Today's Edition
KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)
American football, synonymous more famously by the NFL, has made a foray into the UAE with the franchise San Francisco 49ers initiating a game development activation at a Dubai school for a version of flag football on Tuesday.
The NFL stakeholders and teams are expanding the sport outside of the American shores. Having recently been awarded the license to expand to the Middle East, the 49ers touched down in Dubai after taking the brand to Mexico and the United Kingdom.
The first move has been to collaborate with the GEMS chain of schools where an event was held with over 50 children and a dozen of PE teachers at the World Academy Senior School.
The day's programme included a flag football coaching session and youth clinic in Dubai, to highlight the 49ers investment into the global growth of flag football, a sport included on the Summer Olympics agenda in 2028.
Aletihad spoke exclusively to Stephanie Rogers, Executive Vice President of Marketing of the 49ers, who shared her enthusiasm of setting foot in the UAE, the first of three NFL teams to get the nod for activation in UAE as part of the league's Global Markets programme. Los Angeles Rams and Washington Commanders are the other two teams.
"Our commitment is not just about flag participation but about creating a journey for youth development. Across a combination of in-person events, digital activations and community initiatives, we aspire to share the storied history of the 49ers with the UAE."
As part of the 49ers’ three-pronged strategy, there will be watch parties when the season kicks off with some matches on the east coast of America will be screened in public to allow UAE fans to see the game at suitable hours. Besides that, there will be digital avenues (e.g, an Arabic Instagram page has also been launched).
Importantly, the 49ers have no complications from their fan base having any reservations during the expansion drive, as witnessed in some sporting leagues.
The 10th oldest franchise in NFL – joining the league in 1949 and hence the name – has five Super Bowl titles to their name and sits alone in NFL history with most playoff wins. And Rogers establishes why the UAE appeals to the franchise.
"For us, we like celebrating the entire Bay Area. We are hosting the Super Bowl this year at Levi's Stadium. So that'll be a big moment for us to celebrate what our area and stadium has to offer.
"Aside from football, shortly after the NFL Super Bowl, we're hosting six games in the FIFA World Cup next summer as well. So we really see this as a huge opportunity to kind of tell the story of what we are as the 49ers.
"We're a community that's very proud in terms of a fan base, called "The Faithful." I think there's a lot of synergies right in the UAE and in San Francisco in terms of things to experience, outdoor life and sporting activity.
"We are the third largest fan base in the NFL in the United States and in many of the markets. But the NFL measures fandom internationally. In many of the markets, we are No.1 or in the top three since those days in the 1990s when we had Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice, and Dwight Clark, or even just from the last five to 10 years when we've had three Super Bowl appearances and some exciting names in recent signings as well; so I don't think anybody feels like they want to keep San Francisco 49ers just to the Bay Area.”
And Rogers is candid to say that the franchise is learning and adapting on the go when it comes to staking a claim in new territories. "The education event here [at GEMS] is coming from our experience in the UK. One of the learnings is that the best way to grow the game from a participation standpoint is to start working with the PE teachers and getting into the school system.
"In the UK, we've built a really cool programme, called Unlocking Potential, in partnership with Leeds United, the EPL team. And just last week, the NFL UK hosted the national championship for flag football in the Leeds area in Yorkshire due to some of the work that we had done there.
"So that's an example that we're looking for as we start building out our flag programming here, not only within the schools, but hopefully within a competitive landscape and creating leagues and clinics. And we're really trying to integrate here in a natural way, in a way that fits in with the culture and the population."
Money Matters
On the commercial front, Rogers insists it is not the primary focus for entering the Middle East market, though they are using the services of the region's leading sports consulting company Rise Group.
The latter has clients for many sporting properties such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai Sports Councils, Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, Neom, etc. and has recently been acquired by the global agency Elevate.
Rogers and Rise Group's co-founder, Dave McCann, now with the new entity Elevate Sports Ventures, expressed enthusiasm in finding great collaborators. "We're trying to have conversations, finding the right partners that want to be involved for the right reasons," Rogers said.
"Our hope is that we can find a number of different people and businesses here because those relationships end up helping us bring more programming to life through the schools, community initiatives, etc. So while it's not the number one most important thing for us, it really does help us service the community in a very big way.”
