On Wednesday, the NFL announced that it would play its first-ever international game in Australia. They made a multiyear commitment to play a regular season game in Melbourne beginning in 2026 and with the Los Angeles Rams as the first team to play there.
How Australia was chosen by NFL
The NFL has been working on expanding to international markets for a while now. With three games taking place in London almost every year now, the league has recently added Germany and Brazil to the mixwith their first-ever South American game played in São Paulo this season.
For the 2025 season, the NFL announced some of its international games – three to be played in London, one in Berlin, and their first-ever regular season game in Spain, at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. It will also be the league’s first game in Berlin. They played in Frankfurt this year and Munich the year before that. They can still announce up to three more international games for the 2025 season, with São Paulo rumored to be on the list again, along with Ireland.
When the league plays its game in Melbourne in 2026, it will be the furthest they’ve traveled for a game yet. It will be played at the city’s iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). You might be wondering – does Australia even have NFL fans? And the answer might surprise you. Australia is actually a huge global market for the league, with a growing fan base of around 6.6 million across the nation.
“Expanding to Melbourne, Australia, a beautiful city with a rich sports history, underlines our ambitions to become a global sport and accelerate international growth,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “Together with the Victorian State Government, Visit Victoria and the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and with the Los Angeles Rams in 2026, we look forward to making history in what is an important market for the NFL and a significant next step in expanding our international footprint.”
Jacinta Marie Allanthe current Premier of Victoria, shared equal enthusiasm to have the league in their country.
“We’re thrilled the NFL will be touching down in the sporting capital of Australia,” Allan said. “Victoria is now the first-ever state in Australia to host a regular season NFL game. It’s a win for jobs, a win for businesses and a win for fans who will get to see American football played at the iconic MCG.”
Rams owner and chairman E. Stanley Kroenke spoke to another significant reason behind the choice of Australia for an NFL international game. The Rams hold marketing rights in Australia that have allowed them to increase brand awareness (and thus fandom) in the market there.
“When we first identified Australia as one of our global markets, it was not only because of our passionate fans who reside there, but also because of the important role Los Angeles plays in serving as a gateway to Australia and many countries across the Pacific,” said Kroenke. “Today is an exciting day for Rams fans across the world, especially in Australia, where our players and organization have received an enthusiastic reception over the past few years when we have been in market. This is the next important step for both the Rams and the broader Kroenke Sports & Entertainment family to continue to expand our reach globally, and we are thrilled to work with Commissioner Goodell and the league office to make history and bring the first NFL regular season game to Australia.”
This will be the league’s first regular season game in Australia, but there was a preseason game there once, in 1999. The game was played between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers in Sydney. This game in Melbourne is the first to be announced of the 2026 season, but we won’t know the Rams’ opponent, or the date and time of the game, until much later.
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