American Football

London - you can pretty much visit any majorly trafficked area in London and find bars spilling out with American football fans watching. One of the things that caught my eye last October while visiting. I remember walking through Kings across area and multiple bars were overflowing with NFL jerseys.

Is there a specific team you support? Many ex-pats in London and there are specific Packer, Patriot, Bears bars for games I believe.

Can’t help you with Liverpool for the NFL but it’s an awesome city. Check out the Western Approaches Museum. It’s like the Churchill War Rooms.

Thanks Kevin.
I was hoping to see the Vikings/Packers game while there.
My last visit it was hit or miss as Sky TV selects one early and one late game for live viewing everywhere.

Can't help with London, but if you take the Eurostar to Paris, the WOS in the Latin Quarter features live broadcasts of all Packer games.

RC better yet, you can go to a live NFL football game in London this Fall. The NFL has 4 games scheduled in London. The packers are not on the calendar but there are some other good matchups that are appealing.

Bears vs Raiders Oct. 6 - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Panthers vs Buccaneers Oct. 13 - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Bengals vs Rams Oct. 27 - Wembley Stadium

Texans vs Jaguars Nov. 3 - Wembley Stadium

RJean,
I would love to do that.
I bet the mix of crowd would be pretty fun.
Unfortunately, I only there for three weeks in September.

hey hey rc
too bad you can’t be there. I worked in a grocery store near Oakland, so Sunday’s was crazy in the store when the tailgaters were ready to rumble, I was in a sea of silver and black, like the “black hole” they mentioned they were going to London for game, totally dumbfounded.
we were in London when that happened. Was jammed packed busy, football jerseys everywhere and regents street was decorated with NFL pendants and red, white, blue flags hanging from every pole window roof. they were ready to play football!! pubs and bars were full to the gills. it was a sight to see and relish in the moment. no we didn’t go to game, enjoyed all the memories. thank you London.
aloha

It blows me away the NFL is having 4 games in London this year! Goes to show just how popular the game has become there.

As an aside, I went to the 49ers/Broncos game at Wembley 9 or so years ago. Just so happened I was traveling to London with a friend that week already, they're a huge Broncos fan, and they made it a point to buy tickets knowing we'd be there at the time. One thing I found neat about the experience is it wasn't just 49ers or Broncos fans - fans were decked out in the jerseys and colors of every possible team. People went primarily because they were American football fans and the game - regardless of the teams playing - was a chance to enjoy that. Actual fans of the teams playing seemed by far in the minority. People just wanted to see an NFL game! Lot of US expats in the stands, as well as British fans!

And here was me wondering whether you actually wanted see 2 local British teams play the game. Unfortunately mid September is between the adult/youth season and the University one.

There is usually a free 7 day sign up for the NFL Game Pass streaming service.

rc,

You raise a great point about which games will be televised. That’s a reasonable concern and I have no clue sorry

I’ve found that we as Americans are spoiled when it comes to the ability to watch live sports around the world.

In London:
https://tinyurl.com/yyk49qfe

In addition when teams are physically playing in London, each team will typically rent-out a pub near the stadium on game day for pre/post match festivities, for fans that are part of their official fan club.

I’ve found that we as Americans are spoiled when it comes to the ability to watch live sports around the world.

It's not so much that there is a limited choice of live sports to watch from around the world in the UK, far from it, there are plenty of sports channels broadcasting pretty much anything from around the world. The issue lies with public broadcasting licences. Currently Sky has the monopoly on public broadcasting and therefore most pubs etc will only broadcast Sky and pay a hefty premium for the priviledge. This means that only the most popular sports are broadcast, football (the proper one), rugby, cricket, boxing etc. American football just isn't that popular in the UK, it may seem that way if you're in London when the NFL descends but considering those numbers are pretty much the total of American Football fans in the UK it doesn't actually seem a lot.

The BBC has a weekly show during the NFL season but it's shown on a Wednesday at 00:15, not quite prime time viewing. American football is gaining in popularity no doubt due to the push of the teams to gain a broader international supporter base but I don't see it becoming a significant spectator sport in the UK, rugby is a far superior game!

As I referred to above, people living in the UK can subscribe to the NFL game pass and watch any game live that isn't on Sky.

Don't know if you are on Twitter, but you'll find that many American sports teams have UK fan groups. Looks like both the Packers and the Vikings do. You might be able to find out where they watch the games. I follow the UK Mariners group.

https://twitter.com/ukpackers?lang=en

https://twitter.com/ukvikingsfans?lang=en

Looks like the Hippodrome Casino in Leicester Square is a frequent venue for both groups.

I want to thank everyone for their input here!!!!!
What a great community.

In London, try the Maple Leaf Pub, it’s the closest thing to an American or Canadian sports bar you’ll find in the UK. Lots of TVs.

The casinos are also likely to have sports bars with lots of TVs and likely to show American football. I know they’re frequently recommended on other travel forums, I don’t have any first hand experience.

My NFL app worked as well as the NBC app, so I was able to stream a bit and show my UK friends a bit about the game.

If the NFL is catching on, it’s hard to find a lot of evidence. I read BBC sport every day and there’s not much coverage at all, mostly the national anthem controversy and the Super Bowl. I’m sure there’s enough expats and travelers to help fill the stands, but the time zone issue can’t be eliminated, especially with that Sunday night game often being the best of the week.