NFL’s Gold Coast Academy last piece of jigsaw in sporting behemoth’s Aussie assault

The NFL’s establishment of a ‘Super Bowl’ sized Academy on the Gold Coast is the latest sign the US sporting giant is a serious player in the battle for Australian sporting talent writes SHANNON GILL.

The establishment of the NFL Academy is a warning shot in the Australian sport talent battle.

While the NFL is at pains to say its not starting a talent war with Australian sporting codes, the establishment of an NFL Academy on the Gold Coast shows the leagues setting up camp in Australia is more than just a light touch public relations soiree.

The NFL’s General Manager of Australia/New Zealand Charlotte Offord confirmed that work on the Academy, which hopes to produce a steady stream of Australian talent to US colleges, began three years ago. Well before the NFL established an office here.

“It was an idea that existed even before we moved into the Australian market,” she says.

“This is the next step up in the funnel in terms of nurturing high performance, nurturing athletes earlier.”

It will be only the second Academy the NFL has established after the UK in 2019. This year more than 30 graduates of the UK academy are playing college football in the US.

Australian NFL Player Jordan Mailata with aspiring kids during an NFL Flag Football Clinic in Sydney. Picture: Daily Telegraph / Gaye Gerard

As academies go the NFL version is a step-up from the AFL or NRL varieties that are essentially after school training programs.

This is an Academy of Super Bowl ambition and scope.

Kids from 12-18 are eligible and can be selected via tryout days held on the Gold Coast, Sydney or Auckland, or via applying with videos online.

If successful, they will attend A.B. Paterson College on the Gold Coast and receive full-time private education, along with housing and meals for the term of their schooling. Intense training in American football is wove throughout in the hope of landing them full-time college scholarships in the US.

While the Academy officially opens in September this year, the NFL will start building a high performance facility on the school grounds to house the academy, due to be completed in 2026.

The facility will be available for public use too, something that Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate enthused about.

“Not only will the city benefit from significant global marketing exposure, but the local community will have access to a new high-performance field and facility that will also allow us to attract more national and international sporting teams to the coast,” he said in a sign that the NFL is endearing themselves at government level here too.

It’s the NFL’s expectation that 55 students will eventually will gain places in the program each year, however that will build over time.

The NFL’s Australian strategy is now clear; capitalise on the glamour and excitement it generates at primary school age and then use that to identify the best athletes to one day cross the Pacific Ocean.

It’s working too.

After the most watched Super Bowl in Australia ever this year, schools flocked to sign-up for the NFL’s national flag football program.

“We’ve probably had about 250 schools sign up since January and we’re on track to get over 100,000 participants by the end of this year.”

Artist impression of the new NFL Academy that will be based at A.B. Paterson College on the Gold Coast. Picture: Supplied by the NFL.

100,00 is an extraordinary number given it was barely 200 two years ago.

Based on the most recent Australian Sports Commision child participation figures (under 15 years of age), by reaching that target Flag Football would rocket into 14th spot among Australian sports with a bullet.

For context it would be hurtling towards the 136, 157 children playing Rugby league, and zooming past the 85, 062 playing Rugby Union.

And of course those 100,00 participants will all be made aware of the opportunity that awaits on the Gold Coast, particularly the most talented.

“If you’re a young athlete between 12 and 18 and you think ‘I’d love to play in the NFL, how do you go about doing that?’ I’d say there’s not a clear-cut way to do that right now,” Offord says.

“What the NFL Academy creates is that clear-cut way.”

Offord says “this is not competition against other codes,” but rest assured that the Academy announcement means the NFL has officially arrived in the great Australian sport talent battle.

It also shows that Offord’s bosses in the US are committed to their Australian exploration.

“It is a vote of confidence, that we believe in this market and we want to stay,” She says.

“We wouldn’t be here putting the resources in and putting the investment in if we didn’t believe that it had the talent.”

It all sounds very positive if you’re one of the growing group of sports fans who spend their spring and summer Monday mornings streaming NFL action on Kayo.

Yet don’t get your hopes up about seeing any live NFL games on these shores in the immediate future.

“It’s not on the cards right now, but certainly we can’t rule it out,” Offord says.

Originally published as NFL’s Gold Coast Academy last piece of jigsaw in sporting behemoth’s Aussie assault