In London, it’s not uncommon to come across people wearing football shirts wherever you go on weekends. There are so many teams in the city that a few of them play at home each round, and fans love to go to the stadium hours before kick-off to watch the game. On buses, the subway and the commuter train, those traveling together to the stadium talk in small groups, and do not mix much with “strangers”, even if they are wearing the same shirt as them.
CaptionNo matter who you support, just love the game
The NFL also differs from “soccer“. NFL fans form a big family – this is obviously not the case in America, but certainly in London. For Europeans, it is strange that fans wearing different team kits make friends with each other – they even happily greet someone He walks through wearing the jersey of their favorite arch rival.
An NFL game in London is a great adventure for everyone: fans from America enjoy seeing their team in a completely new environment, and European fans are thrilled to see their favorite sport live.
Because French, German, Spanish and of course Hungarian fans travel to England not for a specific team, but for American football. They (we) aren’t primarily Packers, Patriots, or even Bills fans, but they are sports nerds.
NFL Carnival hours before the game
October 8 Buffalo Bills-Jacksonville Jaguars On the morning of the game, only one person wearing an NFL jersey or T-shirt could be seen in the city centre, but as we got closer in time and space to the game, the concentration of NFL fans increased. Three hours before kick-off, only people going to the match were boarding the suburban train towards Tottenham’s stadium.
I’ve attended many football matches, and been lucky enough to visit the biggest stadiums in Europe (I’ve also watched a football match at Tottenham’s home), but I’ve never witnessed anything like this Sunday before. Two and a half hours before the start, the crowd was pouring around the stadium, already at that time an amazing number of people had gathered. I didn’t experience the classic tailgate (barbecue on a pickup stand in the parking lot), but the Americans did their best to make their country look like London: lots of programming, more buffets waiting for fans, and a gift shop worthy of a separate paragraph.
American takeover of the gift shop
Tottenham are proud to announce that their ultra-modern stadium, which was delivered a few years ago, houses the largest fan shop in Europe, with every Spurs-related memorabilia imaginable. In March, I had the opportunity to tour the smaller store in the mall, and the selection was truly impressive.
Well, I didn’t get to see any of that on this day, because the entire store was taken over by the NFL: all Spurs merchandise was gone, and instead, a staggering amount of NFL jerseys, t-shirts, hats, scarves, key chains and who knows what? What else are fans waiting for? In order to keep the customers from getting bored (although I don’t know how you could get bored in a place like this), there was also a DJ entertaining the visitors and, to the delight of the majority, mingling in a Buffalo Bills jersey.
It is clear that the organizers were prepared to face the public (but this is not always the case in Europe, I actually experienced this myself): they consciously directed the fans to the pre-formed line with hoops and indicated on the signs the approximate time that those who would come to the line would spend. You want to wait to get to the gift shop plaza. It took twenty minutes, but it was worth it: the Americans said that they had no such store where the relics of each team were available in such quantity and variety. It was at Tottenham’s home stadium and it took a European fan a serious effort not to spend a small fortune…
Eat like you do in America
Not only in the gift shop, but also inside the stadium, it felt like America: the food and beverage selection rivals (and even surpasses) the food courts of the largest malls, and is also very different from the Spurs game:
Fans can choose from real American menus to truly feel as if they are on the other side of the ocean.
But it’s not just the gastronomic experience that’s worth getting into the stadium long before kick-off: the stadium itself is also stunning, one of the most modern facilities in the world, where everything has been invented to make the fan happy. as possible. According to the news, it’s no coincidence that the Bills are playing one of their “home” regular-season games here: The Spurs’ stadium also served as a model for the design of Buffalo’s new home, which is under construction and expected to open in 2026. .
A carnival in the stands, a professional show on the field and on the projectors
Perhaps that’s why the Blue Shirt fans felt so at home, as many were not content to wear the official team kit for the match: perhaps only in the largest American reserves can you see as many bison antlers as they appeared in the corridors of London Square.
And of course in the stands, where the view is absolutely stunning. Even from the top floor, the fifth, you can see the match perfectly, and the whole stadium, even from that point of view, is incredible. In addition, they installed large projectors in every corner so that every little moment can be tracked perfectly. And screens the size of a handball field are not only used for this purpose: during pauses (of which there are much more in an NFL game than in a soccer game) they constantly entertain the audience, sometimes with interviews, sometimes with sneak peeks, sometimes With the prize. Games – not to mention the increasingly popular kiss camera in our country.
Whichever NFL team you support, playing in London is a tremendous experience.
For those few hours, I really felt like I was in America – although if you take into account that it was 25 degrees in the city, and that winter was approaching in Buffalo at this time, it was probably better than in the home of the sport.
The photos were taken by the author
