NFL seeks to win new fans with latest London game

LONDON (Reuters) - The New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers kick off on Sunday at London's Wembley Stadium in a game that league officials hope will win over new fans in a country where the other football is king.

The National Football League has already turned the game into a money-maker in the United States over the past few decades, with sold-out games, corporate sponsors, long waiting lists for season tickets and lucrative television contracts.

Last year's sold-out game at Wembley featured the eventual Super Bowl winning New York Giants versus the Miami Dolphins, two of the most popular teams in Britain.

But this time around the regular season games features two smaller market teams, a pairing league officials say will help them better gauge the sport's popularity here as they push into new markets.

"It is important that we have smaller market teams playing this game," NFL UK Managing Director Alistair Kirkwood said in a telephone interview. "If we went for the iconic teams each time then you wouldn't quite know whether it was the novelty or the football in itself."

The NFL first gained popularity in Britain in the 1980s when broadcaster Channel 4 began showing games. The game is the second straight at Wembley, and the NFL has committed to at least two more seasons here, Kirkwood said.

The Super Bowl was screened live for the first time in January 1983, featuring the Dolphins and the Washington Redskins, and a series of pre-season games were played at Wembley in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Over the past few years the NFL has gained wider coverage in Britain where fans this season can see 132 games on television, more than England's Premier League, Kirkwood said.

"Both the BBC and Sky are showing the game live here," Kirkwood said. "We are going to introduce the sport to a load of new people."

Hosting games at Wembley is a key part of the plan to make American football a top five sport in Britain over the coming decade behind soccer, rugby, cricket and motor racing's Formula One, he said.

Another aspect is developing local talent through coaching clinics to try to get more young people interested in the sport and potentially on the path to an NFL career, Kirkwood said.

Currently there are three Britons on NFL practice teams including Jermaine Allen, who will suit up for the New Orleans Saints when they play before an expected sell-out crowd at Wembley of about 83,000.

Unlike last year, the NFL will also try to provide the "home" team with an advantage by handing out flags in the Saint's colors and putting on a Mardi Gras-style tailgate before the game with Cajun-styled food and music.

New Orleans, however, will be without injured running back Reggie Bush and facing a LaDainian Tomlinson-led Chargers team that has struggled so far this season to show the form many experts expected would make them Super Bowl contenders.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Justin Palmer)