Late Nineties: Challenging Times
The mid-nineties saw the growth of the sport stagnate in the Netherlands, bringing about the demise of several clubs. The novelty of the sport wore off and it was evident in the diminishing interest of sponsors. Television exposure was no longer to be taken for granted and the growth of the youth competition was suffering. Conversely the sport was undergoing a renaissance in the rest of Europe, with media interest and crowds growing. This situation forced the decision by the Amsterdam Crusaders to pull out of the Dutch competition and instead compete in the ill-fated Football League of Europe in 1994 and 1995
While the sport was struggling in the Netherlands, bigger thing were afoot for American Football on a global scale. 1991 saw the birth of the World League of American Football (WLAF). This precursor to NFL Europa was a professional competition founded and funded by the US league: the NFL. The intentions of the WLAF were two-fold: to increase the popularity of the sport in Europe and to act as a feeder league to the NFL, testing out young players who were on the brink of breaking into the NFL. These developments had a large influence on Dutch American Football.
By the end of the 1990s American Football as a sport in the Netherlands was in crisis. Only a third of teams had survived, no sponsors were involved in the sport, and the level had suffered as a result. At the same time, the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europa were pulling in crowds of 12,000 for home games - many of them spectators who ten years earlier would have been supporting the teams in the Dutch competitions.
Read more about this topic: American Football In The Netherlands
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