How an NFL match in Melbourne came to be, and its historic links

Anticipation is building ahead of the NFL's big Australian debut.

The San Francisco 49ers take on the Los Angeles Rams at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday morning in what will be the league's first regular-season game in Australia, and just the second game overall of the 2026 season.

The match kicks off on Friday at 10.35am and is geared around the Thursday night TV audience in the US. Kick-off time will be 5.35pm on the US West Coast and 8.35pm on the East Coast.

How did the NFL land in Victoria?

The NFL has a four-year contract with Victoria to host at least two games in Melbourne, with an option for a third, and is part of the NFL’s International Series, which started in 2007 at London's Wembley Stadium.

The Victorian government beat out serious bids from both NSW and Western Australia to host these games, and is thought to be paying the NFL about $15 million per game.

How often does the NFL play outside the US?

The match at the MCG will be one of nine international matches scheduled this season — including matches in Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Munich, Madrid, and London. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has expressed interest in having every team play once in a foreign market each season.

Games have also been staged in Germany, Brazil, Mexico and Canada before.

While exhibition games between NFL teams have been played beyond US borders since 1969, some countries, like England, took time to build a following, while others, like Mexico, embraced it immediately.

In fact, the largest crowd in NFL history is 112,376 at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City in 1994 when the Houston Oilers beat the Dallas Cowboys.

Other stadiums have also hosted NFL regular-season games outside the United States, including the Bernabéu in Madrid, Croke Park in Dublin, Twickenham in London, plus stadiums in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and São Paulo in Brazil.

The NFL has ramped up international efforts in recent times by inviting teams to apply for international marketing rights for various countries.

Are both the teams in Australia already?

As of Wednesday afternoon, only one of the two teams playing on Friday — the San Francisco 49ers — has arrived in Australia.

"This has been such a cool experience," said 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey.

"There were question marks when we heard we were playing in Australia. Since we got here, it has been so cool. The people are unbelievable, the food's incredible, the coffee is great. The atmosphere, you can already feel it, it's been so much fun and we are super fired up we're here."

Four teams have been given the rights to Australia and New Zealand — the Los Angeles Rams, Philadelphia Eagles, Las Vegas Raiders, and the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks.

Therein lies one of the ironies of this week.

The Rams are one of Australia's designated teams — but they're not here until 24 hours before the game, electing to try to stay on US time to avoid jet lag — a fly-in, fly-out mission.

The 49ers players have been taking in some of the sights and sounds of Melbourne, and winning a lot of local hearts in the process. Already one of the NFL's more popular teams, it's now even more likely there will be more 49ers fans than Rams fans among the expected 100,000 fans at the MCG on Friday.

Ironically, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan was perhaps the loudest complainer when this game was scheduled earlier this year.

“Nothing against (Melbourne). It looks awesome. People seem really cool. Makes me want to come back and visit with my family," Shanahan told reporters.

"But we have 17 games. We play once a week, so we are all about business right now ... My message to the players was to enjoy their one day off, get hydrated and get used to the time difference. And we have done that."

A historical precedent

It's not the first time two US teams will take to the hallowed ground of the MCG — the first American football match played there was in 1908, between sailors of the USS Minnesota and the USS Kentucky.

In 1925, the US sent a 57-warship armada for a friendly visit to Australia and New Zealand, a post-war exercise in geopolitical and public relations designed to boost sailor morale while also building Pacific alliances in the face of growing Japanese aggression.

Forty-three of those ships would arrive in Melbourne to great public interest.

Records show that US sailors held boxing matches and played baseball at the MCG against some of the best Australian cricketers of the day. But it was a gridiron match between US sailors from the USS Trenton and USS Pennsylvania that caught Melbourne's attention.

At a muddy Punt Road Oval, a stone's throw from the MCG, sailors from the Pennsylvania beat the sailors from the Trenton in front of 3,000 people in a match that, according to the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, included VFL footballers.

In 1999, the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers played a pre-season exhibition match in Sydney in 1999. The match was played at Stadium Australia in Homebush in front of almost 74,000 fans. In the heart of rugby league country, its American mutation drew curiosity but failed to satisfy. The New York Times' John Shaw reported at the time that the crowd was "about 20,000 smaller" than the NFL had hoped for. Shaw reported that "canned applause was frequently blasted across the stadium when the audience was slow to cheer".

How to watch San Francisco 49ers vs Los Angeles Rams in Australia?

Kick off is at 10.35am for the eastern states and territories, 10.05am in SA and the NT, and 8.35am in WA.

Australians will be able to watch the match on Fox Sports and Kayo via a subscription, or on free-to-air on Seven or 7Plus. Coverage starts at 10am.

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