The first regular season NFL game played in Ireland generated an estimated 105m for the Irish economy.
The game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings took place at Croke Park on 28 September 2025 and drew almost 75 000 attendees.
Patrick O’Donovan revealed the decision to invest €10m to host the game proved a success and vindicated the Government choice. The research found 37pc of visitors came from the US or Canada 30pc from elsewhere overseas and 33pc from Ireland or as day visitors.
The analysis concluded that for every one of public funding spent 2.24 in tax receipts returned to the Exchequer.
Patrick O’Donovan shared “I know that there were a lot of people that were saying in advance that this was a potential waste of money, and we shouldn’t be doing this, and there was questionable data with regard to whether or not it was going to be worth anything to the economy. Luckily, I think the Government made the decision here, members of the Cabinet made the decision here, and the decision has been vindicated. There were a lot of people, quite frankly, who were opposed to this, and they have now (been) silenced.”
Charlie McConalogue shared “The match went off exceptionally well and returned €22m direct to the taxpayer.”
Alan Lomasney shared “Flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, with over 20m players across 100 countries, where women and girls are driving the fastest growth. The sport will officially be included in the LA 2028 Olympic Games programme, led by the efforts of the International Federation of American Football and supported by the NFL. AFI is looking forward to working with the NFL to grow flag football in Ireland and appreciates the support of Government to achieve this.”
Henry Hodgson shared “It was a success by all measures and we’ve seen that with the economic impact report that was published today. We’re also excited about the opportunity to continue growing flag football, which is a really important part of our global growth initiatives, with flag being an Olympic sport in 2028 in Los Angeles. We’re really seeing how Irish children are getting a chance to play the game and very quickly represent their country, which is which is really exciting. We welcome the opportunity to work with the government, with Sport Ireland, with American Football Ireland to continue that growth in the coming years.”
