The NFL fanbase is surging in sports-mad Australia. When a regular-season game kicks off for the first time Down Under on Friday a sellout crowd will pack the 100,000-plus capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to roar their enthusiasm.
Yes. That’s right. A traditional cricket ground in Australia’s second biggest city will host the Los Angeles Rams taking on the San Francisco 49ers as the NFL launches a record nine-game international schedule across four continents and seven countries.
Tickets at the cavernous MCG were snapped up within minutes, echoing the interest the NFL has enjoyed when staging games in other overseas markets and now being wildly embraced Down Under, AFP reports.
Australia — a sports-mad nation of 28 million people who embrace rugby, cricket, Aussie Rules, soccer and just about anything else — is the latest destination added to the NFL global slate, the league saying the country has 6.6 million NFL fans.
AFP reports Aussie interest is driven by the popularity of flag football.
Members of the visiting San Francisco 49ers with Ben Graham watch some Aussie Rules as the 2026 AFL First Elimination Final between the Geelong Cats and the Carlton Blues at the Melbourne Cricket Ground kicks off on September 4, 2026 in Melbourne, Australia. (James Wiltshire/AFL Photos via Getty)
Boosted by its inclusion in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and potentially the Brisbane Games four years later in the northern state of Queensland, flag football can now be found in some 500 Australian schools, up from 10 in 2022 when a pilot program was launched.
“Australia has emerged as one of the most exciting growth markets for flag football globally,” Charlotte Offord, the NFL’s general manager for Australia and New Zealand, said per AFP.
Offord was speaking last month after the NFL teamed up with American Football Australia (AFA) to expand its national schools program further as part of a grassroots initiative to boost the game internationally.
Australia is seen as a significant overseas market for the NFL as it looks to grow across the Asia-Pacific region as well as Europe with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell predicting just last month there will one day be an NFL franchise based outside the United States, as Breitbart News reported.
Reuters reports NFL owners have approved up to 10 international games a season from 2027, but expanding beyond that would require approval from the NFL Players Association.
The costs of playing games in foreign markets are high but are offset by ticket revenues and fees paid by hosts.
San Francisco 49ers’ wide receivers #5 Mike Evans and #7 De’Zhaun Stribling talk to a member of the coaching staff during training in Melbourne on September 7, 2026. (Martin KEEP / AFP via Getty)
To cater for a prime-time audience back home during the Melbourne contest, the game will kick off at 10:35 am in Australia, which is Thursday evening in the U.S.
Meanwhile locals and lawmakers just can’t wait.
“Major events like the NFL are economic powerhouses -– they fill our hotels, support our jobs and put Victoria on the world stage,” said an enthused Victorian state minister for major events Anthony Carbines.
For the record, this is not the first time two U.S. teams will take to the hallowed ground of the MCG — the first American football match played there was in 1908, between visiting sailors from the warships USS Minnesota and the USS Kentucky.
It happened during the historic world tour of the U.S. Navy’s “Great White Fleet.”
The match consisted of two 15-minute halves and ended in a 0–0 tie.
AFP contributed to this report