ANALYSIS: How American Football became the most lucrative game in tourism

As field goals go, this one is lucrative, worth about €200m a kick. American college football has established itself as a consistent generator of tourism revenue for Ireland through the annual Aer Lingus College Football Classic at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Grant Thornton post-game economic impact reports place the cumulative contribution of the current series of fixtures at €514m. The 2025 contest between Kansas State and Iowa State alone delivered €132m to the Irish economy. That fixture drew 47,226 spectators, of whom 25,999 were international visitors and 22,910 travelled from the United States. American supporters stayed an average of 7.

1 nights and visited an average of three destinations across the island, spreading expenditure beyond the capital into regional hotels, restaurants, retail outlets and transport services.

The pattern of extended stays distinguishes these college events from many other one-off sporting occasions. Organisers schedule the games years in advance, giving alumni and season-ticket holders time to plan multi-destination itineraries. Supporters arrive in numbers sufficient to fill substantial blocks of hotel rooms in Dublin while also booking accommodation in places such as Galway and Killarney. The resulting spend covers accommodation, food and beverage, retail purchases and local transport, with secondary benefits arising from the multiplier effects of that activity across the wider economy. Broadcast coverage on ESPN reaches audiences measured in millions, providing Ireland with free promotion in specific American state markets that might otherwise receive limited exposure.

The 2026 edition, featuring Texas Christian University against the University of North Carolina on 29 August, is expected to attract around 14,000 visitors from the United States. While that figure sits below the peaks recorded in earlier years of the series, the underlying model remains intact. Visitors continue to stay for approximately one week and to travel beyond Dublin. Corporate sponsorship, business networking events and academic linkages arranged around the fixture further amplify the economic footprint. Aer Lingus carries teams and supporters, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland provide destination marketing support, and Dublin City Council participates in the organisational framework. The combination of public and private partners reduces the net cost to the State while maximising visitor yield.

2025 First NFL match on Irish soil

Professional American football has also entered the Irish calendar. The first regular-season NFL game in Ireland took place at Croke Park on 28 September 2025 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings. BDO research prepared for Fáilte Ireland calculated a total economic impact of €104.5m. Direct spend accounted for €76.8m, covering accommodation, food and beverage, retail, transport and event operations. Indirect and induced effects contributed a further €27.7m. Match-day attendance reached 74,512. Approximately 37pc of ticket holders travelled from the United States, 33pc were Irish residents and 30pc came from other international markets. More than 51,500 international visitors overall arrived for the game. American visitors stayed an average of six nights. Every euro of public funding generated €2.24 in tax receipts for the Exchequer, producing a reported return ratio of 10.5 to 1.

The NFL fixture generated a larger single-match attendance and a substantial television audience of 9.2m unique United States viewers. Fan engagement events across Dublin attracted more than 40,000 participants. The scale of the professional product therefore differs from the college series in several respects. Stadium capacity at Croke Park exceeds that of Aviva Stadium configured for American football, and the global brand recognition of the NFL draws a more mixed international cohort. College events, by contrast, rely more heavily on dedicated alumni networks that produce higher proportions of long-stay United States visitors relative to total attendance. The college model has so far produced higher cumulative tourism value across successive years because of the repeatability of the annual fixture and the longer average length of stay.

Comparison with matches staged abroad reveals differences in visitor behaviour and economic structure. London has hosted NFL regular-season games for many years. Cumulative spectator spending associated with those fixtures has been estimated in the hundreds of nillions of pounds over an extended period. Individual London weekends generate large volumes of international fans who spend above the average for overnight visitors to England. Hotel occupancy and retail activity rise sharply during those weekends. However, the concentration of activity remains heavily centred on the capital. Length of stay data for London NFL visitors tends to be shorter than the seven-night averages recorded for United States college supporters in Ireland. The Irish college series therefore captures a higher per-visitor tourism yield even when absolute attendance numbers are lower.

London and Europe

Other European destinations have begun to attract American football events, yet few have matched the combination of repeat scheduling, long-stay visitor profiles and regional dispersal achieved in Ireland. Games staged in continental cities often function as one-off spectacles that fill hotels for two or three nights without generating the same volume of multi-destination itineraries.

Ireland’s geographic compactness, established transatlantic air links and cultural affinity with North American visitors allow college supporters to treat the football weekend as the anchor of a wider holiday. Football fans turn up in Kerry and Galway for rounds of golf. Many five star hotels are booked up for the week before the match. That behavioural pattern converts a single sporting fixture into measurable regional tourism revenue.

The relative performance of college versus professional events within Ireland itself also warrants examination. The 2025 college game produced a higher headline economic impact figure than the NFL contest despite a smaller stadium and fewer total international arrivals.

The difference is explained principally by length of stay and the intensity of spending by United States alumni groups. College supporters arrive with a high propensity to travel further afield once they are in the country. NFL visitors include a larger share of European day-trippers or short-stay international fans whose expenditure remains more concentrated in Dublin. Both formats deliver clear returns, but the college series has so far proved more efficient at converting attendance into sustained tourism spend across the island.

Return on investment

Public investment in these events is modest relative to the measured returns. Hosting costs for a college fixture are understood to lie in the region of several nillion euro, with a substantial portion met by commercial sponsors.

The NFL game required a higher public contribution, yet still returned more than ten times that outlay in overall economic activity and more than twice the investment in direct tax receipts. The fiscal arithmetic therefore supports continued engagement with both formats. The challenge for policymakers lies in sequencing future fixtures so that hotel capacity, transport infrastructure and regional tourism businesses can absorb successive waves of visitors without excessive displacement of ordinary leisure demand.

Broadcast exposure constitutes an additional, less quantifiable benefit. College games on ESPN introduce Ireland to audiences in specific American states whose residents may later convert television viewing into travel decisions. The NFL’s larger United States audience performs a similar function on a broader scale. Neither form of exposure can be purchased at equivalent cost through conventional destination marketing campaigns. The sporting events therefore function simultaneously as tourism generators and as soft-power instruments that reinforce Ireland’s visibility in North American markets.

Looking forward, the sustainability of the economic contribution depends on maintaining the quality of the visitor experience and the predictability of the fixture calendar. College programmes plan several years ahead, which assists both organisers and the tourism industry in capacity planning. The NFL’s international series follows a different commercial logic that may produce less regular returns to any single market. Ireland’s demonstrated ability to host both formats successfully places it in a strong position to secure further dates, provided the underlying logistics of stadium conversion, security, transport and accommodation remain well managed.

Highest return in tourism

The data available from Grant Thornton and BDO studies demonstrate that American football, in both its collegiate and professional forms, has become a reliable component of Ireland’s event tourism portfolio.

College matches currently deliver the higher cumulative and per-visitor tourism yield because of longer stays and greater regional dispersal. The single NFL game produced a substantial absolute impact and strong fiscal returns. Relative to London and other overseas venues, the Irish college series extracts more tourism value per visiting supporter through extended itineraries.

This game, lucrative as it is, can go on for some time to come. Continued careful management of the calendar and of public-private partnerships should allow both strands of American football to retain their place in the Irish tourism economy for the years ahead. When new routes like Raleigh-Durham and Pittsburgh come directly on to the departure board as a result of the arrangement, everyone benefits.

Long history

The series has a longer history than many people suspect. It was good to hear Matin Laughton acknowledged at the pre-match event on Friday as the driver of the first Notre Dame match in Dublin, but the history of grid iron in Dublin precedes even Martin.

1953 Exhibition: U.S. servicemen played a charity match at Croke Park before an estimated 40,000 spectators.
1984 Launch: Sparked by televised NFL broadcasts, local fans formed Ireland’s first kitted team, the Dublin Celts, following a turnout at Phoenix Park.
1986 IAFL Foundation: The Irish American Football League started with teams like the Dublin Celts, who won multiple early national titles.
Dublin Rebels (1995): Founded as one of the country’s most successful domestic clubs, capturing numerous Shamrock Bowl titles in American Football Ireland.

Era Builders (1988-1997)

1988 Emerald Isle Classic: Boston College defeated Army (38-24) at Lansdowne Road. This was the first-ever NCAA-sanctioned regular-season college football game played in Europe, organized to mark the Dublin Millennium.
1989 Emerald Isle Classic: Pittsburgh defeated Rutgers (46-29) at Lansdowne Road.
1996 Shamrock Classic: Notre Dame defeated Navy (54-27) at Croke Park.
1997 American Bowl (NFL): The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Chicago Bears (30-17) at Croke Park. This was an NFL pre-season exhibition game that drew over 25,000 fans.

Modern Revival (2012-2016)

2012 Emerald Isle Classic: Notre Dame heavily defeated Navy (50-10) at the newly built Aviva Stadium. It brought more than 30,000 travelling American tourists to Ireland.
2014 Croke Park Classic: Penn State narrowly beat UCF (26-24) with a last-second field goal in front of 53,000 fans at Croke Park.
2016 Aer Lingus College Football Classic: Georgia Tech beat Boston College (17-14) at Aviva Stadium, officially kicking off the current naming rights partnership.

Week Zero (2022-Present)

Following a brief hiatus due to pandemic-related disruptions, the Aer Lingus College Football Classic established an annual “Week Zero” residency at Aviva Stadium:

2022: Northwestern defeated Nebraska (31-28)
2023: Notre Dame dominated Navy (42-3) in front of a completely sold-out Irish stadium.
2024: Georgia Tech pulled off a major upset against No. 10 Florida State (24-21).
Texas Christian University against the University of North Carolina