June 28 (Bloomberg) -- The National Football League today closed its development league in Europe after 16 years, changing its international strategy that now includes playing NFL regular-season games in other countries.
The NFL will shutter NFL Europa, which played its World Bowl title game in Frankfurt, Germany, last week, to focus on ``presenting the NFL to the widest possible global audience, including broader media visibility and the staging of international regular-season games.'' the league said in a news release.
NFL Europa lost about $400 million since it began operating under the name World League of America Football in 1991, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported citing Uwe Begehim, the league's managing director.
``We will continue to build our international fan base by taking advantage of technology and customized digital media that make the NFL more accessible on a global scale than ever before and through the regular-season game experience,'' said Mark Waller, senior vice president of NFL International, in the release.
The league, which switched to its current format in 1995, played its season from April to June. It produced players such as quarterback Kurt Warner, who led the St. Louis Rams to the 2000 Super Bowl championship and won two NFL Most Valuable Player awards; Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme; and Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, a two-time Pro Bowl pick.
All-European Format
NFL Europa played its first season in 1991 as the World League of American Football, with 10 teams located in North America and Europe. After a two-year hiatus in 1993 and 1994, the league returned with a six-team all-European format in London, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Scotland and Dusseldorf.
The league last had teams in Amsterdam, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin.
NFL Europa averaged a record 20,024 fans a game this season, up from the previous all-time high of 18,965 in 2005, according to the NFL. Its games were broadcast on cable television in the U.S. on the league-owned NFL Network.
Carl Peterson, president of the Kansas City Chiefs, said in an interview last week that the European league helped teams develop players and gave the U.S.'s most-watched sport an international presence.
``We invest in a lot of other things and spend a lot of other money on some things that are not directly related to football,'' Peterson said. ``This is football.''
Recent Chiefs who spent time in Europe include quarterback Damon Huard and offensive lineman Brian Waters, a three-time Pro Bowl selection.
Talent Development
Oliver Luck, 47, the back-up to Houston Oilers quarterback Warren Moon from 1983-1986, and the European league's president from 1995 to 1999, said that talent development wasn't the intention when the league was formed.
``Originally, the goal was to give Europeans a chance to watch a good level of football live, with the hope that the media would pick up the game and the fans and the business community would be won over,'' said Luck, now president of Major League Soccer's Houston Dynamo.
``When we started, it was truly ground zero,'' he said. ``Most folks had never seen a game. And if you threw a football to a European kid, he'd either try to kick it with his feet or throw it underhand like a rugby ball.''
Luck said that while the NFL was better at marketing, licensing, merchandising and hospitality than Europeans, they struggled with simple cultural differences.
``We spent a lot of time discussing what time to start the games,'' said Luck. ``In Barcelona, young folks eat at 10 p.m. and stay out until 4 and 5 in the morning. Meanwhile, the Germans keep a schedule similar to people in the U.S.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.
NFL Europa logo
The NFL has announced that its "farmer-league" NFL Europa has been discontinued after 15 seasons. Instead, the NFL will change "the focus of its international business strategy to presenting the NFL to the widest possible global audience, including broader media visibility and the staging of international regular-season games." "The time is right to re-focus the NFL's strategy on initiatives with global impact, including worldwide media coverage of our sport and the staging of live regular-season NFL games,'" said Mark Waller, senior vice president of NFL International, to NFL.com

The NFL is focusing on the international market now. In October, the owners passed a resolution to set up to two regular-season games in international stadiums per year. The first of these games will be played at Wembley Stadium in London on October 28 when the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants meet.

In 2006, NFL Europa changed its name from NFL Europe to NFL Europa to focus more on the German and Dutch markets. When NFL Europa shut down, it had six teams based in Holland and Germany. The Hamburg Sea Devils won the last World Bowl (number 15) last Saturday. Two of the players that were developed in NFL Europa were Arizona Cardinals QB Kurt Warner and Indianapolis Colts K Adam Vinatieri.