"Rugby, Rugby, Rugby!"

"Roar, Jaguar! The jaguar is coming! ”

"Welcome to London!"

"This is the real home of hell!"

"Who dares to challenge Wembley!"

"The jaguar will win!"

At this moment, Jennifer-Hale, a Fox TV correspondent on assignment, is standing on top of Trafalgar Square in London, reporting from the crowd around her, as if she were celebrating New Year's Eve.

Exactly 60 years ago, in June, the British people gathered here in the light rain to welcome the queen's accession to the throne; Since then, Trafalgar Square has become a public gathering place for important celebrations, and it is no longer the case today, with countless citizens gathering here to welcome the second London Bowl of the year with great enthusiasm.

The depression and cold of late autumn did not stop the carnival of the whole audience.

"Audience friends, the second London Bowl matchup of the NFL this year will be at Wembley Stadium this Sunday, which means that in five days, we will have this crucial encounter on the other side of the Atlantic. The match will be between the Jackson Jaguars and the San Francisco 49ers, with the Jaguars being the home team. ”

"Now we can see that Trafalgar Square is hosting a special welcome ceremony and the London Bowl will be officially arriving in London tomorrow with all the fans cheering and celebrating. Although this is the home of the Jaguars, it is clear that no one could have predicted it when this game was scheduled last October......"

Jennifer was broadcasting live to the camera lens, and then suddenly a scream broke out next to her, and a group of girls rushed over and jumped wildly behind Jennifer, "Bambi! Ahhh ”

This caused Jennifer's words to pause for a moment, and then laughed as well, "Even though this is the home stadium of the Jaguars, the 49ers who are playing away still have a lot of fans." The game was officially finalized in mid-October last year, when no one could have predicted that the San Francisco 49ers would be able to continue their winning streak and reach the Super Bowl in a perfect season, which makes the London Bowl even more meaningful now.

"This is the first defending champion in history to fight overseas! For the first time in the seventh year of the NFL International Series, London has welcomed the debut of the defending champions! ”

"That makes this game extraordinarily special. At that time, the Jackson Jaguars, who are playing at home, will team up with the defending champion San Francisco 49ers to present a wonderful matchup. As for now? Let's enjoy the carnival atmosphere first, it's going to be a big party for London! ”

Jennifer Heller's statement is not just a TV phrase, but a reality that is playing out: the London Bowl, indeed, is setting off a frenzy that is sweeping across the British Isles.

Over the past two decades, the NFL has grown to become the largest sports league in North America, surpassing and leading the way in terms of ratings and ability to attract money, and has gradually become the top sports league in the world, and its influence continues to expand and upgrade.

The NFL under Roger Goodale has entered a period of unprecedented prosperity.

In fact, as early as 1976, the NFL landed in Tokyo, and then went to Berlin, Dublin, Sydney and other cities to hold games, hoping to open up the international market; Since 2007, the NFL has moved the regular season out of the North American continent for the first time to London, England, which has also made London a bridgehead for the NFL's overseas market, and the venue for the game was Wembley Stadium.

Wembley Stadium is home to the England national team, hosted the 1948 Olympic Games and the 1966 World Cup final – the only World Cup title in England's history, and is steeped in history as the venue for the Rugby Challenge Cup final.

In 2003, the old Wembley Stadium was completely demolished and rebuilt and opened in 2007. Wembley Stadium was the first to host the first official London Bowl game at Wembley Stadium, where the New York giants defeated the Miami Dolphins.

When Roger Goodale decided to hold a regular season game in London, the idea was met with numerous doubts, although rugby is the number one sport in North America, but the overseas market is far from comparable, not to mention, in the United Kingdom, in addition to football, rugby also has a strong mass base, while the rules and methods of American football are so different that no one can be sure whether the London Bowl will be successfully held.

But the truth proved Goodall's bold strategy.

In just six years since the first London Bowl in 2007, the number of viewers tuning in to the match in the UK has doubled; The number of viewers watching the Super Bowl in the British Isles has increased by 75 percent, and it has maintained a continuous growth momentum every year, constantly breaking its own records.

What's more, the attendance at Wembley Stadium at the London Bowl can definitely be described as "hot".

With a capacity of 90,000 people, Wembley Stadium is one of the best in the world, and attendance is undoubtedly the most important and worrying part of any competition.

The New England Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams at the London Bowl on October 28, 2012, a match that drew 84,004 avid British fans – a staggering number even in the cosmopolitan city of London.

On October 13, 2012, a week before the London Bowl, England faced Wales at Wembley Stadium in the European Championship qualifiers, with less than 70,000 spectators. In the Rugby World Cup in October 2015, England also faced Australia at Wembley Stadium, and if they lost, England would not qualify for the knockout round, a do-or-die match that attracted an audience of 81,000.

Statistics show that since the arrival at Wembley Stadium in 2007, the London Bowl has never been attended by less than 80,000 spectators, and tickets were sold out as soon as they went on sale online.

American football even surpasses the charm of football in England? It may sound like a fantasy, but in real life, the FA is really thinking about Wembley Stadium as the official home stadium of the NFL in the future, while the England national team chooses another stadium as the home stadium.

In 2017, the NFL reached a ten-year cooperation agreement with Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League, and from 2018, Tottenham's new stadium on White Hart Lane will host at least two NFL regular season games a year, and the "Tottenham Bowl" is about to debut; The new stadium is designed with two floors, the upper floor is a green pitch for football, and the lower floor will be turned into artificial turf, taking into account the different demands of football and rugby.

Goodale has been sparing no effort to open up overseas markets, and the league's 32 teams have their own considerations:

If you go to play overseas, then there must be a team that needs to lose a home advantage; At the same time, viewership in North America will inevitably be affected by the time difference and have to decline, which will have a huge impact on the team's domestic fan market.

But on the other hand, the London Bowl is an additional live broadcast of the night game, and at the same time, it can also open up overseas markets and increase the team's overseas influence; In addition, the league has promised to give the team that becomes the home team to make up for the losses - ticket dividends and peripheral bonuses.

There are pros and cons, and this is a question of weighing interests.

The league's most popular teams have rejected the league's proposal, the team owners are all old foxes, and teams like the Dallas Cowboys or the New York Giants don't need the London Bowl to open up the overseas situation; Naturally, those bottom-of-the-table teams need this opportunity even more.

In January 2012, the St. Louis Rams signed a three-year agreement with the league to hold a regular season game in London for the next three years. But less than seven months later, the St. Louis Rams regretted that they would still play the London Bowl in 2012 and then forfeit in 2013 and 2014.

The Jacksonville Jaguars then took over from the St. Louis Rams and signed a four-year deal with the league to host the London Bowl each year at Wembley Stadium, and they are on the verge of becoming the first team in the league to complete consecutive home regular season games overseas.

This year, the 2013 season, is the first time in the league's history that two regular season games have been held overseas.

On September 29, the Minnesota Vikings took Wembley Field as their home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the process and ending of the game were slightly unexpected, this game attracted 83,500 spectators, and the fierce battle reached the final moment, and finally the home team Vikings narrowly defeated the Steelers, with a score of "34:27", giving the opponent four consecutive defeats at the beginning of the season.

By the way, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were plagued by injuries last year, are even more dizzy this year, losing all four games in the preseason and starting the regular season with four straight defeats, and seem to have completely lost the rhythm of victory, until the fifth week of the regular season to beat the New York Jets and achieve their first victory since the start of the new season.

Then, on October 27, the London Bowl ushered in the second game of the year, with the Jackson Jaguars taking on the San Francisco 49ers.

Although the Jacksonville Jaguars have gradually become a fish belly team in recent years, in London, the English media deservedly regarded them as the home team, showing the loyalty and enthusiasm of the football league, and supporting the Jaguars without abandoning.

Here, not only did a dedicated fan organization appear to cheer for the jaguars; Moreover, the Daily Mail also launched an early official support campaign to create a home atmosphere for the Jaguars, which also received strong support from the public, and the enthusiasm is not inferior to that of Jacksonville.

Look no further than the hustle and bustle of Trafalgar Square.