Populous Plans 11th Consecutive NFL London Games Series

With the 2018 NFL London Games series concluding this weekend with the Philadelphia Eagles playing the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium, Populous’ events team celebrates another successful year of NFL Games in London. Involved in the planning of the series since it began in 2007, Populous led the accreditation, event planning and operational integration between the NFL and Wembley Stadium staff to assure the three games went off without a hitch over the past two weeks.

Populous’ event scope included NFL-approved wayfinding, security and checkpoint operations which required the implementation of a crowd flow wayfinding system in order for the 84,000 fans to efficiently move throughout the facility. This new system accommodated the NFL’s best practice fan security screening requirements, the same requirements that occur at NFL games in the United States. Never before accomplished at Wembley Stadium, full airport-style screening also occurred at the entry gates before fans entered each game.

“We are proud to have taken part in the planning of the 11^th consecutive NFL London Games Series,” said Todd Barnes Senior Principal at Populous. “It is an honor to plan such a global event in one of our very own venues and a feat in itself to pull it off year-after-year in a stadium not originally designed for NFL football.”

After this weekend, 24 NFL games will have been hosted in London- most of them at Populous-designed Wembley Stadium, which opened in 2007. Through 2016, the series was known as the NFL International Series. However, in 2017 the series was broken into two sub-series: the NFL London Games, played in London since 2007, and the NFL Mexico Game played in Mexico City, which began in 2017 with one precursor game in 2006. So far, 26 NFL teams have faced off in London.

Moving forward, the NFL plans to host at least two London Games a year at Populous’ new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, scheduled to open later this year. For more on the global impact of Populous’ event group, check out populous.com/services/event.