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% stake in the Giants, said flag football and international games are the two biggest avenues for the NFL to build on its massive audience.
“There just isn’t enough room to continue to grow in the US only. You have to be thinking about international growth too,” Tisch Blodgett said at Business Insider’s The Long Play event.
Tisch Blodgett, who runs sports-focused venture capital firm Next 3 and Gotham FC in the National Women’s Soccer League, said that playing games abroad is crucial to the league’s long-term success, as it helps build a younger, more diverse audience.
“A sports fan today in 2026 looks different than a sports fan did maybe 100 years ago,” Tisch Blodgett said.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has made international contests a key cornerstone of his tenure for the last two decades. The league has played games abroad every year since 2007 (except for 2020), going from one game a year in London to nine this season across the globe in places like Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Madrid, Munich, and Mexico City.
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Flag football, which will be an Olympic sport in 2028, is another way for the NFL to connect with new fans abroad and in the US, Tisch Blodgett said. That includes girls who may not have the opportunity to play tackle football.
Playing a sport is correlated with fandom, Tisch Blodgett said. She’s bullish that kids who try flag football will develop a lifelong affinity for the NFL.
“If we know we need people to be playing to be a fan, we’re going to invest in flag so that we continue to grow that fandom,” Tisch Blodgett said.
Flag football participation among high school girls surged 49% last year to over 100,000 — making it one of the 10 most popular sports for that demographic, according to a recent survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations. The NFHS said that four years ago, fewer than 16,000 high school girls played flag football, making it the fastest-growing high school sport in the years since.
Tackle-free football leagues are also open to boys whose parents may not want them to risk getting concussions, which have been an area of focus for the NFL in the last decade.
The NFL is investing in flag football, and its efforts include launching Premier Flag — a new pro flag football league that will start next summer.
“As tackle football has declined, they didn’t just sit back,” Tisch Blodgett said of the NFL.
