The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming to Dublin in the autumn to host a first ever regular season NFL game on Irish soil. It may not be a one off. The Steelers are one of three teams, along with the New York Jets and the Jacksonville Jaguars that have marketing rights here as part of the NFL international expansion.
The Jets are another of one of the most storied teams in the game and given their home base and the colours they play in they have a significant irish following.
Along with the Steelers they also made a draft pick from ireland last year and this week they launched a new Girls Flag Football league bringing the sport to eight Dublin schools. A pilot programme with the Dublin City Council at the end of last year saw a school from Dublin heading to Florida last month to take part in the International Finals as part of the Pro Bowl Weekend.
Laying down a foundation of support works on a number of levels as part of the initial five year rights but for the Jets there is a genuine hope of staging a game here to match the Steelers.
We sat down at the Sport Ireland Campus this week with John MacCarter, the Jets Vice President of Finance and Analytics and here is what we chatted about…
RH: The Jets have been granted the marketing rights her in Ireland and the UK. Tell us a little about that construct which is a strange one to us in Europe where a Liverpool or even a Dublin GAA might look on the world as their oyster in terms of promotion, the NFL has that corralled a little bit more which can add to the focus would that be fair?
JMacC: Yeah, I agree with you about the focus, because it does allow us to say, okay, what is our plan for Ireland? What is it about Ireland that’s attractive to us?
RH: Okay. So from an Irish perspective New York has always had a really strong Irish connection. The Jet’s play in green. So somebody who was dipping in to the sport here, there is a natural draw.
JMacC: So there’s actually quite a substantial support base here already. Yes, and you’re right, these were some of the things we talked about when we decided to embark on this. There is a strong historical and cultural connection between New York City specifically and Ireland and that was a big factor for us.
We did research and we know as you do that the Irish are passionate about sports. We know that NFL is not number one on the list here, or maybe not even number three or four or five today, but we believe that the NFL fan experience is the best in the world, and we want to delight Irish fans with it.
RH: Did you get to pick the UK and Ireland, or was it something that was negotiated amongst the 32 teams?
JMacC: You need to bid, so the NFL controls that process, and they say it’s a five year program, please submit your proposal to us, and then we will grant it to you if we agree with your approach.
It’s not exclusive, the Steelers also are doing the same thing, and so are the Jacksonville Jaguars. but that’s a good thing for everyone to elevate the sport as a whole.
RH: And so, the Jets have played in London, been over there to Wembley Stadium, and I saw you playing against the Dolphins. Did the international experience as a travelling team factor into your pitch to win the rights for there and for here?
J MacC: We’ve never hosted. We’ve always been the visiting team, but there was something special about the times we have travelled. There had been 20 or more NFL games in London before we placed our bid, so we knew, there was a foundation to start with, and, one of the great things is you can see the rainbow of jerseys.
It’s kind of fun and cool being an American fan to come and see that people are there to see the NFL and they’ll wear whatever the colours of the team they like, or love.
RH: I went over with my son and we were walking from the tube station up to the stadium, and we had a little checklist in our mind that we were running through and ticking off every team as we saw them.
JMacC: I bet you got there, right
RH: Yeah, we got there much quicker than we thought.
JMacC: It’s incredible. So our goal is to share that, that culture, not just, you know, watching the game but also the fanfare and the experience surrounding the game. Yeah.
RH: How much energy and headspace does the international push take up against the regular promotion and operation of the organisation?
JMacC: It’s certainly a lot of effort, but you’ve got people working on it who are passionate.
And the good thing about the Jets experience is you can’t succeed unless you’ve got organizational buy in.
We have a smaller team that’s dedicated to it, day in, day out, but we couldn’t do it if we didn’t have folks helping us from the marketing side and the public relations side and the operations side.
So we’ve all got to pitch in and the jets have been really, really good about that.
RH: The Steelers are coming to Dublin this year. We hosted a business breakfast for the Steelers during the year and they’re very committed to it.
They are AFC rivals, if not in your division, but but is part of the plan that you’d love to host a game here as well.
JMacC: I think we’d be honored to, and the fun thing about this whole thing is yes, AFC rivals on the field, but when it comes to, you know, introducing the game outside the United States, we drive each other.
So they’ll do some amazing stuff. I’m certain of it. And we’ll be cheering them on and learning from them and then doing it as well.
I think it was, uh, in 2023, we did a joint watch party with the Dolphins in Manchester. So that’s almost unheard of in the United States. So we had a theory that, back to our rainbow jerseys discussion, that fans would just go and they would go together, even though the Jets and Dolphins are rivals, you can throw a party together and it was a big success. Sky was broadcasting from the event and it was a blast.
RH: So Henry Hodgson and his team in NFL UK and Ireland, this isn’t their first rodeo. When does the planning start from your point of view? Like, when do you have boots on the ground ahead of the London fixture this year?
JMacC: It’s always on, so that’s something that we’ve been preparing for, even though we don’t control it, to be ready. So when we were announced fairly recently, You know, we had already been thinking about what could this mean for us.
And the good news is it’s fresh in our minds, at least as a visiting team, that we were just there in October of 24. So our engagement plan is certainly amplified by the game, but we would be doing some of these things even if it weren’t around a game day as part of our building of a fan base..
RH: Looking from the business side, how much of a bump can it give you to come into a market like London or Dublin, where you’ve got millions of people that are not committed to one team or another that you want to turn into Jets fans for life, have you got a lifetime value number on a fan that you can then progress towards?
JMacC: Oh, yeah, certainly that was part of our consideration when we decided to enter the program. And so, we know there’s a pathway to that.
We look at the Premier League, for example, and they embarked on this journey maybe three decades ago.
And now look where they are. So we see it as a long term play that we’re committed to. And, you know, it’s an exciting time to be starting something.
RH: We mentioned about the fact that Ireland is part of this five year plan now, in terms of the promotion of the Jets. If you play your game in London this year, do you envisage then that over the course of the five years that you might actually play another two games internationally, that one or more of them would be in London? And then one more in Dublin, potentially.
JMacC: Yeah, that is certainly possible. So the way the NFL is set up, they know that the Jets are committed to this project, and while they are the ones selecting the matchups and the locations that becomes part of the mix.
RH: Has it been raised at any of the round table meetings that, hey, wouldn’t it be cool if two of the teams that actually have the rights within Ireland would actually pool resources and go and host a game there?
J MacC: Of course. And we actually got to experience that last year, because the Vikings have the UK as well, and we do too. We’re collaborative in a friendly competition type of way, to make sure we want to put our best foot forward and make each other better, by learning from each other.
RH: So my last question is who’s going to be your starting quarterback for next year?
JMacC: Ha, that’s someone else’s department. So we’ll find out when you do.
We had a chat about the Flag Football initiative as well which we will carry closer to the time of the Finals day.
Further Reading for Sport for Business members: New York Jets Launch Flag Football Programme for Eight Dublin Schools
SPORT FOR BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Nobody has a pen poised on a contract but there is clearly an appetite to bring a game to Dublin once the Steelers experience proves to be a winner in perhaps as little as six months time
WHAT’S UP NEXT?
The NFL Fixtures for the new season starting in September are released collectively around the middle of May. We will be watching with interest.
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