At the end of October of 2007, the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants crossed the Atlantic Ocean to play American football. Rather than a typical cross-country trip to a familiar stadium and atmosphere, both National Football League (NFL) teams stepped out onto the grass at Wembley Stadium in London, England to thousands of cheering fans from all over the world. This game marked the beginning of nearly two decades of international NFL games held in countries including Germany, Brazil, and Mexico, furthering the global presence of American football. Since this first game, the international game roster has expanded and during the 2025-2026 National Football League season, seven international games will be held, the most international matches ever recorded in the league’s season. The expansion to new international markets as game locations, including Madrid, Spain and Melbourne, Australia, are part of the National Football League’s Global Markets Program (GMP). 

This paper analyses current international growth strategies for the U.S.-based leagues of the NFL and the National Basketball League (NBA). The NFL’s lackluster global expansion efforts has been recognized by Tim Ellis, the NFL’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer when he stated the following at SportsPro New York in March 2025: “let’s face it, right now we are not global. We play in global games but we have a long way to go before we’re in the top three sports in our key markets around the world. And we’re very aware of that and we have to make major strides in order to be successful” (Dixon, 2025). The viewership levels of American sports leagues pales in comparison to the global fan bases of other sports including the FIFA World Cup and Cricket World Cup, the latter recording 300 million viewers for just the 2024 final matchup of India and Australia (Shah, 2025). These matches may bring in higher viewership just inherently by being representative of different countries, but high levels of viewership can also be seen within major European soccer matches with a matchup between United and Liverpool attracting over 600 million viewers (McLean, 2023) even with both teams being located in the United Kingdom. Formula 1 (F1), another sport known for its large international fanbase due to races occurring all over the world, also records high levels of engagement with any given race. For example, an average of 1.3 million viewers were recorded during the racing portion of the 2024 United States Grand Prix (Hall, 2024). Alongside the immense popularity of these sports, both the NFL and NBA have seen lower viewership year-over year. In December of 2024, NBA viewership was reportedly down 19% from the previous season. This drop has since elevated slightly to a 5% difference year-over-year but still ranks significantly amongst a downward trend for cable television viewership overall with a 13% decline in the United States (Friend, 2025). The NFL has also seen a decrease in viewership by 2.2% during the 2024-2025 regular season with three of five major media rights partners CBS, FOX, and ESPN/ABC all recording lower viewership compared to previous years (Reynolds, 2025). 

European football and cricket have been prevalent in sport culture for hundreds of years longer than American football and basketball. Although American sports cannot match the historical and cultural significance of other sports for different communities across the globe, these leagues need to develop roots and relationships to increase prevalence around the world. Capturing the sports interest of international audiences has and can continue to drive revenue opportunities for major leagues through sponsorship and event activations, in addition to media rights, ticket sales, and merchandising. This diversification of revenue dependent on an international market will be key as leagues navigate changing viewership trends from U.S.-based sports fans.