Ireland braces for influx of Americans as NFL heads to Dublin

Ireland has sent quite a few of its people to America over the years. The U.S. will be returning the favor this week.

The Steelers-Vikings matchup at Croke Park in Dublin is expected to draw a larger-than-usual chunk of U.S.-based fans compared to other international games.

It will be the first regular-season NFL game in Ireland, and all sides are hopeful it could lead to more.

That would be good news for fans in the States, who have shown massive interest in this one.

“It speaks to Dublin’s appeal and Ireland’s appeal to that U.S. audience,” Henry Hodgson, general manager of NFL UK and Ireland, told The Associated Press in an interview.

The league’s registry of interest for ticket purchases when the game was announced showed a higher proportion of U.S. interest compared to games in other markets, such as Britain and Germany.

“The split was essentially a third from Ireland, a third from the U.S. — with the majority being from Pittsburgh and once we announced the Vikings, from the Minnesota area — and then a third from the U.K. and rest of Europe,” Hodgson said.

“Normally you’d see the majority from the local market and then a smaller percentage from elsewhere.”

Steelers fans might feel particularly at home, not only because the Rooney family ownership has Irish roots, but also because the team has opened a merchandise shop in the city. There might even be a few fans coming who attended Pittsburgh’s 1997 preseason game at Croke Park.

The capital city is also well-drilled when it comes to hosting American football fans, having staged college games for several years.

Dublin is tracking to become the biggest-ever NFL international game in hospitality sales, according to John Anthony, executive vice president of On Location, the NFL’s hospitality partner.

The deal is for one game followed by an evaluation period, Hodgson said, so no one is penciling in more Dublin games just yet. But there’s optimism.

“That’s a goal on both sides. I don’t want to preempt an evaluation that we need to do on both sides about the impact that it has, but so far there’s been a really strong partnership,” said Hodgson, noting they’ve followed a similar course in other cities.

The Gaelic Athletic Association, which owns Croke Park, stands to gain from an expected crowd of 75,000. Alan Milton, the GAA’s head of communications, said “hopefully it will not be a one-off.”

The Irish government allocated up to 9.95 million euros ($11.7 million) to support the game, according to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, which said in a statement it is open to hosting “future NFL games.”

Irish Times columnist Dave Hannigan, however, said it’s unfair for such a lucrative league to seek taxpayer funds.

“They’re commercial juggernauts. Come to Dublin, make whatever you want from this experience, or this enterprise, make as much money as you can … just don’t charge the Irish people for it,” Hannigan told the AP.