Helping grow the NFL’s footprint in the UK by using the sport to empower young people facing inequality across underserved communities.
The Challenge
The NFL in the US is one of the leading sports organisations using its influence to affect positive social change. This is a key strategy for the NFL to deepen its relationships with fans and stay top of the sport roster. Having grown its footprint in the UK, hosting games in London for the last 10 years, the NFL UK wanted to do something similar – use a social impact strategy to support the game’s expansion and engagement with a younger audience in the capital. Think Beyond helped the NFL to achieve this.
The Solution
We created a strategy that identified the impact the NFL UK wanted to make, both at a societal and business level, the young people it wanted to support, the unique assets it had to achieve that impact, and the activities it would implement to make it happen. Based on this strategic work we created a national grant programme, focused on tackling inequality amongst youth aged 11-20 in underserved communities.
This offered a unique opportunity to build relationships with a new fanbase in the communities that needed support and where NFL games took place.
With a funding commitment from the Mayor of London, this program has seen £800,000 distributed to community organisations. Each partner has received a grant, equipment, and training to use NFL Flag football, an inclusive form of the game to engage young people who had a lack of access to life skills opportunities. We continue to work with the NFL to deliver this work in London and beyond.
In 2023 we designed and launched the Foundation’s first Youth Advisory Board, which saw 11 young Londoners from funded partners to help shape the activities of the NFL UK Foundation.
The Impact
The NFL UK Foundation secured a 2-year funding partnership, worth £1million, with the Mayor of London, allowing expansion of the programme to eight partners, 13 London boroughs, and supporting 2.5k young people to achieve positive outcomes.
In 2023, there was a 33% increase in confidence levels of young Londoners, engaged in NFL Flag, feeling they have the skills to successfully apply and interview for jobs.
NFL UK has secured a long-term legacy project with Tottenham Hotspur (a key area and stadium for the NFL UK’s growth) and Sport England to expand the programming to other UK cities.
It has helped deliver unprecedented growth for the NFL UK:
- 43% of NFL fans in the UK are aged 16-34 showing how the work has delivered success in the growth of its younger fan base.
- NFL UK’s reach is dominated by young Londoners where the strategy to engage those London communities, alongside the spectacle of live games, has solidified its fan base there.
- NFL Flag UK’s numbers have doubled amongst girls in the capital, expanding the game’s footprint in communities.
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