On the day Berlin marked the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it was wild to watch the razzle dazzle of America’s game on show in the German capital.
The Indianapolis Colts beat the Atlanta Falcons 31-25 in overtime. Catching from the tortilla cannon, singing Country Road, watching Jonathan Taylor run 83-yards for a touchdown to make franchise history, hearing DJ Scooter in the endzone — there was a barrage of live entertainment and German cliches on offer in the Olympic stadium, but the 72,203 fans in the refurbished Olympic Stadium loved every minute of it.
“The Olympic stadium in Berlin was crazy, what a great place to play football,” Austrian tackle for the Colts Bernhard Raimann said aftwards.
A lot of work has been done to make the NFL’s return to Berlin possible. Two locker room areas were merged into one, to accommodate the larger squad sizes of NFL teams. Ten new sinks were added, as were 11 toilets and 18 urinals. Four doors in the changing room area were widened, and the hot water volume was increased.
Plenty of work was done on the field to make the game possible, mainly where a plastic surface was laid and then a new hybrid turf mat was stitched on top. Two pole vault runways were also dismantled.
According to the Berlin Senate, funds amounting to €5 million will be available between 2025 and 2029 for the renovation of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, as well as the refurbishment of other public sports facilities in Berlin. This fee is included in the total €12.5 million the senate has set aside for the NFL games. Reportedly, the league is also investing nearly €50 million.
Olympic stadium set up for the future
But now, Berlin is in place to host NFL Games without further changes for the next four years.
“We are now a multifunctional arena for soccer, track and field, and American football,” Christoph Meyer, director of events and communication at the Olympiastadion, told DW.
“The renovations have been coordinated with the NFL and built with a view to the future for further games in 2027 and 2029. We are talking here about so-called ‘legacy measures’ that will avoid future temporary renovations,” added Meyer.
These legacy measures certainly offer an opportunity for this historical stadium to be the home of even more memorable sporting moments. After all, this is where Jesse Owens won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler, where Usain Bolt ran the 100 meters faster than any man might ever run the distance (9.58 seconds), and where the great Zinedine Zidane inexplicably headbutted Marco Matterazzi in the 2006 World Cup Final. It is a place with ties to the history of the city and indeed the country.
Modern stadia leaving Germany behind?
And yet, even this masterful stadium won’t be able to outrun the inescapable advancement of modern arenas.
When Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006, a lot of the country’s stadiums were renovated or upgraded to be modern, elite facilities for the time. The upgrades during Euro 2024 were welcome but investment in German stadium infrastructure, as many other sectors might also attest, has been lacking in recent years.
In a recent interview with German newspaper FAZ, architect Bianca Binder confirmed that Germany is an interesting market but did not specifically talk about stadiums. Binder works for Populous, a global architectural design firm, and was on-site project manager of the now-famous Tottenham Stadium.
The stadium of the Premier League club is also one of the main locations for NFL games in London as it has a retractable pitch system that offers an artificial turf for American football. The new Bernabeu, home of Real Madrid and where the first NFL game in Spain will be played later this month, has an even more elaborate retractable pitch system where more surfaces can be managed and even maintained.
Granted, both Tottenham and Real Madrid have taken on considerable debt that is reportedly going to take 20 plus years to pay off to create such stadiums. Such moves are not possible for all clubs or stadiums, particularly in Germany where the framework of operation is more complicated.
Nevertheless, with the NFL now fully established in Europe and reports that the NBA are making moves to create a European league in 2027, these investments appear smart choices for those interested in making the NFL a regular guest for years to come.
But what Berlin does have is history. Stadiums in Germany are cultural monuments, none more so than the Olympic Stadium in the capital.
“It’s very humbling,” Colts running back Jonathan Taylor said afterwards. “This is a historic place. All the guys who have achieved amazing feats here, to feel like I’m a part of that lineage is very humbling.”
Teammate Zaire Franklin felt similiarly. “Playing in Germany, I couldn’t speak more highly of the country, the hospitality, and the historic venue where we all know what Jessie Owens did all those years ago. Being in the huddle, we just said to each other: ‘Where would you rather be?'”
But with the other European hosts offering more comfortable, familiar, modern stadiums, it is only fair to wonder how much longer the teams and perhaps even the NFL itself will be content with patchwork pitches and historic football venues, however good the atmosphere and however great the history.
Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah
