NFL Picks 49ers-Rams for First Melbourne Game — SkimNews
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- NFL is staging its first regular-season game in Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground (capacity 100,000+) on Thursday at 8:35 p.m. ET, broadcast on Netflix as the kickoff of a multiyear Australian agreement.
- Australian NFL fans grew from 5.7 million to 8.8 million between 2022 and 2025, a 54% jump that included 1.3 million new fans in the past year alone, per league data.
- Rams president Kevin Demoff denied coach Kyle Shanahan's theory that Los Angeles chose the 49ers to avoid a SoFi Stadium fan takeover, telling reporters: "We did not select the Niners at all."
- The Rams volunteered to host once Australia landed on the 2026 schedule and have made 15 visits to the country since joining the league's Global Markets Program in January 2022; they originally wanted to host the Chiefs but Patrick Mahomes' December ACL tear scrapped those plans.
- Melbourne beat Sydney and Perth in the city bid based on walkability and the MCG, the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere; Sydney last hosted an NFL exhibition in 1999.
- 49ers CEO Al Guido said the team "didn't have a choice" about going to Australia, adding that San Francisco also lobbied to return to Mexico City's Estadio Azteca — making 2026 the franchise's first year playing two international games.
- A December 2023 league vote now requires every team to host an international game every four years, removing the ability to opt out of the 8,000-mile trips that Shanahan called pointless for his players.
Why it matters: Melbourne is the first test of whether the NFL's social-media popularity abroad converts to sellout crowds and broadcast value, with Australian fans surging 54% to 8.8 million since 2022 and a new league mandate forcing every team to give up a home game internationally every four years — meaning no franchise can hide from 8,000-mile trips like the one Shanahan openly derided.
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