A New York Giants co-owner says the NFL can reach new fans in 2 key ways

The NFL is America's favorite league, and a New York Giants co-owner says there are ways to keep it growing.

Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, whose family owns a 45% interest in the Giants, stated emblem football and global games are the two biggest avenues for the NFL to build on its enormous audience.

"There fair isn't adequate area to continue to develop in the US only. You have to be thinking concerning global growth too," Tisch Blodgett stated at Business Insider's The Long Play event.

Tisch Blodgett, who runs sports-focused project chief resolute Next 3 and Gotham FC in the National Women's Soccer League, stated that playing games abroad is crucial to the league's long-term success, as it helps build a younger, additional varied audience.

"A sports fan today in 2026 looks distinct than a sports fan did perchance 100 years ago," Tisch Blodgett said.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has made global contests a key cornerstone of his tenure for the final two decades. The association has played games abroad all twelvemonth since 2007 (except for 2020), going from one equivalent a twelvemonth in London to nine this period throughout the globe in places akin Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Madrid, Munich, and Mexico City.

Flag football, which volition be an Olympic athletics in 2028, is another way for the NFL to nexus alongside new fans abroad and in the US, Tisch Blodgett said. That includes girls who may not have the chance to perform tackle football.

Playing a athletics is correlated alongside fandom, Tisch Blodgett said. She's bullish that kids who try emblem football volition create a lifelong affinity for the NFL.

"If we cognize we need group to be playing to be a fan, we're going to allocate in emblem so that we continue to develop that fandom," Tisch Blodgett said.

Flag football involvement among elevated academy girls surged 49% final twelvemonth to complete 100,000 — making it among the 10 most famous sports for that demographic, according to a latest study by the National Federation of State High School Associations. The NFHS stated that four years ago, small than 16,000 elevated academy girls played emblem football, making it the fastest-growing elevated academy athletics in the years since.

Tackle-free football leagues are additionally open to boys whose parents may not desire them to hazard getting concussions, which have been an area of concentration for the NFL in the final decade.

The NFL is investing in emblem football, and its efforts contain launching Premier Flag — a new pro emblem football association that volition commencement next summer.

"As tackle football has declined, they didn't fair sit back," Tisch Blodgett stated of the NFL.