Dissertation - Jonathan Phillips

1

Internationalising America’s Game: The Growth of American

Football in the UK

by

Jonathan Phillips

Dissertation presented for the Honours degree of BA

School of Geography

University of Nottingham

2015

Word Count: 10,000

2

Abstract

This paper seeks to justify the inclusion of sport, as a culturally significant

commodity, in the geographic discipline. An assessment of the emergence of

American football in the United Kingdom forms the substantive section of the paper,

considering the extent to which the sport has been internationalised in its exportation

and the episodes of resistance crafted by a dynamic network of international cultural

exchange.

Attention is paid to the tangible geographies of American football, specifically

addressing the spatial distribution of clubs across the breadth of the United Kingdom,

as well as conducting an origin analysis of investment targeted at the NFL’s

International Series. Finally, the paper concludes by offering avenues for continued

research in formulating the geographies of sport, and evaluates future developments

in American football that may alter its geographic dissemination.

3

Preface

I would like to thank Andrew Greenhalgh-Cook for his guidance and advice

throughout the construction of this piece of research. Andrew’s attention to detail and

impressive knowledge of economic and social geographies has played an

indispensable role and much credit should be apportioned to him. Alongside Andrew,

I’d like to thank the School of Geography as a whole at the University of Nottingham

for its continued support and direction.

In addition, I wish to stress my gratitude towards all those that assisted with my

research, particularly those who participated in semi-structured interviews. Those

include Neil Reynolds, Alistair Kirkwood, Philip Wood, Christopher Campbell, Andy

Fuller, Jeff Reinebold and Dan Humphreys. With the exception of Dan Humphreys,

access was gained of my own accord rather than through workplace and or family

connections.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the members of staff at the NFL UK

London Office for assisting in much of the primary research undertaken. The office

provided an indispensable platform for meeting desired individuals, as well as

facilitating semi-structured interviews by making available the necessary meeting and

conference rooms. Further, I want to extend my appreciation to the members of the

Deloitte Sports Business Group whom assisted in providing the Deloitte Report titled

‘Economic Impact of the NFL on London and the UK’.

4

Abbreviations APS – Active People Survey

BAFA – British American Football Association

BUCS – British Universities & Colleges Sport

CP – Core-Periphery

FDI – Foreign Direct Investment

GaWC – Globalisation and World Cities

GIS – Geographic Information System

GVA – Gross Value Added

MNC – Multinational Corporation

NBA – National Basketball Association

NFL – National Football League

TNC – Transnational Corporation

UK – United Kingdom

US – United States [of America]

WCN – World City Network

5

Table of Contents

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... 2

Preface ........................................................................................................................ 3

Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 4

Tables ......................................................................................................................... 7

Figures ........................................................................................................................ 7

1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 8

1.1 Challenges ....................................................................................................... 9

1.2 Aim and Objectives .......................................................................................... 9

2.0 Literature Review ............................................................................................... 10

2.1 Globalisation and Sport ................................................................................. 10

2.2 Americanisation ............................................................................................. 11

2.3 Sport and Culture .......................................................................................... 12

2.4 Uneven UK Geographies ............................................................................... 13

2.5 Sport Sociology ............................................................................................. 16

2.5.1 American Football ................................................................................. 16

3.0 Methodology ...................................................................................................... 18

3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 18

3.2 Semi-Structured Interviews ........................................................................... 18

3.3 Questionnaire Surveys .................................................................................. 20

3.4 Participant Observation and Supportive Methods ......................................... 21

3.5 Data Handling ................................................................................................ 22

6

4.0 Analysis, Results and Discussion ................................................................... 23

4.1 The Internationalisation of American Football ............................................... 23

4.1.1 Interactions of Time and Space ............................................................ 25

4.1.2 Cultural Convergence ........................................................................... 26

4.1.3 Capital Investment ................................................................................ 27

4.2 Limitations to Growth in the United Kingdom ................................................ 30

4.2.1 Exportability of American Football ........................................................ 30

4.2.2 Sporting Nationalism ............................................................................ 31

4.2.3 Internal Resistance ............................................................................... 33

4.3 Uneven Geographies of UK American Football ............................................. 34

4.3.1 National Scale ...................................................................................... 34

4.3.2 Regional Scale ..................................................................................... 35

4.3.3 Local Scale ........................................................................................... 37

5.0 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 39

5.1 Limitations ..................................................................................................... 40

5.2 Further Study ................................................................................................. 40

Maps ......................................................................................................................... 42

Appendices .............................................................................................................. 45

Appendix A: Interviewee Biographies .................................................................. 45

Appendix B: Sample Email Correspondence ...................................................... 46

Appendix C: Sample Interview Transcript ........................................................... 47

Appendix D: Sample Questionnaire Survey ........................................................ 57

Appendix E: Reflective Field Diary ...................................................................... 60

References ............................................................................................................... 65

7

Tables

Table 1 – Major Global Cities .................................................................................... 15

Table 2 – Semi-Structured Interviewees ................................................................... 19

Table 3 – Participant Observation Events ................................................................. 22

Figures

Figure 1 – NFL International Series .......................................................................... 23

Figure 2 – NFL on Regent Street .............................................................................. 27

Figure 3 – IEG Sponsorship Infographic – NFL 2013 ................................................ 29

Figure 4 – National Lottery Grant Awards ................................................................ 36

8

1.0 Introduction

Cited by Maguire 1990 (213), James Connelly, the former international marketing

director of the NFL, stated in 1987 that:

“What you have now in the UK is a microcosm of the US NFL market with one

major difference: business took almost 20 years to develop and has taken a

fraction of the time in Great Britain”.

What Connelly and Maguire could not have foreseen was a cataclysmic decline in

fortunes for the sport in the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s. However, twenty-eight

years after Connelly’s comments, American football has returned and is

endeavouring to establish a more perpetual foundation on British soil. With

approximately 40,000 players (Wood, 2014; Reynolds, 2014) and an International

Series currently spanning eleven fixtures over seven years (NFLUK.com, 2014), one

may consider the sport as one of the fastest growing in a competitive and relatively

saturated UK market. The average attendance at the NFL’s International Series

fixtures is over 82,500 (Deloitte, 2014: 4), a figure that surpasses that of its

indigenous nation by approximately 15,000, depicting the growing cultural

acceptance of an American icon (Waters, 2009: 343). Moreover, landmark events

such as ‘NFL on Regent Street’, hosting crowds up to 600,000 (Deloitte, 2014;

regentstreetonline.com, 2015), further confirm the sport’s intensifying presence in UK

sporting culture.

Having been previously neglected in academic debate, this study will seek to justify

the fabrication of a geography of sport, as its relevance under the existing indices of

economic, social and cultural geographies grows. I foresee that the exemplification of

American football will initiate a discussion concerning the existence of sport in

debates of globalisation, as well as the Americanisation of society, an existence that

has yet to manifest in developmental publications such as Progress in Human

Geography.

The international nature of sport is undeniable, with elite migratory flows and capital

flight defining its ubiquitous tenure in modern society. Equally, Jarvie (2013: 87)

expresses that “sporting tastes and cultures have moved across national boundaries

to be consumed in different corners of the Earth”. Yet at a more localised scale, the

research project attempts to elicit the prevalence of uneven geographies of American

9

football in the United Kingdom, and evaluate its resemblance to antecedent spatial

economic disparities. Coe and Jones’ (2010) The Economic Geography of the UK

identifies London and the Southeast as the core economic territory, and the research

seeks to expand on this narrative and assesses its extension to the geography of

sport.

1.1 Challenges

There are a number of challenges that face American football in its intensification in

the United Kingdom. Principally, the supremacy of domestically established sports,

including association football and rugby union, offers significant opposition to a

culturally imported derivative. Historically, the profound base of traditionally British

sports rendered the growth of American football in the 1980s a ‘fad’, and institutions

such as NFL UK must combat these forces in order to secure greater traction. Even

as recently as 2011, academics had expressed doubt as to whether an American

sport could become a prominent entity in the United Kingdom (Whitson, 2002;

Campbell et al., 2004; Giulianotti, 2005b; Maguire and Falcous, 2007; Millward,

2011), yet recent developments would suggest that American football has made

headway. The aforementioned challenges will be evaluated in the context of a

modern day society, aiming to provide a relevant revision to past discussion.

1.2 Aim and Objectives The foci of the investigation mentioned above are more succinctly described with the

following aims and objectives:

o To investigate the extent to which American football has been globalised,

or internationalised, in its diffusion to the United Kingdom.

o To examine the prevalence of limiting factors that have inhibited the

growth of American football in the United Kingdom.

o To assess the uneven development of American football in the UK,

focusing on spatial aspects as well as the level / standard being played,

ranging from grassroots to the NFL (National Football League).

10

2.0 Literature Review

The literature review begins by offering a synopsis of existing academic work

concerning the position of sport in debates of globalisation and culture, as well as the

preeminent economic landscape of the United Kingdom. Subsequently, the chapter

aims to identify absences in the literature and areas that require contemporary

examination.

2.1 Globalisation and Sport

Dicken (2007: 6) expresses globalisation as an augmented global economic

integration characterised by international migration, cross-border transactions and

the flow of goods, services and intellectual capital. In contemporary times,

globalisation has surfaced as the axial theme of (Giulianotti and Robertson, 2004)

geographic debate. However, this wholly homogenised description (Strange, 1995)

requires revision in order to suppress critique concerning its propensity to paint

nations across the world with the same brush (Wilford, 2005). I strongly believe there

is a gulf in debates of globalisation, related to sport as a culturally significant and

internationally pertinent aspect of modern life. Generally there has been an academic

neglect, particularly by geographers, of narratives vis-à-vis globalisation and sport,

something I believe is of paramount importance to a current reappraisal of the

concept.

Whannel (2008: 200) echoes this sentiment, stating that “one cannot really examine

globalising processes without taking sport into account”, and Miller et al. (2001) go so

far in declaring that sport is altogether important enough to modify its utilisation.

Sport’s development is “interwoven with the broader global flow of people,

technology, finance, images and ideologies” (Maguire, 2011b: 987), as well as being

characterised by the “emergence of transnational sports organisations” (Jarvie, 2013:

87), commanding a critical examination in geographic research. Sport’s influence on

mainstream media (Jarvie, 2013), including the press, radio and television (Smart,

2007), earns its status amongst other cultural commodities such as film and music as

intrinsically pertinent in geographic literature. Other cultural forms, markedly religion

and race, have often preceded sport in scholarly debate, fashioning sport’s relative

under-exploration (Giulianotti and Robertson, 2004).

11

2.2 Americanisation

Whereby Strange (1995) characterises the application of the expression

‘globalisation’ as wholly homogenising, there is often assimilation with narratives

depicting the hegemonic Americanisation of world culture. Peet (2002: 302) assigns

the label “imitators of American super-people” to those whom engage in “mindlessly

consuming the debased forms of mass culture” (Wilford, 2005: 32). Contrarily,

Maguire (2011b: 988) appreciates that there are concurrent authorities that

contribute to a dynamic network of cultural exchanges, citing Britishisation,

Europeanisation, Orientalisation, Africanisation and Hispanicisation. In order to

contextualise these debates with the growth of American football in the UK, one must

begin to associate with the definition of Americanisation. Ritzer (2007: 28) cites

Williams (1962) in defining Americanisation as “the propagation of American ideas,

customs, social patterns, language, industry and capital around the world”.

Previous literature of Americanisation has referred to “pop music, comics, satellite

news, T-shirt designs and Hollywood films” (Rowe et al., 1994: 662), as well as the

proliferation of the US music industry, but has failed to constitute the

internationalisation of sporting bodies such as the NFL or the NBA (Campbell et al.,

2004) in the same domain. Maguire (2011b) addresses this with the recommendation

of treating the NFL as a multinational corporation, catalogued comparably to

companies such as McDonald’s and Disney. Sport’s governing bodies, systematic of

the relations between economies and cultures around the world, permit such

discussion in conjunction with unassuming perceptions of the transnational

corporation.

The dissemination of American socio-economic behaviours has kindled an ensuing

discourse of resistance, denoting an observable opposition to cultural hegemony and

conformity, branded as anti-Americanisation. The protection of “homegrown” cultural

traditions (Wilford, 2005) and an objection to the powerful infliction of foreign

ideologies “impedes global cultural dialogue” (Giulianotti, 2005a), something

particularly delegated to the United States. A consensus has emerged that

processes of resistance are less patent between the United Kingdom and the United

States, predominantly as a result of cultural resemblances and historic unions

between the nations (Campbell et al., 2004; Wilford, 2005). Nevertheless, even

having been established from a synergy of association and rugby football, both

12

English in their inception (Smart, 2005), a discussion of the pervasiveness of anti-

Americanisation targeted at American football is meaningful.

2.3 Sport and Culture

The internationalisation of American football is innately intertwined with broader

cultural developments and societal adaptations. The research project seeks to further

accentuate the position of sport as a cultural marker, and its exposure to processes

of internationalisation. Barry Smart (2001) articulates how sport can be represented

as a linchpin of popular culture, transcendent of national borders and ample in its

influence to re-establish the very definition of globalisation. Coined as the most

important thing in the world by Ulrich Beck (2000), academics have even termed

sport as “the most universal aspect of popular culture” (Miller et al., 2001). On a

global scale, sport not only transcends geographically identifiable boundaries, but is

adopted by a demographic diverse of “gender, race, class, region, profession and

religion” (Oriard, 1998: 4). In earnest, the postulation of a universal transcendence of

space and cultural groupings is precarious, as several sports’ histories are

characterised by divisions in class and social status.

Thus far, palpable momentum is yet to be established in the manifestation of sporting

geographies as a sub-discipline. The negligence of sport in cultural geography, a

traditional and widely researched sub-field, must also be rectified in order to further

its reach and accessibility. Sport poses a number of challenges to existing

interpretations of cultural identity, namely Pieterse’s (2009: 343) reference to the way

in which cultural commodities, such as sport, “subvert nationalism”. As summarised

by Maguire (2011b: 978), “attention is paid to the question of whether national

cultures and identities are being weakened, strengthened or pluralized by

globalisation processes”. In this instance, Pieterse (2009) attaches the globalisation

of sport to the weakening of patriotic sentiment, an occurrence that shall be

examined with regard to American football and the UK’s domestic discretions.

Sports that lack transnational competition utilised the collapse of communism and the

marking of the borderless world (Allison, 2004) to infiltrate international markets, and

to capitalise on more liberal and laissez-faire economies. The subversion of

nationally represented sports that are often indicative of a nation’s culture could be

potentially damning. However, there is evidence of resilience at the local scale.

13

Whannel (2008: 199) articulates, “The rise of globalising processes and weakening

power of nation states has stimulated the growth of strong local and regional

identities”. Moreover, “sport has been lauded by practitioners and scholars for its

ability to both transcend national borders and achieve local resonance” (Amis and

Cornwell, 2005: 2). It may therefore be valuable to examine the occurrence of

“glocalisation” (Robertson, 1995: 25) in the context of American football and the

United Kingdom. In existing literature, glocalisation seeks to address spatial

generalisations that are composed in globalisation narratives, instead contextualising

an evident locality (Robertson, 1995: 25). With regard to American football,

glocalisation invites geographic debate by approaching the temporal and spatial

dynamics of the sport’s emergence and re-emergence in the UK and the revised

strategies that are adopted to introduce the sport to a market in infancy.

2.4 Uneven UK Geographies

A thorough examination of the geographies of American football’s growth in the

United Kingdom requires an analysis of domestic variations. Coe and Jones’ (2010)

‘The Economic Geography of the UK’ outlines the principal spatial disparities in

financial, housing, agricultural and retail markets amongst others. However, the

fundamental concepts can be effectively applied to the sports industry on the whole

and to American football. The concluding remarks emphasise regional inequality in

the form of a North-South divide, an obstinate feature throughout the book. More

specifically, Coe and Jones (2010: 38) highlight how “London and the Southeast are

seen as constituting the ‘dynamo’ of the British economy, as the critical engine of

national growth”. The centrality of London at the heart of the economy accentuates

the core-periphery (CP) model, a model originally conceived to “show how economic

integration may lead to a dramatic increase in geographical concentration of

industrial production” (Forslid and Ottaviano, 2003). In more recent literature, the CP

model has been extended beyond industrial production, infiltrating the geographies of

intangible advanced producer services as well as those of entertainment medias

including film and music, but once again disregarding sport.

The attraction of corporations to core economic regions can be explained by their

concern with “market access” (Blackbourn, 2002: 150), associated with consumers

whom associate with a brand’s philosophy, coupled with a search for sustainable and

healthy profits. The resulting accumulation of capital (Peet, 2002: 280) and

14

investment can create an unrelenting ‘snowball-effect’ until an exogenous, or even

endogenous, shock to the market produces an imbalance. Instigated by Thatcher’s

Conservative government, the United Kingdom has rebranded economically, and

experienced a polarisation of market activity and the proliferation of London as not

only core to the domestic economy, but as a global city (Sassen, 1991). Sassen’s

(1991) label positions London alongside New York and Tokyo as the world’s other

global cities, the dynamic between which elicits parallels to the collaboration of the

NFL’s New York and London operations. Further to it’s status as a global city,

Beaverstock et al.’s (1999) categorisation of London as an alpha city in the GaWC

inventory reflects its importance in accountancy, advertising, banking and legal

markets (see Table 1). The research pursues a legitimisation of affixing the sports

market to debates of global cities as a congruent function in the economy.

The identification of London as a globally prevalent hub for both economic and

cultural activity is evidently not proximately focussed on sports business and

participation. As a result, it is crucial to avoid the oversimplification of the sport’s

geographies in retrospect of the work of Sassen (1991) as well as Coe and Jones

(2010). Conceptualisations such as the North-South divide condense composite

spatial variations into a single, reciprocal partition. Thus, the complexity of UK

sporting geographies necessitates a multi-scalar evaluation, from elite to grassroots

level, particularly with regards to the internationalisation of American football.

15

Author Major Global Cities Budd (1995) Tokyo, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt

Cohen (1981) Tokyo, London, Osaka, Paris, Rhine-Ruhr

Drennan (1996) London, New York, Tokyo

The Economist (1992) New York, Tokyo, London

The Economist (1998) London, New York, Tokyo

Feagin and Smith (1987) New York, London, Tokyo

Friedmann (1986) London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles

Friedmann (1995) London, New York, Tokyo

Friedmann and Wolff (1982) Tokyo, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, New York

Glickman (1987) New York, Tokyo, London, Paris

Hall (1966) London, Paris, Randstad, Rhine-Ruhr, Moscow, New York, Tokyo

Heenan (1977) Coral Gables (Miami), Paris, Honolulu

Hymer (1972) New York, London, Paris, Bonn, Tokyo

Knox 1995) and Knox (1996) London, New York, Tokyo

Lee and Schmidt-Marwede (1993)

London, New York, Tokyo

Llewelyn-Davies (1996) London, Paris, New York, Tokyo

Martin (1994) London, New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Chicago

Meyer (1986) New York, London, Paris, Zurich, Tokyo

Muller (1997) London, New York, Tokyo

O'Brien (1992) London, Frankfurt, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore

Reed (1981) London

Reed (1989) New York, London

Sassen (1991) New York, London, Tokyo

Sassen (1994a) and Sassen (1994b)

New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Frankfurt

Short et al. (1996) Tokyo, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt

Thrift (1989) New York, London, Tokyo

Warf (1989) New York, London, Tokyo

Table 1 - Major Global Cities. Source: Beaverstock et al., 1999

16

2.5 Sport Sociology

As previously asserted, there is a space in geographic literature for sport that should

be capitalised upon in order to advance the scope and modernity of the discipline.

Sport sociologists have probed debates of sport’s globalisation, focussing on the

socio-cultural stimuli and subsequent implications. Following rapid expansion

between the 1950s and 1970s (Luschen, 1980), sport sociology has progressively

verged toward geography and narratives of the presence of a “unitary culture” across

the world (Rowe et al., 1994: 662). Rowe et al. (1994: 662) assessed the empirical

dominance of the United States and how its “military, economic, political and cultural

power” has consolidated its global influence. Gupta’s (2009: 1779) confirmation of a

comparable dominance possessed by sporting institutions successfully entwines

cultural debates with those of power struggles and economic hegemony.

The importance of sport sociology must not be undermined, as it stipulates sport’s

central function in the global economy. Sport has long been evolving from an activity

of leisure into the commercialised and financially motivated entity it is today,

becoming more aligned with aspects of consumer capitalism (Hargreaves, 1986:

130). The inherent existence of transnational corporations (TNCs) as facilitators of

globalisation (Dicken, 2007: 107) is particularly apparent in relation to the growth of

American football and the NFL in the United Kingdom. Sponsorship revenue is an

indispensable tool in financing sport’s global movement, and one must identify the

source of investments and their targeted geographies in order to comprehend their

influence on the host nation. Hence, Giulianotti and Robertson (2004/2009) have

highlighted international investment and technological amelioration as potential

causes of the deterritorialisation of a sport from its geographical origin. In this case, it

is necessary to corroborate this hypothesis with American football in the UK.

2.5.1 American Football

American football has been cited in numerous medical journals regarding injury

rehabilitation, but relative to other sports has failed to grab the attention of academics

in a variety of disciplines. Non-medical academic literature focuses predominantly on

association football, considered a more universally established sport. Pioneering

academic Richard Giulianotti has published a number of articles and books on the

sociology of football, concentrating primarily on globalisation and instances of

17

violence, patterns of migration and sports policy (lboro.ac.uk, n.d.). The global

standing of football has dictated an examination of globalisation over an eclectic

spatial scale, moving beyond merely intra-national analysis. However, Joseph

Maguire, a colleague of Giulianotti, published a seminal article in 1990 specifically

about gridiron football in the United Kingdom. Maguire examines the significance of

American football’s advent in the United Kingdom, addressing the Americanisation of

the wider British culture. Having been published prior to the sport’s catastrophic

demise in the early 1990s, Maguire’s (1990) paper demands modernising, with the

changed dynamic of media and corporate relations and the sport’s ensuing

resurgence from 2007 to the present day.

18

3.0 Methodology

3.1 Introduction

The complex and diverse nature of geographical research has yielded an ever-

materialising requirement for a mixed-method approach (McKendrick, 1999; Graham,

1999). The utilisation of quantitative and qualitative methods (Cloke et al., 2004) can

assist in creating a greater breadth of understanding, and can counter a lack of pre-

existing research in a specific area of the geographic discipline (McKendrick, 1999).

With the creation of a scalar diversity, with relatively small-scale qualitative

microcosms and more macro quantitative population surveys, one can appreciate

both specificity and generality in research outcomes (Flowerdew, 1995). Distinctive

to this project, the adopted research methods were strategically devised around a

core and supporting structure. The core methods included, the conducting of semi-

structured interviews, the collection of questionnaire survey responses and

participant observation. On the other hand, the supporting methods compromised the

collection of visual and photographic material as well as the spatial analysis of

primary and secondary data. In order to critically appraise the adopted methodology,

I believe it necessary to examine each method respectively and address their

comparative contribution to the research objectives.

3.2 Semi-Structured Interviews

With a primary objective of investigating the internationalisation of American football

to the United Kingdom, semi-structured interviews facilitated the accumulation of

considerably more detailed and personalised responses (Bennett, 2001a; McDowell,

2010). The ability to elicit information conversationally (Dunn, 2005; Longhurst,

2010), as opposed to collating responses from homogenised questions, assists in

exposing a number of contradictory outlooks of current developments (Bennett,

2001a). In order to generate such discussion, it was necessary to meticulously

research and subsequently identify potential interviewees. An initial appreciation of

the United Kingdom’s key institutions in the sport enabled the creation of a shortlist of

individuals whom I believed could contribute significantly to the investigation.

Unfortunately a number of individuals, including representatives of BUCS (British

Universities & Colleges Sport), UK Sport and Sport England, were not available to be

19

interviewed. Even having persevered for length of time, ‘cold-emailing’ as opposed to

verbal communication over the telephone significantly detracted from the likelihood of

successful contact. A number of institutions identified do not provide the appropriate

contact details to allow verbal communication, meaning online techniques remained

critical to the investigation. However, these techniques yielded notable success, with

seven of the preliminarily identified candidates successfully contacted and

interviewed (see Table 1), five by means of email and another over the social media

platform, Twitter.

Before engaging in each interview, it was vital to identify fundamental information

that should be ascertained. To do so, one must undertake appropriate preparation

and structuring of not only relevant, but also candid and direct questions (Longhurst,

2010). It must be recognised that a number of core, uniform questions are also

necessary to facilitate the aforementioned discussion and potential for contradictory

responses. For example, a number of questions were formulated around the three

central research objectives outlined in the introduction (see Appendix C).

Alistair Kirkwood, Managing Director of NFL UK and arguably the most influential

figure in American football in the UK (see Appendix A), was the first participant. As a

result of his seniority, he assisted in contacting Neil Reynolds, whom also works at

NFL UK. It became immediately evident that one must capitalise on all available

Table 2 - List of semi-structured interviewees by name, company (position), interview date, interview location and method of contact

20

opportunities to network, particularly as an interview with Andy Fuller followed suit.

However, an identifiable shortfall of the research design was the inability to negotiate

a neutral setting (Valentine, 2005). Instead, the most convenient location for the

interviewees had to be adopted as a compromissory solution to the substantial

distance between Nottingham and London, the location of the majority of

interviewees.

Another undesirable aspect of the interview process, specifically related to the

discussion with Dan Humphreys, was a requirement to consider commercial

confidentiality as an employee of Jacksonville Jaguars UK. The potential for a

conscious restraint could have influenced the depth and candour of the recorded

responses. Nevertheless, the openness, sincerity and tone of the interviewee would

suggest that this conjectural outlook was unnecessary and that the results ought to

be treated as reliable and constructive. To conclude, I must assert that the

indispensable function of semi-structured interviews added significant value to the

outcomes of the research objectives. The abovementioned drawbacks of the

process of making contact and conducting interviews were far overshadowed by the

critical responses collated over the discussions in question.

3.3 Questionnaire Surveys

Where semi-structured interviews granted a professional and informed series of

responses to in-depth and critical questions, the distribution of questionnaire surveys

facilitated access to a more extensive and randomly sampled population. Further, as

described by Flowerdew and Martin (2005: 78), “the questionnaire survey is an

indispensable tool when primary data are required about people, their behaviour,

attitudes and opinions and their awareness of specific issues”.

With the recent re-emergence of American football into the diluted sphere of popular

sport in the UK, it was crucial to analyse its public perception and its relative position

comparable to existing and culturally substantiated sports. The standardisation of

‘closed’ questions (Cloke et al., 2004; Valentine, 2005) presents expedient

quantitative and comparable data sets. Online survey operators, in this instance

Survey Monkey, provide the platform to distribute surveys in addition to analysing

findings that are obtainable in succinct and comprehendible presentations. The

design of a questionnaire survey can be challenging, where consideration must be

allocated to the wording, length, complexity and involuntary bias of the questions

21

posed (McLafferty, 2010). However, having undertaken feasibility work by means of

a prior questionnaire survey, a number of questions had been effectively screened

and had not surface oversight or faults (see Appendix D).

Conversely, a number of limitations stemmed from an inability to target a broad and

demographically diverse population sample. With roughly three quarters of

respondents identifying themselves as male, there is a significant gulf in female

responses. Furthermore, with the online distribution of the survey and with an explicit

social media dissemination strategy, there was a marked under-representation of

individuals aged twenty-five and over, with 84% of the 371 respondents aged 18 to

24. Nevertheless, one must consider the demographic of the NFL’s target audience.

Perhaps a conscious emphasis is placed on a younger demographic in order to

produce a generation of advocates for an internationally established sport. The

output of the survey revealed an inadvertent geographic skew towards London and

the Southeast, constituting 56% of respondents’ inhabitancy. Nonetheless, the critical

requirement of a population-targeted survey provided valuable contrast to

professionalised ripostes by interviewees.

An omission from an initially constructed core methodology is the presence of focus

groups. Whereas focus groups can stimulate discussion between participants

(Longhurst, 2010) in a dynamic environment (Berg, 1989; Stewart and Shamdasani,

1990; Conradson, 2005), one may encounter difficulty in sampling correct individuals.

As a result of American football’s relative infancy in UK popular culture, a number of

people expressed concern for an inability to contribute to discussion with members of

the public more knowledgeable and educated in the sport. Unfortunately, with

restricted access to a diverse public, it was not feasible to conduct a focus group

purely constituting the sport’s fans, as the discursive direction could transpire as

partisan.

3.4 Participant Observation and Supportive Methods

Nevertheless, the final core methodological approach was participant observation. As

opposed to Crang’s (1994) “It’s Showtime” and the analysis of an individual’s

character or demeanour, attendance at American football fixtures and fan events

necessitated a more social examination (Laurier, 2010). As a follower of American

football, I was able to familiarise with social scenarios (Watson and Till, 2010) and

22

make “adequate judgements” (Laurier, 2010) of interactions occurring at each of the

events attended (see Table 2). As is evident, conducting participation observation

values personal opinion as opposed to an accumulation of interpretations. However

upon reflection, an internalised and emotionally reactive method created a

stimulating juxtaposition with public generalisations and professional insight.

In conjunction with the creation of a reflective diary (see Appendix E), simultaneous

photographic analysis facilitated the recording of sponsorship presence as well as

cultural adoptions of American football at the events in question. Additionally, the

utilisation of a geographic information system (GIS) enabled the “geo-visualisation”

(Aitken and Kwan, 2010: 287) of data collected on the International Series sponsors

(see Map 1), as well as the geographic distribution of American football teams in the

United Kingdom (see Map 2). The ability to cross-reference geo-visualisation with

participation statistics and survey results assists in uncovering potential areas of

recognition and those where the strategic implementation of American football has

failed. Peripheral and supporting methods, such as the use of a GIS, can effectively

corroborate with the aforementioned core methods, by establishing visual

representations that can be facilely comprehended and significantly contribute to the

success of the research objectives.

3.5 Data Handling

The personal information of interviewees and the collected data was securely stored

throughout and upon conclusion of this investigation. Prior to the completion of

analysis, the transcription of interviews and collation of questionnaire survey results

through the online platform Survey Monkey was completed.

Table 3 - List of events attended for participant observation, organising company, event date and event location

23

4.0 Analysis, Results and Discussion

4.1 The Internationalisation of American Football

Prior to exploring the facilitating factors of American football’s recent growth in the

United Kingdom, it is necessary to account for the tangible verification that has been

provided through both primary and secondary research. Since the inaugural NFL

International Series in 2007 (Deloitte, 2014), there has been a marked rise in

participation at club, University and grassroots levels, with approximately 40,000

playing individuals (Reynolds, 2014). University participation has witnessed

considerable growth since 2012 as the newest addition to the British Universities and

Colleges Sports programme (BUCS, n.d.). With 76 representative teams across

Britain, students have begun to select American football as opposed to adhering to

cultural expectations (Wood, 2014).

Within a broader perspective, the United Kingdom has a total of thirteen million fans

according to the Deloitte Report (2014: 6), representing a 30% rise since 2012. The

evident expansion of fandom in the United Kingdom correlates with the traffic

generated through the website nfl.com. In 2014, CMO Today reported that the UK

accounted for 2.39% of the site’s traffic, a percentage that has risen to 3.16%

(Similar Web, 2015) as recently as February of 2015. These statistics indicate that

the UK is currently positioned as nfl.com’s third most active market with the USA

Figure 1 - NFL International Series 2014, Wembley Stadium, London. Source: Getty Images/Ben Hoskins

24

(76.7%) and Canada (5.62%) situated above it. Neighbouring Mexico and the former

core market of NFL Europe, Germany, have fallen behind the United Kingdom,

currently each with a share of 1.61% (Similar Web, 2015).

According to questionnaire responses, over 90% of people in the UK have seen a

fixture in some form, be it broadcasted or live, further confirming the augmented

media activity. The preponderance of this cohort epitomises the NFL’s presence in

the United Kingdom as opposed to grassroots competition. Upon ranking a list of

sports in order of preference (see Appendix D), American football is placed fourth

behind football, rugby union and tennis. With consideration of the limited outreach of

the survey, the unforeseen result has the potential to act as a signpost for future

development in the UK. In the remainder of this section, I will assess the enabling

factors in the internationalisation of American football into the United Kingdom.

Alistair Kirkwood passionately described American football as “very colourful, very

much larger than life with better production qualities than any of our native sports”

(2014). The endearing features of the sport align with the expectations of an

Americanised society, often associated with spectacular entertainment and the

unification of multiple cultural commodities at the same time (Fuller, 2014). The

‘razzmatazz’ (Giulianotti, 2005a; Reynolds, 2014;) engineered by American football,

and in particular the NFL, has eased the sport’s transition to the UK, as the

population embrace an extravert derivative of those more culturally embedded sports

such as rugby union and association football.

As a “sport-loving country” (Kirkwood, 2014), the UK has experienced a growing

acceptance irrespective of a calamitous demise in the mid-1990s, where NFL fixtures

have emerged as “competitive for the sports dollar” (Reinebold, 2014). The sustained

grounding of American football has resulted from stabilised and enduring processes

of globalisation according to Kirkwood (2014), whereby the exponential rise of the

game in the 1980s represented a more volatile and insecure market evolution.

Described as ‘entertaining’ and branded as ‘show business’ in survey responses, the

UK market has adapted and begun to appreciate the sport on merit, instead of

targeting resistance in light of a challenge to preeminent and nationally treasured

sports. Consequently, one can identify characteristics of the sport’s advent that align

with the definition of globalisation provided by Dicken (2007), including the

manifestation of cross-border transactions and flows of intellectual capital.

25

4.1.1 Interactions of Time and Space

A consistent and identifiable trend that emerged from conducting semi-structured

interviews was the importance of technological advances in allegorically pulling the

US and the UK together. This confluence has occurred two-fold, conceptually

labelled time-space compression and time-space convergence. Time-space

convergence is concerned with the aerospace industry, articulated (Janelle, 1969:

351) as “the way in which improvement in transport technologies have the effect of

'moving' places within settlement systems towards one another over time”. The

ingenuity of engineers and technicians in aerospace has significantly contributed to

the metaphorical ‘shrinking’ of the world (Reinebold, 2014), vastly reducing travel

times. With regard to American football, the physical act of travelling between the US

and the UK is becoming increasingly effortless, with journey durations as short as

seven hours. An evident development is the temporal likeness between intra-national

travel in the US from theWest coast to theEast coast, and international travel from

theEast coast to London and the UK.

Summarised effectively by Reynolds (2014): “If you’re the New York Giants and

you’re going to play in London or you’re going to play in Seattle it’s no different”. The

convergence of the two nations, and specifically the world cities of London and New

York (Sassen, 1991), has facilitated the expansion of numerous aspects of American

football in the UK, including fandom, spectatorship and participation. Logistically,

aerospace technologies have afforded the NFL the opportunity to host regular

season fixtures across different geographies without disrupting schedules and

burdening teams with the threat of physical tiredness. The classification of London as

America’s “extendedEast coast” (Humphreys, 2014), and as the UK’s New York

(Reynolds, 2014) has catalysed the materialisation of such a profound group of NFL

supporters and fans, and this increased exposure has bred a generation of players

that is set to grow in the years to come.

On the other hand, time-space compression, referred to by Harvey (1989), signifies

the progression of communicative mechanisms in permeating geographic spaces.

The proliferation of media technologies has aided the immediate bridging between

the UK and the US. Furthermore, these technologies are able to comprehensively

reach the geographic breadth of domestic consumers in the UK, as opposed to being

centred in locales of infrastructural development. Acting as a powerful mechanism in

disseminating messages and content across the world (Humphreys, 2014), UK

26

consumers are exposed to a wealth of multi-media applications and online content in

order to engage thoroughly with live streams and breaking news (Joseph, 2013). The

transcendence of physical space, and the elimination of a wholly geographic barrier

to the consumption of American football, has occupied a void that was present in the

1980s and the early 1990s. As a result, fans can access an equivalent depth of

information “sitting in their house in Cardiff or London as they can sitting in New York

or Miami” (Reynolds, 2014).

4.1.2 Cultural Convergence

“Anglo-American relations…are deeply rooted in the histories of these countries”

(Maguire, 1990: 216). As a substantiation of Maguire’s (1990) stance in his seminal

paper, I believe much of the success of the American football’s internationalisation

can be attributed to cultural parallels between the UK and the US. With the exception

of Canada, the UK has the closest historical association (Reinebold, 2014) to the US,

and architects such as the English language have enabled the facile translation of

cultural commodities, including sport. Americanisms, or instances of American

societal imitation, have appeared more frequently as a component of everyday life in

the UK. Accordingly, an intensely synergised cultural relationship has been forged

between the two nations.

NFL on Regent Street is an annual event, staged as a prequel to the first

International Series fixture of the season. Whereby Maguire (1990: 214) reconfirms

that Americanisation as a theoretical concept is oversimplifying, the NFL on Regent

Street event instead discloses the bilateral nature of the aforementioned cultural

synergy. In 2014, an estimated 600,000 people attended the event

(Regentstreetonline.com, n.d.), whereby one of London’s, if not the UK’s, most iconic

streets was closed. Representing more than just sport, the amalgamation of the NFL,

a piece of ‘Americana’ (Reynolds, 2014), and Regent Street, a piece of British

iconicity, provides evidence for the marked interrelation of British and American

culture.

In line with the consumption of the NFL and the sponsorship activation of its

international partners, is the apparent Americanisation of the high street. Retail

outlets border the streets, as consumers congregate in stores such as Apple and

Nike, icons of American consumerism. As expressed by Campbell (2014), we

subconsciously buy into, figuratively and literally, American products and brands. The

27

NFL is no exception. Acting primarily as a profit-motivated organisation, the NFL

ought to be classified comparably to other transnational corporations (TNCs), as

advocated by Maguire (2011b).

4.1.3 Capital Investment

Owing to its business functionality, the NFL explicitly is reliant on the injection of

capital investment in order to stimulate growth in the UK (Maguire, 1990: 232). As

suggested by Fuller (2014), capital investment reduces barriers to entry, especially

with the obligation of extensive advertisement campaigns. Due to the relative

absence of a commercially active University structure resembling that present in

America, corporations have pursued the elite level as the principal target for

generating revenue. Furthermore, with an overarching goal of “reaching $27 billion

revenue by 2027” (Joy, 2014), the NFL’s commercial directors lack consideration for

sub-professional participation, instead pursuing lucrative sponsorship contracts.

Figure 2 - NFL on Regent Street, London. Source: Jonathan Phillips

28

Globalisation narratives stress the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI). As a

result, it was beneficial to conduct a country of origin analysis of the NFL’s

International Series and UK sponsors (see Map 1). Domestically, there is a distinct

clustering of company headquarters in the Southeast of England, with only a single

sponsor situated outside of London. Only four of the eighteen sponsors’ (22%)

headquarters are situated in the UK, a clear indicator of the foreign capital injection

required for the International Series to function. The remaining funding is sourced

from the US, spanning headquarters located in twelve different states, from the

Pacific Southwest to Massachusetts on the AtlanticEast coast. As is evident, the NFL

performs as a transnational corporation, and simultaneously acts as the catalyst for

an influx of FDI and as a platform for the globalisation of other multinational

corporations (see Figure 3). IEG’s report depicts the collaborative globalisation of

businesses such as Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) and VISA, whom have invested in

the International Series in the UK. In summary, capital investment has contributed to

the intensified fusion of the UK and US sporting economies.

29

Figure 3 - NFL Sponsorship Revenue Totals, 2013. Source: IEG.

30

4.2 Limitations to Growth in the United Kingdom

An influx of capital investment, an historical resemblance culturally and a period of

deteriorating spatial barriers have failed, however, to comprehensively embed the

sport in the UK (Wood, 2014). Consequently, there is a significant amount of work is

required if American football is going to compete with other peripheral sports in the

market. With approximately 40,000 participants a month, American football is far-

removed from sports such as swimming and association football which have an

average of 2.7 million and 1.9 million per week (Sport England, n.d.). This section

comprises a discussion of potential causes for the relatively restricted growth of an

American sport into the UK, including its exportability, the presence of sporting

nationalism and the extent to which internal anti-Americanisation has subtly

developed.

4.2.1 Exportability of American Football

‘Slow’, ‘tedious’, ‘complicated’. Survey respondents, when asked to describe

American football in one word, used these adjectives, reflecting a clear negativity

towards the sport. Contrary to aforementioned labelling as ‘exciting’ and

‘entertaining’, 26.6% of participants had only watched American football once over

the course of the year, most likely embodying those whom engaged in the

fashionable practice of watching the Super Bowl. Aside from criticism over the

attributes of the game, a large proportion of condemnation is directed at its business

orientation. Since the end of the First World War, sport has undergone progressive

stages of commercialisation (Hargreaves, 1986; Maguire, 1990). To this end,

professional sport in the modern era is inextricably affiliated with sponsorships and

promotional ventures. From apparel to the advertising hoardings surrounding the

pitch or court, the commerciality spans not only the professional game but also filters

down to the grassroots level.

However, the NFL has been identified as over-commercialised, with surveys

revealing an inherent aversion to the number of advertisements. The NFL, as a

commercial entity, is a “product pusher” (Fuller, 2014). Its contractual obligation to

provide a promotional platform for its domestic and international partners means that

it must exploit all available intermissions during a game. Whereas in the UK, there is

an historic exclusion of in game, broadcasted promotion, hindering its introduction

with the concern of spectator repercussions. Upon reflection, I believe this concern is

31

based on an assumption made by primitive consumers of the sport. Take tennis as

an example, whereby there is a pause of between thirty to forty seconds between

points (Kirkwood, 2014), the same period of time that passes between downs in the

NFL. During this period, consumers are exposed to pre-constructed stadia

advertisements, where promotional messages are often experienced subliminally as

opposed to being forcefully exhibited. It is therefore apparent that the sporting

economies of the UK and the US are intertwined with bilateral flows of capital and the

translation of commercial approaches.

4.2.2 Sporting Nationalism

As encountered so far, there is an ever-increasing economic parallelism and cultural

resemblance between the UK and the US. However, a social construction of sporting

nationalism inhibits the further development of American football in the UK. Sporting

nationalism, or otherwise an allegiance toward local and national sports (Giulianotti,

2005a; Roy, 2013), devises competition between those that are imported and those

that have been culturally embedded since their inception. In this instance, one can

examine a colloquial contest between football and ‘football’. Association football is

part of the fabric of everyday life in the UK (Wood, 2014), devoid of spatial clustering

and distinct geographies. Bred from an early age, football is engrained in the younger

generations through childhood and adolescence, brandishing less prevalent sports

such as American football as pariah.

The favourability for domestic cultural icons is reflected in the United States, with the

confined growth of soccer as a result of a reproduced resistance to the British Empire

and colonisation (Kirkwood, 2014). With concurrent themes of strong nationalist

sentiment as well as cynicism created by historical periods of power struggle and

domination, sports can become spatially and geographically insular. From the

perspective of the UK population, the values of entertainment and skill in sport are

esteemed, regardless of socio-economic and political relations with the country of

origin. However, there is evidence of a condemnation of the ‘over-Americanised’

ideals that are produced and circulated by the NFL. Reinebold (2014) inexplicably

labels the over-Americanisation of cultures as “dangerous”, and inherently linked to

the operations of transnational corporations such as McDonald’s and Apple. An

online poll conducted by the Mirror (2015) concluded that 86% of UK citizens thought

that “we” are adopting too many Americanisms. The anti-American sentiment

32

communicated by the article is reinforced by the concluding sentence, “So, let’s not

be the 51st US State” (Mirror, 2015).

Despite a genetic predisposition to association football and the relatively benign

presence of American sports including basketball and gridiron football, I assert that

sporting nationalism has a diminished prevalence in the 21st century. With American

football ranked fourth behind football, rugby union and tennis amongst survey

participants, it is apparent that sporting anti-American sentiment is a dated concept,

particularly since the inception of the International Series in 2007 (Reynolds, 2014).

The progressive decline of America’s economic superpower status, and an internal

appreciation of the UK’s position in global economic and sporting hierarchies, has

given birth to a generation primed to receive imported products as long as they are

perceived to benefit and not exploit the consumer.

Regardless of an ameliorated cultural and economic collaboration between the UK

and the US, one must question whether sport is fundamentally different to other

cultural influences. Sport is a characterised by a network interlaced with key players

and spaces, as opposed to select footloose corporations that preside over the

industry. The cultivation of this integrated network can be attributed to the

international production of sports, and their collective appreciation across all spatial

scales. For example, there is asymmetric information concerning the derivation of

American football. Those expressing anti-American sentiment should be well

informed that the sport stemmed from elements of association football and rugby

union, both intrinsically English (Campbell, 2014; Kirkwood, 2014). In this way, sport

and American football can be “used as a way of knocking down cultural barriers”

(Reinebold, 2014).

The stoutest deterrent of relevant nationalist sentiment is the strategic outlook of the

NFL and its UK establishment. The corporation seeks to avoid direct competition with

domestic sports (Kirkwood, 2014; Reynolds, 2014), and is content to fill a void in the

sport market as a secondary outlet to those whom have already identified their

favourite. On the contrary, transnational corporations in sales driven markets, such

as food and drink, seek industry supremacy and often liquidate local products and

businesses in the process (Reinebold, 2014). The NFL’s approach of forming

relations with other sports, hoping to engage existing fans, furthers the contemporary

direction toward debates of glocalisation. In order to ease the translation of the sport,

one of NFL UK’s primary objectives is to customise the experience to the UK

33

consumer by fulfilling the market’s requirements (Kirkwood, 2014). The model of

entrepreneurial adaptation and tailored marketing by the NFL is replicable for the

majority of transnational corporations as an effective mechanism for penetrating new

and geographically diverse spaces.

4.2.3 Internal Resistance

Irrespective of tangible success made by the NFL and the BAFA, internal anti-

Americanisation could act as the ultimate constraint on the sports growth in the UK.

Internal anti-Americanisation denotes the loathed exportation of American sports to

countries around the world. A fear of ‘letting go’ (Reinebold, 2014), and a naivety to

fervent and receptive markets that can elevate a sport on a global platform, is

present in the domestic American football community. As articulated by Kirkwood

(2014), “Fans in the native country tend to be conservative and resent ‘their’ sport

being taken across the world as opposed to relishing and anticipating its mass

expansion”.

This ‘jealousy’ (Reinebold, 2014) is confirmed in a poll conducted by NBC Sports,

with 58% of the 12,446 voters supporting the termination of NFL fixtures played in

London (Pro Football Talk, 2014). A further 19% favoured maintaining the current

format as opposed to prospective expansionary measures. In geographic literature,

narratives of resistance focus primarily on the experiences of those in countries

where processes of globalisation have occurred. On the contrary, the emergence of

internal anti-Americanisation would appear to suggest that nations of origin also

experience resistance, and it would be worthwhile investigating similar occurrences

across multiple cultural commodities.

34

4.3 Uneven Geographies of UK American Football

Having assessed the barriers to entry that face American football, one must refer to

the contemporary geographies of its development. In order to effectively accomplish

this, it was beneficial to identify discrete spatial scales of participation and fandom.

Firstly, the national scale comprises the operations of the NFL and the International

Series. Next, the regional scale encompasses sub-professional participation in towns

and cities across the UK, seeking to identify areas of elevated demand, and

conversely areas of neglect. Finally, the study of the local scale aims to harness

trends amongst the national and regional scales and assess the substantial focus of

the sport in London.

4.3.1 National Scale

“We get quite a bit of stick when we announce that we are hosting events around

London…’why is it always in London?’” (Reynolds, 2014). In the United Kingdom, the

NFL is geographically clustered in London [see chapter 4.3.3]. With the International

Series fixtures, NFL on Regent Street and the Trafalgar Square fan rally all hosted in

London, there is an evident neglect for the remainder of the United Kingdom. The

NFL utilises supra-geographical techniques, the dissemination of information through

media channels and information technologies, to access the whole of the UK market.

With reference to Graham’s (1998: 165) discussion of information technologies and

space and place, the strategic outreach of NFL UK contributes to both the “end of

geography” and the “explosion of place”. Regarding the end of geography, media

technologies have enabled instantaneous transcendence of space. However, the

primary objective of geographically diverse marketing is to increase sales of tickets

and merchandise, both of which revert back to London as the agglomerated centre

for the NFL’s endeavours.

However, NFL UK maintains that their operations encompass the entirety of the

United Kingdom, irrespective of criticism associated with skew of activity towards

London. According to the NFL’s European Director of Public Affairs, David Tossell,

over 60% of attendees at the International Series fixtures at Wembley live within two

hours of the stadium, but almost every UK postcode is represented each year.

Moreover, to date, NFL UK has hosted fan rallies in Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh

and Birmingham (Reynolds, 2014). With the combination of a strong social media

presence and regular broadcasting on Sky Sports and Channel 4, one may contend

35

hypotheses derived from the literature and that the geographies of the NFL were set

to be imbalanced.

Nevertheless, it is irrefutable that the locality of the International Series is confined to

London, and Deloitte’s (2014) report abridges the Series’ economic geographies

based upon data collected from 2013. The three fixtures generated approximately

£32 million for the London economy, with a gross value added (GVA) of £21 million,

a figure that encompasses 88% of the total GVA for the United Kingdom. With only

17% of spectators living in London, there is a significant investment from non-local

residents, with approximately £20.5 million being spent over the course of the 2013

Series. The nucleic focusing on London and the introverted economic concentration

of the Series is further confirmed by Deloitte’s (2014: 10) précis:

“There is undoubtedly a potential upside to these estimates, as it is likely that

at least some of the c.30,000 London spectators who chose to spend money

on the International Series games they attended might otherwise have spent

this outside London, thus retaining expenditure in the local economy”.

4.3.2 Regional Scale

Map 2 shows the distribution of adult, contact American football teams for men,

women and university students in the United Kingdom. Fuller (2014), of the BAFA,

provided a complete list of clubs, and coordinate geometry was manually resourced

and input into the GIS. Contrary to the trends that emerged from the national scale

analysis, activity on a regional scale reveals a diverse coverage throughout England.

However, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland are significantly underdeveloped in

comparison, with none, four and thirteen teams respectively. Aside from well-defined

clustering in the most populous cities, such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, there is

considerable opportunity for growth that has not been exploited thus far.

Stretching from Falmouth to Aberdeen, there is considerable reach of the sport

across the UK, providing a geographically comprehensive regional platform for

participation and fandom. There are identifiable groups centred on the UK’s largest

cities, notably Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle,

most likely due to infrastructural development and financial resources. One can

identify the Midlands as a highly concentrated area, with an extensive presence in

more developed towns and cities, including Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham.

36

Nonetheless, and consistent with developments at the national scale, sub-

professional participation is most pronounced in the Southeast, and distinctively in

London. Representative of the rest of the United Kingdom, London acts as a

microcosm of a nationwide demographic skew toward males. With a higher density of

men’s and University clubs, and a distinct lack of women’s organisations across the

UK (fourteen), American football remains patently gendered (Maguire, 1990).

As previously stated, the role of capital is fundamental to the growth of American

football in the UK. Figure 4, however, identifies capital investment in the form of grant

funds as opposed to sponsorship revenue, which is provided by the National Lottery.

As a result of the collaboration of National Lottery grant funds with Sport England,

the data is spatially confined to regions in England as opposed to the UK.

London and the Southeast is lucidly the most generously granted region in England,

with £117,610 of funding between April 2009 and June 2014. As indicated by the

superimposed trend line, there is a progressive decline in funding in more Northern

regions of England, confirming a North-South divide similar to that identified by Coe

and Jones (2010). The Southwest andEast of England were granted a similar value

of funding, approximately £75,000. However, the NorthEast of England received only

£18,632 over the course of the five-year period, a total comparable to 15.8% of the

funds made available in London and the Southeast.

£0

£20,000

£40,000

£60,000

£80,000

£100,000

£120,000

£140,000

London & SE South West East of England

The Midlands

Yorkshire and The Humber

North West North East

Nat

iona

l Lot

tery

Aw

ards

Val

ue

Region

Figure 2 - National Lottery Awards (GBP) to American football teams per region of England, April 2009 to June 2014. Source: Sport England

37

Regardless of grant funding by the National Lottery, new teams and leagues are

being constructed across the UK (Reynolds, 2014), with ten men’s teams currently in

infancy (Fuller, 2014). A significant proportion of the geographic expansion can be

apportioned to the growth of the BUCS league, allowing students across the UK to

access the necessary facilities (Wood, 2014). Where growth may be apparent across

an extensive space, the sport’s geographies remain inherently uneven and

concentrated in London.

4.3.3 Local Scale

Attributed with the greatest number of clubs, as well as hosting the International

Series fixtures annually, London is undoubtedly the hub for American football in the

United Kingdom. Whether intentionally, or as a by-product of the socio-economic

geographies of the UK (Kirkwood, 2014), London’s status as a world city and world

leader for sport is reconfirmed. Reynolds (2014) argues it is as a result of London’s

reputation as a world city that it was selected by the NFL to be the centre of its

international operations. Labelled as “our New York” (Reynolds, 2014), London’s

notoriety as a globally significant player in the world economy and as a culturally

unique city creates a vibrant market that the NFL was keen to exploit (Humphreys,

2014).

There are a number of factors, other than hierarchical status, that have been

highlighted as probable reasons for the materialisation of London as the sport’s

capital city in the UK. Firstly, population dynamics in the United Kingdom attract

transnational corporations to London as not only the most vibrant, but also the most

substantial market (Campbell, 2014; Fuller, 2014). According to the Greater London

Authority, London’s population currently amasses 8.6 million people (BBC News,

2015), a figure that is set to rise to eleven million by 2050 (BBC News, 2014). The

next most populous city, Birmingham, with 1,085,400 people in the 2012 mid-year

estimate (Birmingham.gov.uk, n.d.), is approximately an eighth of the size of London.

Logistically, London is endowed with superior transport infrastructure compared to

any other city in the United Kingdom, accompanied by the largest sporting facility,

Wembley Stadium. With a full capacity of 90,000, reduced to 85,000 for the

International Series, Wembley is globally recognisable as the home of English

association football and stands as a national sporting icon. The ability to combine

38

sporting and transport infrastructure establishes an attractive proposition for NFL

franchises. Teams approve of reduced travel times and logistically straightforward

operations whilst participating in the International Series. To refer back to the

function of transnational corporations in shaping the global economy, one can draw

similarities in the allures that trigger the conception of new business overseas.

Dicken (2007: 106) emphasises how transnational corporations identify factors of

production, including natural resources, capital and labour, as well as state politics,

characterised by taxes, trade barriers and subsidies. Alongside aforementioned

infrastructural assets, London boasts the highest concentration of labour and capital,

and the NFL has received political endorsement from both national and mayoral

organisations.

Irrespective of the abundance of evidence in favour, Wood (2014) asserts “London

isn’t necessarily a hotbed for American football”. His assertion is based upon UK-

wide participation and attendance at Wembley games characterised by a geographic

outreach of almost every postcode. In retrospect, Wood is correct. An expanding

cohort of “evangelists” (Humphreys, 2014) playing the game and an extensive

spectatorship of thirteen million (Deloitte, 2014: 6) combine to depict a geographically

widespread American football landscape. However, historically established sports

have embedded themselves across a spatially diverse area of the UK, but have been

able to resist agglomeration into a single city and developed a more substantiated

number of participants than 40,000.

39

5.0 Conclusion

Historically, popular sports emerged from their European origins by means of an

imperial expansionist authority (Maguire, 2011a: 924). Following the end of the

Second World War, an observable reversal occurred, with an influx of non-European

sports derived from colonial nations, namely the US. Unsuccessful attempts to

engrain American sports in UK culture prior to the turn of the century had led us to

believe there would be a continuance of such failure. Nevertheless, the perseverance

of the NFL since the inaugural International Series in 2007 has yielded notable and

durable success. With a participatory body of an estimated 40,000 individuals, the

BAFA has experienced a meteoric rise over the past eight years and estimates a

prolonged cycle of growth. An approximation of thirteen million American football

fans (Deloitte, 2014: 6), encompassing around 20% of the UK’s 64.1 million

inhabitants (ONS, n.d.), is evidence for a patent reality of the sport’s successful

embedding into a spatially differentiated territory. Sky and Channel 4’s 20% year-on-

year increase in season-long television ratings (O’Reilly, 2011) depicts the improved

media existence that assists in the transcendence of space and the attraction of a

geographically diverse population.

American football’s development in the UK aligns significantly with previous

perceptions of the processes in which globalisation has occurred. These processes

include the flight of capital, the growing global interdependence of economies with

increased trade activity and the metaphoric foreshortening of physical distance by

means of communicative technologies. The NFL is no longer a geographically insular

corporation, and the sport is no longer seen in isolation in the US (Bairner, 2001). It

is imperative that sport, as a culturally significant commodity, is brought to the fore of

academic debate, as it is intimately conjoined with the geographies of culture and

empire, as well as the economy.

Irrespective of statistical progress, American football has engaged in a “35-year

charge that has had limited success to date” (Joy, 2014). In the context of UK sport

in its entirety, the observed growth has been negligible, and not to the detriment of

traditionally reputable sports, an observation that allies with Maguire’s in 1990. There

is evidence to suggest that processes of resistance remain, both internally and

externally. In the United States, the ascension of past desires to “dissociate

American football from British sport” (Roy, 2013) and a fear of relinquishing the sport

to an international audience have constructed a cohort of antagonists to the sport’s

40

transatlantic exportation. Contrarily, a microcosm of residents in the United Kingdom

act as adversaries to an imported product, American football, as a consequence of

sporting nationalism and a favourability for association football in particular.

A traditional assessment of national cultures evoked “’something’ into which a person

is born” (Maguire, 2011b: 979). However, it is apparent that the manifestation of

sporting nationalism is waning as we are afforded the power to determine our own

cultural representation. Spatially, these determinations are distinctive of a particular

region, compounding to form a geographically diverse sporting landscape. American

football and the NFL do not provide an abnormality to this précis, and London can be

identified as the centroid of its existence. Despite a progression in the spatial

distribution of teams across the UK, the presence of the NFL in London has

catalysed a tangible skew in the sport’s geography. Whether as a result of pre-

ordained economic and social disparities, or as a consequence of the pursuit for

sustainable European growth, London has emerged as the international capital for

American football and the NFL.

5.1 Limitations

There are a number of limitations that inhibited the depth of research and as a result

the extent to which the objectives could be achieved. The limited scope of literature

concurrent with thematic references to geography and sport constrained the

utilisation of theoretical content. Subsequently, a greater emphasis was placed upon

primary research, and the cooperation of a national sporting body, such as Sport

England or UK Sport, would have added significant value to the findings. A more

geographically diverse population survey sample would have provided indispensable

detail of the extent that residents outside of London contest the sport’s concentration

to a confined space. Having focussed the investigation explicitly on American

football, it became apparent that there is a limited group of individuals whom possess

the necessary expertise to provide valuable contribution to the research. As a result,

it would have been productive to compile a contrasting evaluation of another sport

such as basketball or conversely soccer’s translation to the United States.

5.2 Further Study

There are a number of opportunities to further the research performed throughout

this investigation, including apertures that may require addressing in the years

41

following. Leading the metaphorical “front line” for the NFL (Kirkwood, 2014), the UK

has the potential to provide a concrete platform for a permanent fixture, in the form of

a franchise. With the ability to realise the full extent to which the sport has been

internationalised, it would be worthwhile examining the geographic impact,

economically and socially, of a UK franchise if it were to manifest. “Enhancing the

profile of an already world-leading city” (Deloitte, 2014: 23) could stress existing

uneven geographies and further relegate remote areas of the UK. Even where 61%

of survey participants believed the franchise would not establish, the experts

disagree, and the next decade will be telling.

The natural progression following the internationalisation of American football is an

extension toward globalisation. The NFL has identified a number of potentially

receptive markets, including China, Canada, Japan and Mexico (Joy, 2014),

alongside a subsidiary focus in Germany and Brazil. Rather than merely the

“gateway to Europe” (Joseph, 2014), the UK may act as a springboard for a globally

existent sport (Reynolds, 2014). Conversely, the sport could suffer a decline

comparable to its collapse in the mid-1990s (Wood, 2014). Where Kirkwood (2014)

asserts American football is more permanently rooted, the sports market experiences

cyclical periods of growth, decline and redesign (Smart, 2005: 30). The London 2012

Olympics verifies the sporadic popularity of individual sports, with a visibly failed

legacy for swimming in particular. Equally, regarding American football, the most

recent APS recorded a decline in participation of over 3,000 between October 2013

and the same month in 2014 (Sport England, n.d.). To conclude, even having

experienced exponential growth over the last eight years, I advise the continued

research of American football’s existence in the UK, and I hope that it will assist in

facilitating an academic geography of sport.

42

Maps

Map 1 – NFL International Series Sponsors 2014……………………………………...43

Map 2 – American Football Teams in the UK…………………………………………...44

43

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

! !

!

!

!

! !

!

!

Esr

i, H

ER

E, D

eLor

me,

Map

myI

ndia

, © O

penS

treet

Map

con

tribu

tors

, and

the

GIS

use

r com

mun

ity

Ü

Map

Sho

win

g th

e H

eadq

uart

er L

ocat

ions

of N

FL U

K's

O

ffici

al In

tern

atio

nal S

erie

s Sp

onso

rs in

201

4

Lege

nd!

NFL

UK

_Spo

nsor

s_H

eadq

uarte

rs

057

01,

140

1,71

02,

280

285

Mile

s

Coo

rdin

ate

Sys

tem

: GC

S W

GS

1984

Dat

um: W

GS

198

4U

nits

: Deg

ree

44

!

!

!!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!!

! !!

!!

!

!

!

!

!!

!

!!

!

!!

!!

!

!

! !

!!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!!

!

!!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!!!

!!

!!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

Esri, HERE, DeLorme, MapmyIndia, © OpenStreetMap contributors, andthe GIS user community

Map Showing the Distribution of Full Contact American Football Teamsfor Adult Men, Adult Women and University Students in the United Kingdom

Ü

0 40 80 120 16020Miles

Legend! Mens_Contact_Teams

! Womens_Contact_Teams

! University_Contact_Teams

Coordinate System: GCS WGS 1984Datum: WGS 1984Units: Degree

45

Appendices

Appendix A: Interviewee Biographies Alistair Kirkwood is Managing Director of NFL UK, overseeing commercial activity,

television rights and the logistical organisation of the NFL’s International Series.

Having worked previously outside the world of the sport, Kirkwood joined the NFL in

2000 and has since progressed to the most senior member of the sport’s UK office.

Neil Reynolds is a leading journalist for NFL UK as well as a columnist and presenter

for Sky Sports NFL. With a wealth of journalistic experience, and growing up as a fan

in the 1980s, Neil is one of the UK’s most intuitive minds when it comes to the NFL.

Jeff Reinebold is currently an expert panellist on Sky Sports NFL and the special

teams coordinator for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League. Jeff

previously held a position as Senior Manager of International Player Development for

NFL Europe, giving him great familiarity with the globalisation of American football

and its introduction into the European market.

Andy Fuller is Director for Student Football Development at the British American

Football Association, the national governing body and the overseer of grassroots to

club level participation.

Philip Wood is a Club Development Coordinator and the University of Nottingham

and is also the Head Coach of the University’s American Football Club. Having been

brought up during the 1980s with siblings playing the game, Phil has developed a

profound level of expertise and has assisted in the dramatic growth of the sport in

Nottingham.

Dan Humphreys is Director of Content at Fast Track, as well as the PR Manger for

the Jacksonville Jaguars UK office. With direct exposure to the UK operations of an

NFL franchise, Dan possesses an acute knowledge of American football as well as a

great passion for its growth in the United Kingdom.

Christopher Campbell previously held a position as Club Development Coordinator at

the University of Nottingham, but recently moved across the city to become a

Performance Sport Manager at Nottingham Trent University.

46

Appendix B: Sample Email Correspondence

47

Appendix C: Sample Interview Transcript Jonathan Phillips: Where did your passion for the NFL and American Football come from as

an Englishman?

Interviewee: It started like a lot of people watching it [the NFL] on Channel 4 in the 1980s,

there was a lot of attention on Dan Marino and coming into the league just the year before. So

I just sort of got into on TV then I was playing the game, played for 10 years, I was a reporter

for a local newspaper but wanted to work in American Football so worked for First Down,

which was a newspaper, for three years and then onto the NFL and then from there to BBC

Radio and then Sky Sports. So [I was] very lucky to have started as a fan like so many just

watching it on TV in the 80s and sort of the spectacle of it is something we hadn’t really seen

before, the [sort of] entertainment side of it with the sport, the Americana. The commentators

got so excited about everything so that got me hooked and I was lucky enough to turn it into a

job, so its certainly been a fun journey and a good time now to be working in the sport.

JP: Do you think it’s now as important as ever attracting fans through the TV, social media

and other digital channels?

IN: Yeah I do think so, I think the big driver has been the regular season games, because it

brings that attention like the way the NFL takes over Regent Street like last year or Trafalgar

Square, that makes people sit up and take notice but then you need somewhere to go after

that or they need to be introduced to the sport. I think Sky Sports is very important, I think

Channel 4 is super important because its terrestrial TV, it’s just a broader audience so I do

think the power of television helps grow the game and now with social media you can be

much more approachable, you can answer questions from people, you know we have

podcasts here at NFL UK, there’s various ways that people can catch the sport and to be

honest they can get as much access to American Football now due to the Internet and the

way everything runs. They can get as much sitting in their house in Cardiff or London as they

can sitting in New York or Miami.

JP: I read somewhere that the growth of the sport and its embedding into a nation is defined

by people demanding regular updates and news rather than just the actual fixtures. Do you

think that’s the case as well and that that’s started to come about?

IN: Yeah I think people want to be treated as if they are knowledgeable and wanted to be

respected. Now sometimes you want to, not dumb it down, but you have to be open to new

fans and you’ve got to be able to explain things along the way to new fans because you want

more in, you want to grow the game but those who are already fans want to be treated with

respect and treated like they know the game inside out so they don’t just want a ‘fluffy this is

48

how the game is being played this week’, they want to dive into it a little bit and get some of

the tactical side of things and the news that comes out. You know I think the fan base here is

very knowledgeable.

JP: Is that the principal focus of Sky? I remember around the Super Bowl last season there

was an educational feature before the game where people were taught the rules of the game

a couple of weeks beforehand [during the Playoffs] but then when it gets down to crunch time

in the Super Bowl, you get inundated with information and its full-on. There are the numerous

characters, you as an Englishman being relatable to the audience but then Kevin [Cadle] and

Cecil Martin and the American commentators, bringing a mixture of the two.

IN: Yeah I think so, for example I really enjoy working with Jeff [Reinebold], that’s why we

work together on the podcast. I think Jeff can go deep into the tactical side of things and give

that analysis that only a coach can see. He’s been a professional coach for 30 years. You and

I could watch a game with him now and he would see things that we just don’t see. It’s just

the way it is, that’s his profession, that’s what he does. The thing I bring to that is I know all

the players around the league, all the stories, all the ins and outs of the news and then I think

my role is also to be that person sitting at home who doesn’t know every single piece of

terminology. So if Jeff starts going into ‘Elephant’ defences or zone blitzes or whatever then it

is my job to say “well ok what is that?” because if you’re so exclusive and you don’t bring in

new people, if you kind of fill it with terminology and you don’t explain that along the way your

casual viewers will disappear and I think that’s important. It’s a balancing act, I just want to

talk [American] football, talk about the game as we see it and the stats and things that we see

but you do sort of have to bring people with you, I think that’s very important.

JP: Numbers wise, how have you seen viewership and participation grow not only in the work

here at NFL UK but also your work with Sky?

IN: Yeah I mean I don’t have the exact numbers but I know over the last three or four years

Sky’s viewing figures […], the viewing figures have gone up year-on-year, the number of

responses we get, followers on Twitter etcetera continues to rise, grassroots participation […]

is rising year-on-year, I think 40,000 play American football now. So every little different

aspect of it that you pick is still going like that [depicts upward trend] and hasn’t levelled off.

All the while that’s happening the NFL will continue to explore this market.

JP: As much as it is obviously growing at a rapid rate, 40,000 compared to the population that

play sports like association football is a small fraction. Do you think there are specific barriers

that could be cultural, cost-related and others?

49

IN: Yeah I think that the thing is mostly that first of all, you’re still growing the fan base so you

need to…you’re not working off a massive fan base where everyone knows what soccer is.

The big challenge is in playing it is getting educated in terms of knowing the rules and wanting

to play. Kit’s not cheap, its something like £400 or £500, well it must be as it was £300 when I

played so those barriers are there. Maybe culturally we all go and play [association] football

first or rugby so that’s probably a heritage thing. Certainly at schools they are playing football

and rugby and cricket, so there probably are some barriers there but I think we’d love to find

more NFL players from the UK but I also think the NFL or BAFA [British American Football

Association] would like to see people playing the sport because they love it.

JP: I think a potential springboard for the game is at University level. At Nottingham University

it seems to be growing year-on-year and there seems to be a nice transition between people

who did play rugby union, there are certain similarities between the two, it’s contact, there

rules aren’t the same but you can adapt and understand it. That’s where my interest grew and

as the BUCS [British Universities and Colleges Sport] grows, you’ll see younger kids looking

up to that level.

IN: Definitely and that’s been the fastest growth of anything at grassroots level. I work with

Andy Fuller and the college league, I go to the finals every year, I go the Explosion event that

starts things off at Birmingham and it is, its just growing every time. I speak to Andy regularly

and we have new teams here, new teams there, Flag leagues, five on five, the Women’s

game in Universities now and that all grows into it. You know I host the events at Trafalgar

Square and Regents Street for the NFL, its not all guys my age now standing in the crowd, it’s

brilliant, it’s a lot of a young people now that have got into the sport because they’ve played it

at University. There is not a formal partnership between the NFL and the University league,

but the NFL are very supportive of them and they know that getting into Universities…the NFL

took a tour around the Universities last year ahead of one of the games, the second game [at

Wembley] so I think they know it’s a really good marketing that they could tap into.

JP: Do you think one of the best things about that is the fact that Universities are based all

across the UK? Because one thing people would highlight about the International Series is its

Wembley focus, London central if you like, the events operate around here, but Universities

stretch from up in Scotland down to Southampton.

IN: Yeah the University football covers almost every part of our country. That’s great for

creating new fans. I know people who have become fans of the NFL after they’ve played

University football first, you know they got exposed to it and introduced to American football

on campus, tried it and then went and watched the NFL. That whole Geography thing, we [or

I] get quite a bit of stick of that when we announce that we are hosting events around London,

you know we’re hosting fan nights where Andrew Luck comes in and it’s a fan night in London

50

and “why is it always in London”. The reality is they are playing, they are making a massive

commitment the NFL to playing games, playing games in London and whether we like it or not

London resonates with the 32 NFL owners more than it would if it was in Birmingham,

Manchester, Cardiff etcetera it just does. It’s London. It’s a global city, it’s our New York if you

will, so if the NFL has a long-term plan to play games in London and potentially hold a

franchise in London, then they are going to do whatever an NFL team in the United States

does. If you’re in Miami your catchment area, you’re working in your team with a two-hour

radius around where the stadium is, and that’s no different here. Now it doesn’t mean they

aren’t selling anything to anyone else and saying they aren’t interested because they are.

They work on TV packages, websites and you know I’ve still done fan nights in Dublin,

Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh so we’ve done Birmingham and fan nights around the country

it just so happens that obviously there are a couple of reasons. They are going to build a

market in London and the SouthEast; that just makes sense with playing games at Wembley.

And the other thing that people don’t often think about is that we often have players that fly

into London for one day or two days. If they are here in London for one day and do a fan night

and make them come to Manchester or get another plane to Edinburgh, sometimes

logistically it just doesn’t work but strategically it makes sense to me that they build around

London and the SouthEast, and it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and I certainly wouldn’t want

to see people walk away from the sport because they were based in Manchester, Leeds or

Liverpool but this [London] is where the games are being played at the moment.

JP: Why do you think then that the NBA took the decision to play a game in Manchester, I

think it was last year [2013]. What you do think the difference in reasoning is behind that?

IN: Maybe they feel they can, I mean I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but maybe they feel

they can spread it across the country. They’re not tied into a plan, not a plan, but they don’t

have a long-term goal to just be or have a franchise in London for the NBA, but I do think

there is an NFL franchise coming soon. Maybe it’s that or another reason is logistics, the NFL

are very comfortable with Wembley and the familiarity of it all. It’s quite a bit thing to get

coaches and teams to come over to the UK to play, it’s not a friendly or an exhibition game,

they’re picking up a regular season game. Coaches don’t want anything to go wrong, and

some stadiums just don’t fit in everything you need for an American football game, so it’s

quite easy to host a basketball game I would imagine in an indoor arena so I mean I’m

speculating.

JP: Especially with only needing a changing room for 8-10 people…

IN: Yeah exactly.

51

JP: I guess another thing as well, it makes logistical sense it terms of population skew in the

UK is naturally towards the SouthEast and in particular London. But then also if the demands

there for a 90,000-seater stadium like Wembley and you can sell out three games, why would

you sacrifice the 10,000 people for example watching a game to then host it in a different city,

where people do travel across the country for these kind of events anyway?

IN: Yeah I mean I think at the moment if it ain’t broke they’re not fixing it. I think its until fans

were voting with their feet then there would be no reason for the NFL to look at changing it in

my mind you know. I think maybe we will see now three games, not everyone is going to

travel from Newcastle to every game, they might pick one of the three or two of the three, but

as that happens over the years, more fans in this area will be created and coming to the

games. There’s not been a drop-off so far so I just think there is a level of comfort with playing

games in London.

JP: Aside from London and the SouthEast, where do the majority of fans for the Wembley

games come from?

IN: I don’t know exactly but you hear the stories, I think it’s about 94 or 95% are from the UK. I

go out to the [United] States and I sit with American journalists and I say what do you think of

the International Series games. And they say what I love about it is that there are people from

Germany and Sweden, it’s not just a London or English crowd it’s a European crowd. There

are a few people saying that but it is a UK crowd. 94% of the people in there are from the UK,

so I couldn’t tell you exactly where they are from across the UK but I do know that its not a

stadium filled with expats or Europeans it’s a stadium filled with British people.

JP: With the fact there used to be NFL Europe, and that London could be considered the

capital of a European continent; it could be an attraction to these different countries. Do you

think that’s the reason why the NFL picked the UK as its first frontier?

IN: Part of it is that they just recognized that London was a more vibrant market that could be

tapped into, they knew that from people who have worked here for many year there has been

that market. NFL Europe never really worked because it was made up of 3rd strings and back-

ups, it was players that were never going to make it, or would rarely make an NFL roster. You

have your success stories, your Kurt Warner’s but, there were a lot of players that never

ended getting near to the NFL and I think British fans saw that, saw through that, and were

quite knowledgeable as a fan base as I said, and in Germany they didn’t care about that.

They were there for a four-hour party and they didn’t care, just enjoying the atmosphere and a

slice of Americana and all of that. So I think there was a belief that if it came back to the UK,

this was a place that had held exhibition games and that they would really embrace regular

season games, the real thing, it’s a better TV market than in places like Germany and across

52

Europe, more potential for growth and I think they’ve seen all of that and that’s why they’ve

started here and now I think whether it’s Germany or further afield somewhere like Brazil or

China, I think that’s given the NFL confidence to believe ‘well we’ve done it in London’, and I

think they’ll do it elsewhere in the future.

JP: You think they will?

IN: Yeah definitely I think there will be regular season games played in other countries.

JP: So then, if there is a difference between internationalization and globalization, you think

this [games in the UK] is almost a stage where regular season games make the international,

where in may be global on a media and digital perspective, but in the future it could become a

global phenomenon, similar to a Formula 1? It’s not necessarily going to be travelling around

the world every week but you’ll have different fixtures here and there?

IN: Yeah I think what the NFL are always looking for is new things that add value to their

sport, so a few years ago they added Thursday Night Football that instantly becomes a new

TV package that was firstly just an NFL Network prospect but now they’ve sold it to CBS. You

look at those kind of windows, TV windows, our second game [at Wembley] this year is a

breakfast time kick-off in the US, potential for another TV viewing window, because you

always have your one o’clock game [EST] and your four o’clock game [EST]. You could

potentially add a 9.30am kick-off there [EST] so you have American football from the minute

you wake up in the United States to the minute you go to bed. There is potential for that

package to be international because of time differences or whatever so I think even if you

didn’t see a franchise here you might see eventually an eight-game package that is

international where there is a formal rotation and teams have to take part in it so it’s not

unfair, because that could instantly become legitimate because there isn’t a franchise that has

to up-sticks and come to London. You’ve instantly added value and another package to the

league there.

JP: Eight games for example at Wembley is a home regular season.

IN: Yes exactly.

JP: Almost if you are thinking about the global aspect, do you think at the moment it’s limited

by the time it takes for teams to travel to and from locations? Because at the moment forWest

coast teams, London is a logistically difficult operation, but for theEast coast and for example

the [New York] Giants or the [New York] Jets, it is relatively straightforward and technology

has reduced the travel time, making it more acceptable in that way. The side I’m looking at is

53

the trajectory of digital growth is going up-and-up where travel has plateaued slightly, do you

think if that rises again you open the whole world up to American football?

IN: Oh yeah. I think if it goes to that point where travel becomes even easier, I mean now if

you think about it, if you’re the New York Giants and you’re going to play in London or you’re

going to play in Seattle it’s no different. The difference is asking a team to do it every week. I

mean if you’ve got a London franchise do you base them purely in London? Then what

happens, because every NFL team brings 10-12 guys to try out on a Tuesday, how do you try

out players? Do you have a base in theEast coast of America and a good Internet connection

and you watch with the coaches sitting in London trying players out in Baltimore or whatever?

So there are things like that that would be an issue but I do think the NFL will build and build

and build, will grow with these numbers and then worry about the logistics afterwards. I think

the travel hasn’t been too much of an issues for the teams that have come over here so far,

they’ve embraced it and have been ok with it, so I don’t think it will put teams off as it is only

going to get easier.

JP: Do you think there is an aspect where if you do have those eight home games in London,

you build in the bye weeks around those games so it gives time to adjust?

IN: Yeah I think that’s the way to do it but then it depends where your games are. No one

wants a bye week before week four, and you can’t have a bye week after about week 12. Not

everyone is going to be able to get a bye week but I think you could strategically do that the

right way, if you were one of the New York teams and you played on a Sunday in London and

then you flew back that night and your next game wasn’t until a home game the next Monday,

they can always jiggle these things around.

JP: Do you think if there was to be a franchise or eight games [in London], we have accepted

the game sufficiently and are ready culturally for that to be in London consistently? Like if we

were to build a franchise, we’d be able to replicate how franchises are built in the US?

IN: I don’t think we are very far away now. I think if you’re selling 250,000 tickets, so I mean

this is for the Wembley games at roughly 84,000 seats, I know about half of those are

season-ticket holders. If you have a season-ticket base of 40,000, they’d bite your hand off for

that in Cincinnati or Jacksonville. There are teams out there that don’t get anywhere close to

that. The other thing I would say with the numbers is people always go ‘ah you’re not going to

fill Wembley eight times’, well it’s not necessarily Wembley; it’s not necessarily 84,000. Maybe

they look around, I saw a story in Sports Business Journal a couple of week ago, they’d been

talking to Tottenham [Hotspur] about their new stadium and they looked at the Olympic

Stadium.

54

JP: The Emirates would also be suitable.

IN: Yeah. If you had a stadium that held 55,000 or 60,000 people, that would be more than

enough. If you look at the new stadiums coming online in the NFL, Lucas Oil Stadium’s about

62,000, the new stadium in San Francisco is 68,000, which is getting up there a bit. The new

[Minnesota] Vikings stadium is 65,000. There are a few like the [Washington] Redskins’ one

and the [Dallas] Cowboys, but these owners don’t want to have to fill 90,000 seat stadiums.

So numbers-wise, I don’t think you’d be looking to fill Wembley and 84,000. But if you’ve got a

stadium and for example and went really ambitious wanting 70,000 fans a week, you’d still be

one of the best-supported franchises in the NFL. I think we are not far off, I think culturally we

are close. Our TVs are filled with American programming and channels. I sense a few years

back some sort of anti-American sentiment, but I certainly haven’t seen that since we’ve been

playing games here [in 2007]. I think people here are now so knowledgeable that they don’t

feel that way. The way I got attracted to it when I was younger with the whole hype and

razzmatazz with the commentators, the hyperbole and everything that was going around the

game, I think they are interested in the game now. I don’t think people are going to Wembley

to look at cheerleaders and fireworks, I think they are going there for the game.

JP: Pre-2007 there seemed to be a lot written about what was titled sporting nationalism

whereby people in the UK almost feel obliged to stick to football etcetera because it is part of

their heritage and something that is traditional to British people. Do you think that’s slowly

fading here but in the US, could it be the opposite because we tried to take football over there

for the Premier League’s 39th game?

IN: Well they’ve got all excited about their team because of the World Cup, so they are getting

behind soccer again with big teams playing pre-season games in the US they are trying to

promote it there. I do think that here the game will continue to grow. More and more people

are going to come in and follow the sport. I think when the first boom came around, people

were drawn to American football because you could go the exhibition games at Wembley and

sit as we do now with different jerseys and everything, football hooliganism was horrible in the

80s when I was first watching the NFL. So I think people were drawn to the NFL the first time

around because of that, but now people sort of embrace a larger number of sports and there

are easier ways to follow sports and I think the NFL aren’t trying to replace football or rugby or

cricket, but it’s ok to be everyone’s second favourite sport. I mean you can watch all the

[association] football on a Sunday on Sky and then switch over to us [American football]

afterwards.

JP: With your work at Sky, is there an aim to be the six o’clock on a Sunday afternoon

stronghold for the network and for Sky Sports?

55

IN: I think so yeah, and we are very conscious of that. The big Premier League games finish

at ten to six or five to six, and you’ve got those sports fans that are there and in their seats

and hope they will just flick over and watch it. The game’s grown so much that at one point it

was about the 20th most watched sport on Sky Sports, and now we are up to 5th or 6th or

something similar so Sky have made a tremendous investment this year in terms of what we

are doing with new gadgetry and new studios, you know its definitely something that’s on their

radar to grow. We kind of feel like we don’t mind if people want to watch the [association]

football first.

JP: Between a lot of the people I have spoken to, there seem to be a majority who would get

into the sport via the Super Bowl, and through the spectacle of the Super Bowl and its

razzmatazz. Do you think again, as much as you said the regular season games are where

you get consistent viewership ad create strong or avid fans, do you think the Super Bowl is

where you can drive the most amount of people to the spectacle?

IN: Yeah I think so many friends that I have watched for the first time with a Super Bowl party

or something like that because that’s the big showpiece event. Like I don’t really watch

swimming but I watch it at the Olympics, or I don’t want volleyball but I watch it at the

Olympics, because it’s the Olympics.

JP: Like many people don’t watch golf but then watch the Masters?

IN: Yeah exactly I mean you find yourself when it’s London 2012 watching shooting because

it’s the Olympics. I think that’s what the Super Bowl is, it’s appointment viewing and then if

people like that then that’s the trick for getting people to come back because there’s almost

seven months before we are back! But I do definitely do think the Super Bowl is a strong

driver.

JP: For me over the last few years, as much as I’ve only been a fan for a limited time during

my whole lifespan, it used to be me staying up on a Sunday night, being extremely tired

coming into school the following morning, where now at University, there seems to be a

culture for the first weekend of February, everyone gets together and watches the Super Bowl

with a pizza and some beers. Do you think that is a sign of the UK buying into America’s

product?

IN: I think so. I think there is that cultural opening up of the event by friends and they tell them

to ‘look at this sport it’s great’, and I tell you a while back on forums it was like our little secret

and that nobody wanted to share it with anyone. I think its got so big now that everyone wants

more people to be included and I think as well you know that Super Bowl example is right and

more people are staying up and watching, getting in groups but also it’s just easier to watch

56

than ever before. You don’t have to be killing yourself in the middle of the night, you can, but

can also watch a game at six o’clock on a Sunday night or you can watch anything on the

Internet right now. You can watch your highlights on nfl.com in the morning, you can

subscribe to Game Pass, you can literally watch four games in one window at the same time.

In fact, we probably have better access than fans in the US so I think there are more and

more ways that people can enjoy this sport now and that’s why the numbers continue to grow.

57

Appendix D: Sample Questionnaire Survey

58

59

60

Appendix E: Reflective Field Diary

NFL On Regent Street, 27th September 2014

NFL On Regent Street is now an annual event whereby the NFL (and NFL UK) close

down the stretch of Regent Street from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus in

anticipation of the first International Series fixture to be played at Wembley, this time

between the Oakland Raiders and the Miami Dolphins. The popularity of this event is

purely depicted by the closure of one of London’s, if not Britain’s, busiest and most

iconic roads. This must surely be a sign of the successful integration of the sport into

the UK and its adoption by the admiring supporters.

The NFL, a piece of Americana, and Regent Street, a piece of British iconicity,

synergized together is evidential of the Americanization of British culture, not simply

in a sporting context. If you look beyond the furore and fan-lined streets, you can

appreciate how American consumer culture has taken a stranglehold on the

population in the UK. Peeling back the layers of scaffolding, and looking behind the

unquantifiable amount of banners and flags, you see the retail outlets that take

permanent footing along Regent Street, arguable one of London’s most shopped

streets. Both tourists and residents flock to stores such as Hollister, Apple and Nike,

which have defined the relatively recent adoption of predominantly American

consumerism. It is at this point where, minus the backdrop, one must draw

comparisons to the imagery of American life, where at that moment in time I could

easily have been in New York or Miami.

Not merely the shops that hold permanent foundations on Regent Street, but also the

sponsors that accompany the NFL and its travelling party. The full list includes:

Budweiser, Pepsi MAX, VISA, Virgin Atlantic, Jeep, Thomson Sport, ion, BOSE,

XBOX (Microsoft), MiamiAndBeaches.com, Marriott, DiscoverAmerica.com, AON,

EMC2 and Papa Johns – also Gatorade, CNN, and New Era. If you analyse the

origins of all the above multinationals, I am certain you will see an inevitable trend.

But not only that, these foreign institutions are leaders in the British economy as

extremely well marketed brands to us as consumers.

Taking two of these, DiscoverAmerica.com and MiamiAndBeaches.com, invites an

interest debate. With these in mind, does this portray that the popularity of vacations

to the United States by British citizens, and the development of an efficient and more

61

affordable transport network between the two, has enabled that transitional culture

between the two?

In terms of the commitment of the British fans to the sport, I don’t think it can be

questioned in the slightest. The younger generations revelled with the opportunity to

do drills and skills work with BAFA assistants, and seemed to very much enjoy doing

it at the same time. The older supporters had clearly invested in the game too and its

introduction to the British market. This investment is two-fold. Firstly, here is an

evidential financial commitment being made b these supporters, with the purchasing

of a wealth of merchandise and also the tickets that many had purchased in the run

up to the Wembley fixtures. Secondly, there is a clear commitment to the culture and

the history of the sport. Fans engaged with interviews of former greats of the game,

and by trialling different aspects of the game in the NFL Lab, more and more people

developed a love for the sport.

In 2013, it is believed that 500,000 people attended NFL On Regent Street at some

point throughout the day, and I would not be surprised if the same occurred again. At

times, the crowds were immovable and it was a struggle to make your way along the

pavements and even on the traffic-free roads. For the most part, the visitors seemed

not just to be passers by, they were astutely knowledgeable followers of the game, all

having selected their favourite franchise, and the majority sporting one of their

jerseys. Americanisms such as the terminology and also traits of American sporting

culture with the presence of cheerleaders, The Raiderettes, generated a great deal of

excitement amongst the crowds whom all seemed to revel in the atmosphere and

‘razzmatazz’ of the event.

62

Miami Dolphins vs. Oakland Raiders, Wembley Stadium, 28th September 2014

Seeing Wembley Stadium packed to the rafters is a privilege in itself, with an

attendance of 83,436 on this occasion, but personally I believe seeing it for such a

unique event, something that we don’t see every week, makes it even more special.

What was clear to see from the outset, upon leaving Wembley Park underground

station, was the vast investment that has been made by the NFL’s American and UK

offices. It is here where I draw notice to the role of capital flows in the relationship

between the US and the UK. As is expressed in Global Sport Sponsorship, the

capital that crosses international borders in the interest of sporting talent or events is

mind-numbing. Take the Olympics, where sponsors such as Visa, Coca Cola

McDonald’s and GE have invested an estimated £64m each in order to become

worldwide partners. This may detract from the UK-specific focus, but even so,

companies such as the Boston Consulting Group directly invested £10m in the

London edition of the Games.

Wembley Way as it is known was awash with shirts of the 32 NFL franchises, with

potentially all represented in some form or another. Oakland and Miami both seemed

to have significant followings, potentially with the prominence of both Florida and

California as destinations for British holidaymakers [refer back to presence of

MiamiAndBeaches.com]. The clear existence of UK fan base could suggest that a

potential NFL franchise in London would generate sufficient following to support a full

season of fixtures, should an owner be enticed to relocate and redirect its marketing

to suit the UK consumer. There was certainly a passion for the sport and excitement

around its extravert characteristics, be it surrounding the cheerleaders, music from

Def Leppard or the excessive pyrotechnics that accompanied the ‘pre-game

entertainment’.

Another aspect of Americana that was adopted was the tailgate party. Tailgate

parties traditionally involve driving to the car park of the stadium in question, and

indulging in food and drinks with friends, families and fans alike before kick off. In this

instance, put on by the NFL, and as an extension of the NFL On Regent Street event,

there were no cars in the car park but food and drink was available and it provided

more evidence of our tendency to accept and even adopt foreign cultural traits. Even

down to the minute details such as the drink of American beers and the consumption

of hot dogs and big red cups of brand stamped Coca Cola.

63

San Diego Chargers vs. Miami Dolphins, Sun Life Stadium, 2nd November 2014

This game in early November was by no way a season-changer, or vitally important

to the outlook of Miami’s season, yet the passion was something to behold. If you

begin to contemplate the complexities of the franchise system in the United States,

whereby a general manager may choose to up sticks and relocate at will, I was

amazed by the level of support and unwavering commitment to the team that fans

showed. That kind of support is replicated in the UK, particularly with association

football teams. However, those teams are orientated historically, drawing on support

from surrounding locales before reaching out domestically and internationally.

Franchises would be a new concept to the UK, and it would be interesting to see if

underlying insecurities about the potential for relocation if results or profits were to

decline could impact fandom?

The most startling of all findings was the diverse geographic reach of the fans in

attendance. At both the Sun Life Stadium and at the American Airlines Arena, home

of the Miami Heat basketball franchise, individuals had travelled from all over the

United States (e.g. Arkansas, South Carolina, Wisconsin). Put into perspective with

comparison to the International Series Games at Wembley, this geographic outreach

is far superior, and mind-numbing as this fixture was a much more understated and

less eagerly anticipated.

The United States is often considered to be one of the most commercialized capitalist

economies in the world. The presence of a plethora of commercial sponsors at the

Miami Dolphins home fixture far outweighed that at their London match against the

Oakland Raiders. One of the greatest criticisms of the sport that emerged from

primary research was its stop-start nature, and these pauses in play are timely

opportunities for commercial institutions to exploit both media and stadia audiences.

An array of prize draws and competitions run by a selection of sponsors, including

Publix, AT&T and Geico, engage the public with the franchise as its financial

contributors. Other sponsors included transnational corporations such as Ford, Pepsi

(same as Int. Series) and Bank of America.

Throughout the course of the pre-game, as well as during the match, there was an

incredible excitement and fascination for the International Series at Wembley. The

local supporters were intrigued as to the logistics of the whole spectacle, and were

certainly well informed of the potential for a London franchise in years to come. Many

expressed a desire to attend a game at Wembley in future, particularly with Miami’s

64

return to London in 2015 to face the New York Jets in a divisional match up (similar

to a derby in the UK). What also became apparent in the pre-game, whilst conducting

informal interviews with members of the paying public, was the differential between

what is coined a ‘tailgate party’ in the UK and the real McCoy. Thousands of cars

surrounded the Sun Life Stadium, with barbecues and small gatherings happening all

around. Transport infrastructure in the UK is significantly misaligned to the

dominance of cars in the US that became so evident. In such a congested city as

London, where the luxury of space comes at spiralling costs, public transport is a

necessity. Whereby Americans can drive, park and enjoy an unrivalled experience

before the game, the nature of London as a world city denies this possibility, and is

something that will not be able to be truly replicated. With tailgating as such an

identifiable characteristic of American Football, its absence would create a cultural

gap should it be played in London on a more frequent basis.

65

References

Aitken, S. C. and Kwan, M. (2010) GIS as Qualitative Research: Knowledge,

Participatory Politics and Cartographies of Affect in DeLyser, D. (ed.) The SAGE

Handbook of Qualitative Geography. SAGE: London.

Allison, L. (2004) The Global Politics of Sport: The Role of Global Institutions in

Sport. Routledge: London.

Amis, J. and Cornwell, T. B. (eds.) (2005) Global Sport Sponsorship. Berg

Publishers: USA.

bafanl.co.uk (2014) Spatial Distribution of American Football Club Teams [online].

Available from: http://www.bafanl.co.uk/teamfinder/player. [Accessed 10th May

2014].

Bairner, A. (2001) Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization: European and North

American Perspectives. SUNY: New York.

BBC News (2014) London population to reach 11 million, says infrastructure report

[online]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-28563027.

[Accessed 23rd February 2015].

BBC News (2015) London’s population high: Top metropolis facts [online]. Available

from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31056626. [Accessed 23rd

February 2015].

BBC Sport (2015) Swimming numbers down 245,000 as sport participation falls

[online]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/31037310. [Accessed 23rd

February 2015].

Beaverstock, J. V., Smith, R. G. and Taylor, P. J. (1999) A roster of world cities,

Cities, 16 (6), 445-458.

Beck, U. (2000) The Brave New World of Work. Cambridge University Press:

Cambridge.

66

Bennett, K. (2001a) Interviews and Focus Groups in Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) Doing

Cultural Geography. London: SAGE.

Bennett, K. (2001b) Participant Observation in Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) Doing

Cultural Geography. London: SAGE.

Berg, B. L. (1989) Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Allyn and

Bacon: Boston.

Birmingham.gov.uk (n.d.) Population in Birmingham [online]. Available from:

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=SystemAdmin%

2FCFPageLayout&cid=1223096353755&packedargs=website%3D4&pagename=BC

C%2FCommon%2FWrapper%2FCFWrapper&rendermode=live. [Accessed 2nd

March 2015].

Blackbourn, A. (2002) The Impact of Multinational Corporations on the Spatial

Organisation of Developed Nations: A Review in Taylor, M. and Thrift, N. (eds.)

(2002) The Geographies of Multinationals. Routledge: London.

BritballNow.co.uk (2014) Alltime British American Football Records [online]. Available

from: http://www.britballnow.co.uk/History/Records/Firsts.html. [Accessed 9th May

2014].

BUCS (n.d.) American Football [online]. Available from:

http://www.bucs.org.uk/sport.asp?section=16641. [Accessed 23rd February 2015].

Cameron, J. (2005) Focusing on the Focus Group in Hay, I. (ed.) Qualitative

Research Methods in Human Geography, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press:

Melbourne.

Campbell, N., Davies, J. and McKay, G. (eds.) (2004) Issues in Americanisation and

Culture. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh.

Clifford, N., French, S. and Valentine, G. (eds.) (2010) Key Methods in Geography.

London: SAGE.

67

Cloke, P., Cook, I., Crang, P., Goodwin, M., Painter, J. and Philo, C. (2004)

Practising Human Geography. London: SAGE.

CMO Today (2014) The NFL Continues to Expand it Global Appeal–At Least Digitally

[online]. Available from: http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/09/02/the-nfl-continues-to-

expand-it-global-appeal-at-least-digitally/. [Accessed 23rd February 2015].

Coe, N. and Jones, A. (eds.) (2010) The Economic Geography of the UK. Sage:

London.

Combes, P., Mayer, T. and Thisse, J. (2008) Economic Geography: Integration of

Regions and Nations. Princeton University Press: New Jersey.

Conradson, D. (2005) Focus groups in Flowerdew, R. and Martin, D. (eds.) Methods

in Human Geography: A Guide for Students Doing a Research Project. London:

Pearson.

Crang, M. (1994) It’s showtime: on the workplace geographies of display in a

restaurant in SouthEast England, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space,

12, 675-704.

Deloitte (2014) Economic Impact of the NFL on London and the UK. Deloitte LLP:

London.

DeLyser, D. (ed.) (2010) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography. London:

SAGE.

Denzin, N. (1970) The Research Act: A Theoretical Introduction to Social Research.

Aldine: Chicago.

Dicken, P. (2007) Global shift: Mapping the contours of the world economy. London:

SAGE.

Dunn, K. (2005), Interviewing in Hay, I. (ed.) Qualitative Research Methods in Human

Geography. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

68

Featherstone, M., Lash, S. and Robertson, R. (eds.) (1995) Global Modernities.

SAGE: London.

Flowerdew, R. (1995) Mixed methods in population geography. Population

Geography Study Group Newsletter, 25, 2-4.

Flowerdew, R. and Martin, D. (eds.) (2005) Methods in Human Geography: A Guide

for Students Doing a Research Project. London: Pearson.

Forslid, R. and Ottaviano, G. I. P. (2003) An analytically solvable core-periphery

model. Journal of Economic Geography, 3, 229-240.

Giulianotti, R. (2005a) Sport: A Critical Sociology. Polity: Chichester.

Giulianotti, R. (2005b) Globalization: The Politics of ‘Global’ Sport in Giulianotti, R.

(ed.) Sport: A Critical Sociology. Polity: Chichester.

Giulianotti, R. and Robertson, R. (2004) The globalization of football: a study in the

glocalization of the ‘serious life’, The British Journal of Sociology, 55(4), 545-568.

Giulianotti, R. and Robertson, R. (2007) Sport and globalization: transnational

dimensions, Global Networks, 7(2), 107-112.

Giulianotti, R. and Robertson, R. (2009) Globalization and Football. SAGE: London.

Godlewska, A. and Martin, J. G. (2011) Map in Agnew, J. A. and Livingstone, D. N.

(eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Geographical Knowledge. SAGE: London.

Goss, J. D. and Leinbach, T. R. (1996) Focus groups as alternative research

practice: Experience with transmigrants in Indonesia, Area, 28 (2), 115-23.

Graham, S. (1998) The end of geography or the explosion of place? Conceptualizing

space, place and information technology. Progress in Human Geography, 22 (2),

165-185.

Graham, E. (1999) Breaking Out: The Opportunities and Challenges of Multi-Method

Research in Population Geography. Professional Geographer, 51(1), 40-50.

69

Gregory, D., Johnston, R. J., Pratt, G., Watts, M. and Whatmore, S. (2009) (eds.)

The Dictionary of Human Geography. John Wiley & Sons: New Jersey.

Gupta, A. (2009) The Globalization of Sports, the Rise of Non-Western Nations and

the Impact on the International Sporting Events, The International Journal of the

History of Sport, 26(12), 1779-1790.

Hargreaves, J. (1986) Sport, Power and Culture: A social and historical analysis of

popular sports in Britain. Polity Press: Cambridge.

Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of

Cultural Change. Publishers Blackwell: Oxford.

Hay, I. (ed.) (2005) Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. 2nd ed.

Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Jackson, P. and Holbrook, B. (1995) Multiple meanings: Shopping and the cultural

politics of identity, Environment and Planning A, 27, 1913-30.

Jackson, S. J. and Haigh, S. (2008) Between and beyond politics: Sport and foreign

policy in a globalizing world, Sport in Society, 11(4), 349-358.

Janelle, D. G. (1969) Spatial Reorganization: A Model and Concept. Annals of the

Association of American Geographers, 59(2), 348-364.

Jarvie, G. (2013) Sport, Culture and Society: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Routledge:

London.

Joseph, S. (2013) NFL UK to use content to sell brand to fans [online] Available from:

http://www.marketingweek.com/2013/01/07/nfl-uk-to-use-content-to-sell-brand-to-

fans/. [Accessed 7th December 2014].

Joseph, S. (2014) NFL ties With Nike to offer UK fans custom jerseys in ecommerce

refresh [online]. Available from: http://www.marketingweek.com/2014/08/15/nfl-ties-

with-nike-to-offer-uk-fans-custom-jerseys-in-ecommerce-refresh/. [Accessed 7th

December 2014].

70

Joy, S. (2014) NFL Plots Germany, Brazil and Asia games to fuel expansion [online].

Available from: http://www.marketingweek.com/2014/09/26/nfl-plots-germany-brazil-

and-asia-games-to-fuel-expansion/. [Accessed 7th December 2014].

Lathrop, M. (2014) The Digital Technology Tipping Point of the In-Stadium Fan

Experience [online]. Available from: http://www.sponsorship.com/About-

IEG/Sponsorship-Blogs/Morgan-Lathrop/August-2014/The-Digital-Technology-

Tipping-Point-of-the-In-Sta.aspx. [Accessed 7th December 2014].

Laurier, E. (2010) Participant observation in Clifford, N., French, S. and Valentine, G.

(eds.) Key Methods in Geography. London: SAGE.

lboro.ac.uk (n.d.) Professor Richard Giulianotti [online]. Available from:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ssehs/staff/professor-richard-giulianotti-.html.

[Accessed 17th February 2015].

Levitt, T. (1983) The Globalization of Markets, Harvard Business Review, 92-102.

Lindsay, J. M. (2002) Techniques in Human Geography. Routledge: Oxford.

Longhurst, R. (2010) Semi-structured Interviews and Focus Groups in Clifford, N.,

French, S. and Valentine, G. (eds.) Key Methods in Geography. London: SAGE.

Lunt, P. and Livingstone, S. (1996) Rethinking the focus group in media and

communications research, Journal of Communication, 46 (2), 79-98.

Luschen, G. (1980) Sociology of Sport: Development, Present State, and Prospects,

Annual Review of Sociology, 6, 315-347.

Maguire, J. (1990) More Than a Sporting Touchdown – The Making of American

Football in England 1982-1990, Sociology of Sport, 7(3), 213-237.

Maguire, J. (2007) Power and Global Sport: Zones of Prestige, Emulation and

Resistance. Routledge: London.

71

Maguire, J. and Falcous, M. (2007) ‘Making touchdowns and hoop dreams’: The NFL

and the NBA in England in Maguire, J. (ed.) Power and Global Sport: Zones of

Prestige, Emulation and Resistance. Routledge: London.

Maguire, J. (2011a) Globalization and Sport: Beyond the Boundaries? Sociology, 45

(5), 923-929.

Maguire, J. (2011b) Globalization, Sport and National identities. Sport in Society,

14(7-8), 978-993.

Maguire, J. (2011c) The Consumption of American Football in British Society:

Networks of Interdependencies, Sport in Society. 14(7-8), 950-964.

McDowell, L. (2010) Interviewing: Fear and Liking the Field in DeLyser, D. (ed.) The

SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography. SAGE: London.

McKendrick, J. H. (1999) Multi-Method Research: An Introduction to its Application in

Population Geography. Professional Geographer, 51(1), 40-50.

McLafferty, S. L. (2010) Conducting Questionnaire Surveys in Clifford, N., French, S.

and Valentine, G. (eds.) Key Methods in Geography. SAGE: London.

Miller, T., Lawrence, G. A., McKay, J. and Rowe, D. (1999) Modifying the Sign: Sport

and Globalization. Duke University Press: North Carolina.

Miller, T., Lawrence, G. A., McKay, J. and Rowe, D. (2001) Globalization and Sport:

Playing the World. SAGE: London.

Millward, P. (2011) The Global Football League: Transnational Networks, Social

Movements and Sport in the New Media Age. Palgrave School: UK.

Mirror (2015) Is Britain adopting too many “Americanisms”? [online]. Available from:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/family/britain-adopting-many-americanisms-4976713.

[Accessed 1st March 2015].

nfl.com (2014) History [online]. Available from:

http://www.nfl.com/history/chronology/1911-1920. [Accessed 6th May 2014].

72

NFLUK.com (2014) About Us [online]. Available from: http://www.nfluk.com/about-us.

[Accessed 7th May 2014].

ONS (n.d.) Population [online]. Available from:

http://ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Population. [Accessed 10th March

2015].

O’Reilly, L. (2011) NFL aims to become “engrained” in British sporting landscape

[online] Available from: http://www.marketingweek.com/2011/10/25/nfl-aims-to-

become-engrained-in-british-sporting-landscape/. [Accessed 7th December 2014].

Oriard, M. (1998) Reading Football: How the popular press created an American

spectacle. University of North Carolina Press: North Carolina.

Peet, J. R. (2002) International Capital, International Culture in Taylor, M. and Thrift,

N. (eds.) The Geography of Multinationals (RLE International Business): Studies in

the Spatial Development and Economic Consequences of Multinational Corporations.

Routledge: London.

Pelachyk, K. (2014) Four Lessons on Measurement for Super Bowl Sponsors [online]

Available from: http://www.sponsorship.com/About-IEG/Sponsorship-Blogs/Kristen-

Pelachyk/January-2014/Four-Lessons-on-Measurement-for-Super-Bowl-

Sponsor.aspx. [Accessed 7th December 2014].

Pieterse, J. N. (2009) Globalization and Culture in Ritzer, G. (ed.) McDonaldization:

The Reader. 3rd ed. Pine Forge Press: California.

Pro Football Talk (2014) Jerry Jones: We “very much” want a team in London

[online]. Available from: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/08/jerry-jones-

we-very-much-want-a-team-in-london/. [Accessed 23rd February 2015].

Regentstreetonline.com (n.d.) NFL arrives on Regent Street [online]. Available from:

http://www.regentstreetonline.com/Events/NFL-arrives-on-Regent-Street.aspx.

[Accessed 4th February 2015].

73

Ritzer, G. and Ryan, M. (2004) Americanisation, McDonaldisation and Globalisation

in Campbell, N., Davies, J. and McKay, G. (eds.) Issues in Americanisation and

Culture. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh.

Ritzer, G. (2007) The Globalization of Nothing 2. SAGE: London.

Ritzer, G. (2009) McDonaldization: The Reader. 3rd ed. Pine Forge Press: California.

Robertson, R. (1995) Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity in

Featherstone, M., Lash, S. and Robertson, R. (eds.) Global Modernities. SAGE:

London.

Rowe, D., Lawrence, G., Miller, T. and McKay, J. (1994) Global Sport? Core Concern

and Peripheral Vision, Media Culture Society, 16, 661-675.

Roy, G. C. (2013) People at Play. Sport, Culture and Nationalism. Sport in Society:

Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, 16(9), 1216-128.

Sacks, H. (1992) Lectures on Conversation. Vol. 1. Oxford: Blackwell.

Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) (2001) Doing Cultural Geography. London: SAGE.

Sassen, S. (1991) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton University

Press: New Jersey.

Similar Web (n.d.) NFL.com [online]. Available from:

http://www.similarweb.com/website/nfl.com. [Accessed 23rd February 2015].

Slater, M. (2013) NFL International Series: Roger Goodell seeks to conquer Britain

[online]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/american-football/24687966.

[Accessed 17th May 2014].

Smart, B. (2005) The Sport Star: Modern Sport and the Cultural Economy of Sporting

Celebrity. SAGE: London.

Smart, B. (2007) Not Playing Around: Global Capitalism, Modern Sport and

Consumer Culture, Global Networks, 7(2), 113-134.

74

Sport England (n.d.) Who Plays Sport [online]. Available from:

https://www.sportengland.org/research/who-plays-sport/by-sport/. [Accessed 23rd

February 2015].

Stewart, D. W. and Shamdasani, P. N. (1990) Focus Groups: Theory and Practice.

Sage Publications: California.

Stewart, D.W., Shamdasani, P. N. and Rook, D. W. (2007) Conducting the Focus

Group in Stewart, D. W. (ed.) Focus groups: Theory and practice. Sage: California.

Strange, S. (1995) The Limits of Politics. Government and Opposition, 30 (3), 291-

311.

Taylor, M. and Thrift, N. (eds.) (2002) The Geographies of Multinationals. Routledge:

London.

Valentine, G. (2005) Using interviews as a research methodology in Flowerdew, R.

and Martin, D. (eds.) Methods in Human Geography: A Guide for Students Doing a

Research Project. London: Pearson.

Watson, A. and Till, K. E. (2010) Ethnography and Participant Observation in

DeLyser, D. (ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography. London: SAGE.

Wenner, L. (2002) MediaSport. Routledge: London.

Whannel, G. (2008) Culture, Politics and Sport. Routledge: London.

Whitson, D. (2002) Circuits of Promotion: Media, Marketing and the Globalization of

Sport in Wenner, L. (ed.) MediaSport. Routledge: London.

Wilford. H. (2005) Britain: In Between in Stephan, A. (ed.) ‘The Americanisation of

Europe: Culture, Diplomacy and Anti-Americanism after 1945’. Berghahn Books:

New York.

Williams, F. (1962) The American Invasion. Crown Publishers: New York.