This week General Manager Matthias Mämpel of Germany’s Frankfurt Galaxy/Universe confirmed that there’s no longer an ongoing law suit between the sports club Frankfurt Universe e.V. and the FFB – Frankfurter Football Betriebs (FFB).
The Frankfurt Galaxy were a professional American football team that originally played in the World League of American Football and later in the resurrected NFL Europe. It was active until the league folded in 2007.
In September of 2014, the FFB, a German business marketing agency, purchased the rights for the Frankfurt Galaxy from the NFL and planned to rename the Frankfurt Universe, a club that was play in the German Football League 2 (GFL2) into Frankfurt Galaxy. An attempt to do the same in 2007 had failed because the naming rights then lay with the NFL.
According to Mämpel, the NFL has agreed that the club can use the name Galaxy stating, “I’m very proud that we found a solution with the NFL about the name”.
The team handed in all the necessary paperwork to the American Football Association of Germany (American Football Verband Deutschland or AFVD) in order to be eligible to play in the GFL in 2016.
Mämpel went on to thank all those involved;
“I look forward to a Galactic Premiership season and hope to see many people in the stadium again this year, who will support the team in the first division. Considering our successful start last season, I look forward to the growth in coming years as the Frankfurt Galaxy!”
Public Relations Manager of the GFL’s Berlin Adler, Bjorn Hesse on how this solution in Frankfurt may impact Germany’s top football league.
“This is H-U-G-E, that Frankfurt can keep the name Galaxy, otherwise they would have lost their main sponsor for 2016, Samsung. Samsung wants to promote their own “Galaxy” products in combination with the football team.
From a competitive standpoint, this is also great news for the GFL. This could turn things around in Germany. Over the past 3 years Braunschweig [New Yorker Lions] have dominating the league. Only the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns and the Dresden Monarchs have come close as second-place teams. The Adler have competed, as well , at least in the 2014 Euro Bowl.
With the Galaxy (and their financial backing) finally competing in the first league, this means some fresh air is coming in. Other teams, especially in the GFL South, will also be challenged to step up their marketing game – otherwise Frankfurt will draw most of the interest of possible sponsors.”