Twickenham to rival new White Hart Lane for NFL matches
'We had a real success with NFL, for the two games we had here,' RFU chief executive Steve Brown said
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Your support makes all the difference.Twickenham has been thrown into the mix to stage further National Football League matches next season despite the toll of hosting two games this year being clear for all to see during England’s recent autumn internationals.
As the England players ran out for matches against Argentina, Australia and Samoa in November, the NFL badge could clearly be seen in the middle of the pitch, while the turf looked far from its best as it cut up in all three matches during the autumnal weather conditions.
The Rugby Football Union has since confirmed that the wrong type of paint was used on the turf, meaning that the American Football symbols had not either washed away or grown out of the pitch by the time the rugby returned to the stadium, but that will not stop the governing body from seeking a new deal with the NFL to stage future games in south-west London.
Neither will the completion of Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium at White Hart Lane, which is being constructed specifically with staging NFL matches in mind due to its large changing rooms deep in the heart of the ground, as RFU chief executive Steve Brown threw Twickenham into the mix for future negotiations about staging UK-based games.
“We had a real success with NFL, for the two games we had here,” Brown said. “They were really complimentary about our offering and we stepped up the quality of that. They have very high standards and that’s good for us, as well.
“They’re keen to do business with us going forward so we’re going to put ourselves in the best possible place to get more games here. It probably won’t be more than a couple a season going forward but we’re very keen to keep that in our core portfolio of events here.”
Addressing the concerns regarding the state of the pitch, Brown added: “[RFU groundsman] Keith Kent is still scarred by that. We need to have an agreement with the right type of paint that’s used which did stay with us for quite a long time afterwards. It’s starting to grow out now but that’s something we need to specify more clearly going forward. We spoke to Wembley about it and they’ve been much more specific because they had similar problems in previous years. It does linger for quite some time.”
Brown has also taken lessons from hosting the NFL matches – for which staff at Twickenham completed training with Disney to prepare for the American atmosphere that comes with the NFL. “What works well with them is the fan interaction, the family nature of it. I saw a bit of that in Samoa, there was more of a family audience here which is a nice balance. We can do that in different types of games throughout the season. I’d like to encourage that, it’s good to get young people here and a different audience.”
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