Municipal pennants announcing the first game of Spain’s National Football League (NFL) have been lined up around the Santiago Bernabéu stadium for several days. The event, revealed more than a year ago, will see two professional American football teams from the United States land in Madrid, making Madrid one of the few European capitals to host an event of this type.
he madrid match It consists of a game between the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders, playing as the home team. Despite both being teams in the NFL’s lower-mid zone, expectations were high, and most of the 80,000 tickets available were shipped within hours. However, the organization sold tickets a few days ago for between 250 and 350 euros, and they are still available. The announcement that Biza Rap and Daddy Yankee will sing songs released this week at halftime could be the final trigger for the No Tickets sign.
The NFL match is part of a strategy shared by both the City of Madrid and the City Council to transform the capital into a venue for large-scale international events, thereby attracting large numbers of tourists with large spending capacities. They have pursued this match so closely that the party will likely spend significant public money on it. The Almeida government will add 1.8 million euros and the Ayuso government will similarly add 1.5 million euros (tax included), which is more than the Madrid City Council dedicates to all grassroots sports in a year.
Both governments have justified the spending on promoting Madrid that this meeting achieves, particularly among Americans, the largest group of tourists visiting Madrid, on whom much of the promotional effort is focused. Last September alone, up to 98,987 people traveled from the United States, according to INE, the same number of travelers from Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Germany combined. According to the community, they spend an average of 2,430 euros, much more than domestic travelers.
To generate advertising revenue, the City Council is asking for, among other compensation, the city’s name on the NFL emblem during games and the Madrid City Council logo on the tournament’s social media publications. Community plans to do the same, according to sponsorship details accessed by this newspaper. In addition, the conference broadcast will also include coverage of “at least two emblematic tourist sites in the city of Madrid.” The average viewership for an NFL regular-season game in 2023 was 17.9 million, but with neither team leading their respective divisions, games like Miami vs. Washington will likely draw fewer spectators in front of the screen.
Moving successful sports league matches to other countries is a common tactic for internationalizing this type of business. In Spain, the Football League did it with the Super Cup, selling matches to Saudi Arabia and trying to do so by promising regular matches between Villarreal and FC Barcelona to the city of Miami. The latter was forced to cancel due to protests from players and fans who believed that Barça had distorted the competition and avoided visiting one of the most difficult stadiums in the Spanish league.
The NFL has the most elaborate format, with teams touring various European capitals each year. This season, American football matches will be held in Spain, as well as in Dublin, London and Berlin. “Madrid is consolidating its position as the host of the most prestigious international sporting events, hosting two Laureus Trophy, Spain’s first NFL match, the European Athletics Championship and one of the most spectacular Formula 1 Grands Prix,” Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida triumphantly declared a few months ago, listing events for which the city council has provided significant public funds and city facilities for their development.
In addition to the aforementioned sponsorship, the arrival of professional football in the United States will involve significant municipal relocation. Last September, the City Council had already abandoned the promenade between the theater and the Royal Palace to celebrate the NFL Experience Madrid, where people could watch Super Bowl games from deck chairs. And the local government is preparing a similar event this week in Plaza de España for the Miami Dolphins team, where managers Ayuso and Almeida have been meeting in recent months, with a fan zone sponsored by the ticketing company set up for the team from Thursday, Nov. 13 to Sunday, Nov. 16. In addition, the City Council will provide the Vallehermoso Stadium to host the matches on Friday, November 14th and Saturday, November 15th, organized by the Madrid American Football Federation, which is part of the Madrid American Football Federation. NFL AcademyBased in the UK.
The Almeida government has already dedicated the stadium in Chamberi as a match venue for Madrid Bravos for the past two summers. The Bravos, a recently founded European American football team, played there thanks to a free loan from the City Council.
Before the match next Sunday, Ayuso also gave a victory speech at the event, in which he assured that “Madrid is the most fashionable region in the world at the moment” and that it is “a lively, dynamic, open, place where everyone wants to come”, adding in connection with the conference that will be held in the capital with attractive public sponsorship.
“The organization has expressed its intention to extend its relationship with the Madrid authorities in order to stage the competition in Spain,” the regional government warned in the latest document released, expecting more matches like next Sunday’s in the coming years.
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