Earlier this year our own National Rugby League in Australia took a couple of games to Las Vegas in an attempt to promote the game internationally (among other things). Now our local media in Australia are reporting that the Americans flagship NFL is potentially going to bring a regular season match to Australia some time between October 2025 and February 2026.
Maybe this is a reciprocal type of thing or maybe it’s just a trend, but apparently the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles "have the rights in Australia" so I guess that if it happens it’ll be one of those teams. Pundits seem to think it’ll be a Los Angeles Rams home game to be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground - which is our biggest and most prestigious stadium.
Well, for me – yes, I do love my sports and in principle I agree with the idea of promoting sports internationally. But do I think that the NFL playing in Australia is a good idea? Or is even likely to happen? Personally, I’ve never been to an NFL game even though it’s on my Bucket List. I’d rather go to the US than Melbourne, but that’s just me. I do think that they could go close to filling the MCG with maybe 80,000 fans so maybe it’d be worth it for them.
My gut feeling though is that at the end of the day this is going to be about money and I think it’d be a significant sacrifice for any NFL franchise to bring a game to Australia. Maybe it’d be worth it to promote the game but it’s hard to put a tangible value on that kind of exposure and unless the NFL itself is going to chip in I think it's a hard sell. What do my American friends think? How about the Aussies here? Would you travel to Melbourne to see the NFL?