It’s not often I receive an e-mail from the mayor of a world-class city.
But today I received one from Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London. He’s all excited about his city hosting one of the most hotly anticipated sporting events of the year: the regular season NFL game between the the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants at the new Wembley Stadium on Oct. 28, 2007.
It will be the first competitive (non pre-season) game played outside the Americas.
There has been a huge demand for tickets. In the 72 hours following the announcement of the game, 160,000 fans registered for more than half a million tickets with 100,000 requests in the first 24 hours.
The London game is expected to attract around 10,000 fans from the United States as well as thousands from Europe.
Ken Livingstone said: “London’s success in winning the Summer Olympics is making it the natural choice for a world-class sporting event of this size and scale. It means London is attracting and enjoying not only the best in Olympic but also non-Olympic sports. The huge interest in the game and the demand for tickets shows teams and spectators can all expect the warmest of welcomes in October.”
The Mayor’s official visitor organisation, Visit London, has already started promoting the game and will be working with both teams on a series of events and activities to bring the game to life later in the year.
The Mayor of London, who is attending the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York City, also announced a London initiative, supported by the NFL, to carbon-offset the two teams’ flights.