NFL has work to do to win over British fans

The NFL has spent years trying to crack the U.K. market and has grand plans to use the country as a linchpin for global expansion.

The response from the great British public? We’re bored by your funny foreign sport, thanks very much.

A YouGov survey of 1,616 British adults ranked “American football” as the nation’s second-dullest sport to watch, with 59 per cent of respondents rating it “very or quite boring,” while just 18 per cent think it’s exciting. Only golf fared worse. A full 70 per cent find that sport painful to watch.

The findings represent yet another setback to the NFL, which faces falling TV ratings at home and has come under constant criticism from President Donald Trump for players kneeling during the national anthem to demand racial equality and to protest the treatment of minority citizens by police.

The NFL is planning a big year in Britain after several years of steady growth. Rather than just one regular-season game in London as happened between 2007 and 2012, the schedule has expanded, with London hosting four games last year.

The lineup for 2018 will be announced Thursday and is expected to include the first at Tottenham Hotspur’s as-yet unfinished stadium in north London. The 61,599-capacity venue includes a retractable field designed specifically to accommodate the NFL, and a 10-year deal is in place.

And while the live fans are suitably enthusiastic about the action, the key to YouGov’s finding perhaps lies in viewers who can’t tell their quarterbacks from their cornerbacks. The NFL is broadcast only on pay-TV network Sky Sports with a weekly highlights show and the Super Bowl on the free-to-air BBC.