Bring football home: let London host the Super Bowl
The NFL has been playing matches in London since 1986. If any city outside the USA is ever going to host the Super Bowl, it should be London, says Alex Challoner
Last week, new Prime Minister Andy Burnham said it was insane that the UK has not hosted a world cup since 1966. While it is, indeed, crazy that the World Cup has not returned to the home of football in 60 years, I would argue that there is a better sporting contest that we should be bidding for. London should host the Super Bowl.
A London Super Bowl is not as far-fetched as it sounds. In fact, if any city outside the USA was going to host a Super Bowl, it would arguably be London. The National Football League (NFL) has been playing matches in London since 1986 and in the past year, three major NFL matches were played in the capital. In fact, each of the 32 teams in the NFL has played at least one match in London since 2007. Tottenham FC already has a 10-year deal with the NFL to host matches at its stadium. More than 210,000 NFL fans, many of whom are American tourists, pour into Wembley and Tottenham Hotspur stadiums every year to watch these NFL matches.
Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL, said in 2024 of a London bid to host the Super Bowl: “We’ve always traditionally tried to play a Super Bowl in an NFL city. But things change. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if that happens one day.” The boss of the San Francisco 49ers has said “I personally would really love to see it…It’s not far-fetched to believe that it will happen at some point.” Howard Dawber, London’s Deputy Mayor for Business and Growth, has confirmed that initial conversations have already taken place about welcoming the Super Bowl to London. While locations have been set for the next four Super Bowls (Los Angeles, Atlantia, Las Vegas, and Nashville respectively), London could conceivably be the destination for 2031.
A £160bn a year industry
The economic benefits of a London Super Bowl would be enormous. American football (or, as the Americans call it, football) is an industry valued at more than £160bn a year. The NFL estimates that the Super Bowl is worth about $500m to the city that hosts it. That is a significant boost for our beleaguered hospitality sector before we consider how much a London Super Bowl would boost London’s reputation and brand. And the extravaganza of the Super Bowl halftime show would add some welcome glitz and glamour too (as well as an audience of 182.2m viewers with their eyes glued on London).
One of the further benefits of staging a Super Bowl in the capital would be that it could potentially be a huge financial boost for the London Stadium. Currently the London Stadium is losing money hand over fist with an annual budget deficit of £19m a year. Playing host to a huge global sporting event would be a welcome boost for the venue’s coffers as well as a great showcase for the former Olympic Stadium in general (which should help it find other events to host).
Rather than hoping for football to come home, maybe it’s time we threw our weight a bid to host the Super Bowl. There is every reason to think that hosting the Super Bowl would not just be good for London but good for the NFL too. If the league wants to fulfil its global ambitions and become more than just an American pastime, it will need to free itself from the shackles of always playing its biggest match on US soil. There is no other city than London that combines a positive global brand, a strong track record of staging successful major sporting events with a genuine affection for American football.
Alex Challoner is director of the London Vision Network and former prospective London Mayoral candidate