For the Steelers, the Vikings and the rest of the visitors, including O’Reilly, Dublin has well and truly rolled out the red carpet.
At a dinner on Wednesday evening, Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O’Donovan presented the executive with documents from the National Archives, compiled by his department, tracing the O’Reilly family’s Irish roots back to Kinnegad, Co Westmeath. They even include a picture of an ancestor’s headstone.
“That was pretty special,” O’Reilly says. “I’m the youngest of six, and I have a brother who’s done some of that genealogy work. But I got home from the dinner and I was able to sit there and pore through some of the history that I didn’t know, in terms of my family coming over [to the US] in 1831 originally.”
This week, the throngs are moving in the opposite direction across the Atlantic. Scores of deep-pocketed US visitors have descended on Dublin’s pubs, restaurants, hotels and shops in what city traders hope will be a boost before the quieter winter season.
It’s why the Government was willing to fork over some €10 million to the world’s richest sports league – with annual revenues of $20 billion (€17 billion) – for the privilege of hosting the game.
That the hefty licensing fee has raised eyebrows is not surprising, given how difficult it will be to quantify precisely the economic benefits of the event. For his part, O’Reilly is convinced the juice will prove to be worth the squeeze.
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“It’s a conversation we want to be open about,” he says when asked about the fee. “I think our partners here in Ireland feel that the economic impact will significantly go beyond that [€10 million figure].”
He also believes that the game will make a lasting impact on Dublin and that “the spotlight will be shone on this city” in US and world media. “We look at this as a true partnership,” O’Reilly says.
“Those investments we make around things that are critical and stay here in Dublin, investments around improvements at Croke Park that will be there well beyond [the game itself].” That also includes money spent on the league’s local flag-football programme.
Earlier this year, the NFL delivered equipment for the non-contact version of the sport – the gridiron equivalent of tag rugby, now an Olympic sport – to some 900 post-primary schools in the Republic.
“We’re not about bringing the circus to town and coming in and the exchange of value,” O’Reilly adds. “This is about a deep partnership.”
But the NFL and the teams involved in Sunday’s contest are, in fact, looking for something in return: fans. An international push that began in earnest in London in the early part of the last decade has been turbocharged in recent years as the league and its owners, the 32 NFL franchises, look to acquire more eyes on its product.
Games have been played in Germany and Mexico, with Brazil following last year, and Ireland and Spain on the docket for the first time this year. Australia will follow in 2026.
Sunday’s game is as much a play for Irish eyes as it is for those of the legion of fans who are set to travel to Dublin from the UK and Europe.
On the home front, the NFL is consolidating its position as a US media juggernaut. Just last month, Disney-owned sports media company ESPN acquired the league’s own broadcasting platform, NFL Network, in a deal that will allow the NFL to focus on the sporting side of the equation while continuing to sell television rights to other platforms such as Amazon.
In exchange, the league will own 10 per cent of the new combination, a stake valued potentially at about $3 billion, according to some analysts.
Global expansion, however, remains a priority, says O’Reilly. “We’ll continue to expand the number of international games,” he says. “We’ve got a set of priority markets where we’re committed to being not only with games, but on a year-round basis, and that’s only going to continue to grow.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has talked about expanding the regular season from 17 to 18 games. “There could be potentially 16 international games in that model”, O’Reilly believes.
Does that mean a Dublin game could become a fixture? Rumour has it that executives from some of the other five NFL franchises with marketing rights to Ireland – the Kansas City Chiefs, Tennessee Titans, Green Bay Packers and Jacksonville Jaguars – are in town this weekend, scouting around and soaking up the atmosphere.
So will the league be back next year? “Our sights are set on a successful Sunday,” O’Reilly says, diplomatically. “Then we’ll come out the other side and then sit with our stakeholders here and determine what opportunities look like in the future.
“I’d say the one thing that’s true is we’ll be here in some form year-round, and it’s just we want to evaluate what the game opportunity could be.”
