Ireland has sent quite a few of its people to America over the years. The U.S. will be returning the favor this week.
The Steelers-Vikings matchup at Croke Park in Dublin is expected to draw a larger-than-usual chunk of U.S.-based fans compared to other international games.
It will be the first regular-season NFL game in Ireland, and all sides are hopeful it could lead to more.
That would be good news for fans in the States, who have shown massive interest in this one.
“It speaks to Dublin’s appeal and Ireland’s appeal to that U.S. audience,” Henry Hodgson, general manager of NFL UK and Ireland, told The Associated Press in an interview.
The league’s registry of interest for ticket purchases when the game was announced showed a higher proportion of U.S. interest compared to games in other markets, such as Britain and Germany.
“The split was essentially a third from Ireland, a third from the U.S. — with the majority being from Pittsburgh and once we announced the Vikings, from the Minnesota area — and then a third from the U.K. and rest of Europe,” Hodgson said.
“Normally you’d see the majority from the local market and then a smaller percentage from elsewhere.”
Steelers fans might feel particularly at home, not only because the Rooney family ownership has Irish roots, but also because the team has opened a merchandise shop in the city. There might even be a few fans coming who attended Pittsburgh's 1997 preseason game at Croke Park.
The capital city is also well-drilled when it comes to hosting American football fans, having staged college games for several years.
Dublin is tracking to become the biggest-ever NFL international game in hospitality sales, according to John Anthony, executive vice president of On Location, the NFL’s hospitality partner.
The deal is for one game followed by an evaluation period, Hodgson said, so no one is penciling in more Dublin games just yet. But there’s optimism.
“That’s a goal on both sides. I don’t want to preempt an evaluation that we need to do on both sides about the impact that it has, but so far there’s been a really strong partnership,” said Hodgson, noting they’ve followed a similar course in other cities.
The Gaelic Athletic Association, which owns Croke Park, stands to gain from an expected crowd of 75,000. Alan Milton, the GAA’s head of communications, said “hopefully it will not be a one-off.”
The Irish government allocated up to 9.95 million euros ($11.7 million) to support the game, according to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, which said in a statement it is open to hosting "future NFL games.”
The government projects the game will generate 64 million euros ($75 million) “in additional economic activity for Ireland with a direct Exchequer return on the State’s investment of nearly two to one," the culture and sport department said. More than 30,000 international visitors are expected.
“It will also provide global exposure for Dublin and Ireland, with an expected TV audience in the U.S. alone of up to 20 million viewers,” the department's statement read.
Irish Times columnist Dave Hannigan, however, said it's unfair for such a lucrative league to seek taxpayer funds.
“They’re commercial juggernauts. Come to Dublin, make whatever you want from this experience, or this enterprise, make as much money as you can ... just don’t charge the Irish people for it,” Hannigan told the AP.
Hodgson pointed to some elements of the funding that “will remain in the market” like stadium upgrades.
It's a business model that works, he added, and other cities are lining up to host games.
“The NFL brings in significant economic and social impact,” Hodgson said. “Ultimately, if that’s what Ireland or Dublin or any other city is looking to do, to bring in the tourism and social impact that we can provide, and they’re willing to make that outlay, that’s how this works."
Capacity will be reduced from the usual 82,300 in part because a standing section has been fitted with seats. The pitch was replaced following several concerts, Milton said.
For the Gaelic games normally played at the stadium — which includes Gaelic football, a game that's a bit like rugby — the opposing teams each get a locker room and warmup area on the same side of the venue.
“In this instance, one American football team is going to take up those four areas on one side of the stadium,” Milton said. “It gives you an indication of the size of the guys, the equipment, the numbers ... their background teams, it’s on a different level to our games.”
The media center has been doubled in capacity.
“The interest is phenomenal,” he said.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson warms up before an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Monday, Sept. 8, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
FILE - A view of the Samuel Beckett bridge across the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland, March 14, 2014. (AP Photo/Helen O'Neill, File)
FILE - Football fans cheer during American Bowl action between the Chic ago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, Sunday, July 27, 1997. (AP Photo/Adrian Dennis, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most American presidents aspire to the kind of greatness that prompts future generations to name important things in their honor.
Donald Trump isn't leaving it to future generations.
As the first year of his second term wraps up, his administration and allies have put the president’s name on the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleships.
That’s on top of the “Trump Accounts” for tax-deferred investments, the TrumpRx government website soon to offer direct sales of prescription drugs, the “Trump Gold Card” visa that costs at least $1 million and the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor included in a deal his administration brokered between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
On Friday, he plans to attend a ceremony in Florida where local officials will dedicate a 4-mile (6-kilometer) stretch of road from the airport to his Mar-a-Lago estate as President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.
It’s unprecedented for a sitting president to embrace tributes of that number and scale, especially those proffered by members of his administration. And while past sitting presidents have typically been honored by local officials naming schools and roads after them, it's exceedingly rare for airports, federal buildings, warships or other government assets to be named for someone still in power.
“At no previous time in history have we consistently named things after a president who was still in office,” said Jeffrey Engel, the David Gergen Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “One might even extend that to say a president who is still alive. Those kind of memorializations are supposed to be just that — memorials to the passing hero.”
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said the TrumpRx website linked to the president's deals to lower the price of some prescription drugs, along with “overdue upgrades of national landmarks, lasting peace deals, and wealth-creation accounts for children are historic initiatives that would not have been possible without President Trump’s bold leadership.”
"The Administration’s focus isn’t on smart branding, but delivering on President Trump’s goal of Making America Great Again," Huston said.
The White House pointed out that the nation's capital was named after President George Washington and the Hoover Dam was named after President Herbert Hoover while each was serving as president.
For Trump, it’s a continuation of the way he first etched his place onto the American consciousness, becoming famous as a real estate developer who affixed his name in big gold letters on luxury buildings and hotels, a casino and assorted products like neckties, wine and steaks.
As he ran for president in 2024, the candidate rolled out Trump-branded business ventures for watches, fragrances, Bibles and sneakers — including golden high tops priced at $799. After taking office again last year, Trump's businesses launched a Trump Mobile phone company, with plans to unveil a gold-colored smartphone and a cryptocurrency memecoin named $TRUMP.
That’s not to be confused with plans for a physical, government-issued Trump coin that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the U.S. Mint is planning.
Trump has also reportedly told the owners of Washington’s NFL team that he would like his name on the Commanders’ new stadium. The team’s ownership group, which has the naming rights, has not commented on the idea. But a White House spokeswoman in November called the proposed name “beautiful” and said Trump made the rebuilding of the stadium possible.
The addition of Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center in December so outraged independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that he introduced legislation this week to ban the naming or renaming of any federal building or land after a sitting president — a ban that would retroactively apply to the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.
“I think he is a narcissist who likes to see his name up there. If he owns a hotel, that’s his business,” Sanders said in an interview. “But he doesn’t own federal buildings.”
Sanders likened Trump's penchant for putting his name on government buildings and more to the actions of authoritarian leaders throughout history.
“If the American people want to name buildings after a president who is deceased, that’s fine. That’s what we do,” Sanders said. “But to use federal buildings to enhance your own position very much sounds like the ‘Great Leader’ mentality of North Korea, and that is not something that I think the American people want.”
Although some of the naming has been suggested by others, the president has made clear he’s pleased with the tributes.
Three months after the announcement of the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a name the White House says was proposed by Armenian officials, the president gushed about it at a White House dinner.
“It’s such a beautiful thing, they named it after me. I really appreciate it. It’s actually a big deal,” he told a group of Central Asian leaders.
Engel, the presidential historian, said the practice can send a signal to people "that the easiest way to get access and favor from the president is to play to his ego and give him something or name something after him.”
Some of the proposals for honoring Trump include legislation in Congress from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney that would designate June 14 as “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day," placing the president with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington and Jesus Christ, whose birthdays are recognized as national holidays.
Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube has introduced legislation that calls for the Washington-area rapid transit system, known as the Metro, to be renamed the “Trump Train.” North Carolina Republican Rep. Addison McDowell has introduced legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport.
McDowell said it makes sense to give Dulles a new name since Trump has already announced plans to revamp the airport, which currently is a tribute to former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
The congressman said he wanted to honor Trump because he feels the president has been a champion for combating the scourge of fentanyl, a personal issue for McDowell after his brother’s overdose death. But he also cited Trump’s efforts to strike peace deals all over the world and called him “one of the most consequential presidents ever.”
“I think that’s somebody that deserves to be honored, whether they’re still the president or whether they’re not," he said.
More efforts are underway in Florida, Trump’s adopted home.
Republican state lawmaker Meg Weinberger said she is working on an effort to rename Palm Beach International Airport as Donald J. Trump International Airport, a potential point of confusion with the Dulles effort.
The road that the president will see christened Friday is not the first Florida asphalt to herald Trump upon his return to the White House.
In the south Florida city of Hialeah, officials in December 2024 renamed a street there as President Donald J. Trump Avenue.
Trump, speaking at a Miami business conference the next month, called it a “great honor” and said he loved the mayor for it.
“Anybody that names a boulevard after me, I like,” he said.
He added a few moments later: “A lot of people come back from Hialeah, they say, ‘They just named a road after you.' I say, ‘That’s OK.’ It’s a beginning, right? It’s a start.”
FILE - A sign for the Rose Garden is seen near the Presidential Walk of Fame on the Colonnade at the White House, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Workers add President Donald Trump's name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, after a Trump-appointed board voted to rename the institution, in Washington, Dec. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - A poster showing the Trump Gold Card is seen as President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
