The NFL’s previous push into Europe lost $400 million. Why it’s trying again

When the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints walk onto the turf of the Stade de France on Oct. 25, the National Football League (NFL) will stage its first competitive game on French soil. It’s part of a record nine-game international run this season, spanning four continents and seven countries, including London, Madrid, Melbourne, and Rio de Janeiro.

The series is part of the NFL’s strategy to deepen its foothold in Europe. “We’re using the game as a catalyst,” Tim Ellis, the league’s chief marketing officer, tells Fortune. “To get people interested, to get them talking, to get the media to pay attention.” For Ellis, the 80,000 tickets available for the Stade de France game matter far less than the millions of fans the league hopes to convert in the weeks and months after the final whistle.

There are signs the league is generating real demand overseas. London will have hosted 45 games by the end of this season and remains the league’s most mature overseas market. Melbourne and Paris, where Ellis says the league’s fan base has grown past 14 million, are also expected to draw big crowds. Ticket interest for the NFL’s Melbourne match has surpassed the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s 100,000-seat capacity, with more than 151,000 fans registering interest. Meanwhile, more than 600,000 people joined the virtual queue for last year’s Steelers game at Croke Park in Dublin. Ticket and hospitality revenue, Ellis says, pales in comparison to what the NFL hopes to build in media rights, sponsorship, and merchandise deals, once European audiences are converted into fans who watch 50-plus games a year rather than one.

The NFL isn’t the only organization running this experiment. Earlier this summer, FIFA was in the process of successfully exporting soccer to the U.S. as it joined Mexico and Canada in cohosting the World Cup. Despite its global popularity, soccer has struggled to find the same fandom in the U.S. as it boasts across Europe. Roughly a quarter (27%) of U.S. sports fans show an interest in soccer, compared with a global average of 40%, according to Sports Innovation Lab and JvM Sports. However, this World Cup has been a turning point. More than 6.25 million people attended matches through to the conclusion of the last round of 16, according to FIFA, and 18 million tuned in for the U.S. Men’s National Team opener against Paraguay across Fox’s platforms. The NFL is taking notes. “I’ve long admired FIFA for their global reach,” Ellis says, pointing to the power of “border-crossing stars” such as Lionel Messi. “Another lesson is storytelling,” he adds. “People want to know the backstories of the athletes. That stuff is inspirational.”

This is not the first time the NFL has sought to break into Europe. The first attempt, a 1974 plan for an........

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