The NFL spectacle took over the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium once again on Sunday as the Premier League club showcased their versatility
The national anthems take place before the NFL game between Indianapolis Colts and Washington Commanders as part of the London Games
The national anthems take place before the NFL game between Indianapolis Colts and Washington Commanders as part of the London Games
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The NFL rolled into Tottenham once again with all its spectacle and razzmatazz and the money duly rolled into Spurs' transfer coffers.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is now an old-hand at hosting the game from across the Atlantic and 60,907 fans packed into the ground to watch the Indianapolis Colts overcome the Washington Commanders 30-13 in the first of this year's NFL London Games.
It's worth pointing out that the Commanders were the designated home team, continuing that familiar theme of the away side leaving the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with the points and the smiles.
To keep the familiarity for Spurs fans, the home team also lost players to serious injuries with wide receiver Jaylin Lane carted off with a bad ankle injury, quarterback Marcus Mariota hobbling off with an MCL sprain - himself filling in for the injured Jayden Daniels, while defensive end Charles Omenihu could not continue due to a groin problem.
Spurs' fans on the whole are happier nowadays with what goes on at their home when their team isn't playing or at least have come to terms with it.
During the Daniel Levy era, the NFL games, concerts, boxing, rugby and more was all a sideshow, a vessel to take out frustrations on the former chairman and the owners for seemingly being more bothered about Beyonce and Lady Gaga than trophies.
That mood shifted this summer when Tottenham finally started to spend big money on players, with £100million committed towards Sandro Tonali, £85million each on Mateus Fernandes and Savio in a transfer window that could cost the north London club around £400million when everything is taken into account.
Other clubs started to moan. How could Tottenham spend that sort of money when they were restricted and having to sell their biggest stars due to financial fair play rules?
The answer is of course...the NFL games, concerts, boxing, rugby and more.
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Spurs fans can criticise what happens at their stadium but they won't have others criticising it. It's a bit like mocking your own siblings but woe betide anyone from the outside who tries it. That moaning from various clubs' supporters over the summer has only led to many Tottenham supporters now weaponising the cash-driving nature of their stadium and revelling in it.
For logically you can't build a £1.2billion stadium that lies dormant for the 345 or so non-Spurs home match days a year.
It makes no sense and it's unfair on the thousands of staff who work at the stadium for every event.
Make no mistake either, the club's old ground, White Hart Lane, was also used for plenty of other events than football because Tottenham need to compete financially with their big-spending rivals and this huge new stadium has helped bridge some of the gap.
The Premier League matches are still a massive driver of cash with the club bringing in £6million in revenue per game compared to just under £1million that White Hart Lane would provide.
To put it all into yearly terms, Tottenham's annual matchday revenue from their 2024/25 accounts was £126million and their commercial income - which includes concerts and NFL games - was a whopping £277million.
For context, those figures at White Hart Lane were just £45million for annual matchday revenue while commercial income was £73million.
With the NFL games, in essence Spurs rent out the stadium so they mainly make their money from the original NFL deal, the rental fee paid by the NFL as part of their contract, extended three years ago until the 2029/30 season - and they also pull in major amounts of money with their cut of enormous sales of food, drink and merchandise from their megastore.
Sunday's game began at 2.30pm, with thousands of fans teeming in and around the arena from hours before, and the game did not end until around 5.30pm.
During the game the crowd remain inside the stadium, eating and drinking - something they're allowed to do in their seats as well during an NFL game. With the end of each quarter and half-time so they can fill up on food and drink to take back to those seats.
Back in 2019 after the first NFL game held in N17, Bottoms Up Beer - who provided the technology that fills up beer glasses quickly from their base - tweeted that £1million in sales had been made before the beer ran out in the third quarter of the game. That broke the record that day for beer sales at any European venue in history.
Of course, the figure will only have risen over the ensuing years with increased prices and beer stock.
On Sunday, hours after the game there were still fans heading into the club megastore which is transformed and dedicated to NFL stock for the London Games.
So even without the ticket revenue, the NFL partnership is a huge money maker for Spurs and football.london understands that the revenue the club brings in from NFL games has risen by between five and 10 per cent in the past couple of years.
One day, once the various issues and hurdles are overcome around the idea of overseas franchises, Tottenham will have their own London NFL team. They have a purpose-built stadium ready for it and the sport has never been more popular in the country and across Europe.
Various football celebrities were in attendance on Sunday, including Roy Keane and Wayne Rooney, while Noel Gallagher was present as the crowd sang Wonderwall.
The star though amid all the noise, spectacle and drama is the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium itself.
"I thought the stadium was phenomenal," said Colts head coach Shane Steichen. "Fans were phenomenal. Great setup. State of the art. Even this conference room is phenomenal. We're very fortunate to have the opportunity to come over here and play."
Washington Commanders fans during the NFL game against Indianapolis Colts at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Washington Commanders fans during the NFL game against Indianapolis Colts at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
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Colts' star running back Jonathan Taylor added: "This stadium, the energy was amazing, the fans were electric. I can't wait to come back. Hopefully we get scheduled again to come back to London."
Commanders linebacker Sonny Styles called it a "cool setting, cool stadium" and for the Colts' kicker Spencer Shrader it was a dream come true.
The 27-year-old played a lot of 'soccer', as they call it across the Atlantic, and was an attacking midfielder in his school days. Nowadays he is married to Lyon and USA international footballer Korbin Albert.
"During the game you're trying to not get overwhelmed but there are those moments where you look around the stadium like, I cannot believe we're in Tottenham's stadium," he said.
"This is so cool. And then they showed Wayne Rooney [on the big screen]. That's the craziest thing, we grew up watching him. We appreciated the experience and did our best to take it all in and not get overwhelmed by the environment. We still had a job to do and stay locked in for the task at hand."
He added: "I think the coolest thing is this stadium is capable of undergoing a complete transformation for us to come in, and it feels very much like an NFL field.
"There's always those elements of new place, new environment, a little bit different turf that you take into consideration. But it was perfect, everything was great."
The Commanders have a £2.8billon project to build a new stadium on the site of their old RFK Stadium, their home from 1961 to 1996.
Owner Josh Harris, who paid almost £38,000 for two rounds of drinks for every one of the 3,000 Commanders fans at a London pub in the week, admitted that the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will give him ideas towards the franchise's new home.
"We're looking at all the things they've brought," he said. "They have a really cool way of bringing in and bringing out the grass… which doesn't really work for us, unfortunately, as we'll have water right below us.
"But they did a good job, we've walked around that stadium a couple of times. What we're trying to do is take the best of every stadium, and bring it to the new RFK site."
Tottenham have an amazing home and one that's the envy of sports teams and supporters around the world. NFL fans who were bringing friends for their first visit on Sunday could be heard on the walk from Northumberland Park station raving that it was "the best stadium I've ever been in".
Now Spurs need to remember how to win there and make it a fortress to be proud of for football reasons as well as financial ones.
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