Aer Lingus, the Irish flag carrier celebrates the touchdown of its sponsored College Football Classic – cheerleaders from North Western University performed upon arrival in Dublin to help mark the start of the exciting exhibition game.
Arriving in Dublin for the very first time, the Northwestern University Wildcats will take on the Nebraska University Cornhuskers in Dublin’s famous Aviva Stadium on 27 August 2022.
The two teams, cheerleaders and accompanying band flew with Aer Lingus - title sponsor of the event - to bring American razzmatazz and the big game to the Irish capital.
The Northwestern Wildcats will take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers in this high-profile Big Ten Conference fixture, opening the 2022 college football season. The Aviva Stadium will play host to 16,000 in-bound tourists and the game will be broadcasted on the FOX network, with a live US TV audience of approximately 3.5 million viewers.
On game day, some 230 football players, 146 band members and 32 cheerleaders will take to the field and the event will kick off in style a series of college football games coming to Dublin over the coming years.
The Aer Lingus College Football Classic looks set to have a major impact on travel and tourism and the wider economy in Ireland, as fans of both US colleges are expected to travel to Ireland in their thousands to cheer on the two teams.
The game represents the biggest inbound international event in Ireland since 2019 with 13,000 US fans and 3,000 European fans arriving in Dublin to be part of the big game, which is worth an estimated €63 million to the Irish economy.