NFL's European Expansion

Why do you think it has taken so long for the NFL to expand globally?

The NFL owned two American football leagues in Europe, WLAF (1991-92) and NFL Europe (1995-2007). The NFL has been interested in European expansion for quite some time. The recent gap post-2007 has been a time to reassess and ensure they have the correct entry strategy. After failing twice, the NFL is hesitant to rush back into a situation unless they have assurances that they will succeed.

What are some of the challenges that the NFL has faced or will face throughout this expansion strategy?

Attendance at the European games was quite good. However, the investment failed because they did not have anyone in the U.S. watching these games. NFL Europe lost the NFL money. It was also a league entirely independent of the NFL. The ongoing reapproach to expansion would be to place one or more European teams into the NFL. This is a move that mitigates the risk of not having any viewers. These teams would be in the league that fans are already watching. They'll have fantasy football players playing on these European teams.

Further, the quality of play will still be at the same caliber as it currently is within the NFL. A challenge of NFL Europe and the WLAF (which I admittedly know little about) was that the quality of play could have been better. Much like we've seen with the failures of both the XFL and USFL.