The 49ers and Rams brought the NFL to the MCG for the first time, and 100,021 fans turned the historic matchup into a full-blown sporting spectacle. Here are my five biggest takeaways from experiencing it firsthand.
There are sporting events you watch. Then there are sporting events you know, almost immediately, that you are going to remember. The NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia was definitely the latter. On Friday, September 11, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams walked onto the field at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of 100,021 fans, officially making history as the NFL finally touched down in Australia for a regular-season game. The 49ers walked away with a 27-7 win, but the final score only tells one part of the story.
I had the opportunity to be in Melbourne covering the game, and from the moment I arrived at the MCG, it was obvious this was going to be different. This was an NFL game being played in a stadium that is synonymous with Australian sport. It was a Friday morning kickoff at 10:35 a.m. local time, something that would feel completely foreign for an NFL game back home. Yet somehow, it worked. Bars around the stadium were opening as early as 6 a.m., fans were packed into the surrounding areas and by kickoff, the MCG was essentially overflowing with football fans.
And then there was the crowd.
1. The MCG was LOUD
If someone told me before the trip that I would be sitting inside a 100,000-seat stadium in Australia watching an NFL game at 10:35 in the morning and feeling like I was at a prime-time football game in the United States, I probably would have believed them.
But experiencing it was something else.
The official attendance was 100,021, just three people shy of the MCG’s listed capacity of 100,024. That made it the seventh-largest crowd for an NFL regular-season game in league history and only the fourth regular-season NFL game since 2000 to draw more than 100,000 fans. The energy around the stadium was constant. There were 49ers fans everywhere, Rams fans everywhere, people wearing jerseys of players who were not even involved in the game, Australian fans experiencing their first NFL game in person and plenty of people who simply wanted to be part of a piece of sports history. And, because apparently an NFL game in Australia needed a little AFL flavor, there were paper airplanes flying around the stands.
Yes, paper airplanes.
Fans were making them and sending them sailing through the crowd, adding another layer of chaos to an already wild atmosphere. It was one of those small details that probably will not make the official NFL highlight package, but it is exactly the kind of thing I will remember. That was Melbourne.
2. The NFL brought the spectacle, but Melbourne made it its own
The NFL did not simply drop an American football game into the MCG and call it a day.
There were tailgates, American football jerseys, cheerleaders, fireworks, the flyover, American and Australian flags and all the pageantry you would expect from an NFL international game. But there were also distinctly Australian touches throughout the morning. Cody Simpson performed Australia’s national anthem before kickoff, and the Jonas Brothers took the field at halftime. Even the officials’ celebration after San Francisco’s first-quarter field goal incorporated the familiar goal signal associated with Australian rules football. That blend was probably my favorite part. The NFL was very much the NFL, but the game still felt like it belonged in Melbourne. And honestly, that is what made the whole thing work.
3. The game itself became a very different story after halftime
For the first half, the game had the feel of an international heavyweight matchup that could go either way. Then San Francisco took control. The 49ers pulled away in the second half and ultimately defeated the Rams 27-7, turning what had been a competitive opening stretch into a convincing San Francisco win. For a first-ever Australian NFL game, there was also something fitting about seeing the 49ers come away with the win after the crowd had spent the week turning Melbourne into a sea of red. The Rams were technically the home team, but you could feel the 49ers faithful throughout the stadium. And by the fourth quarter, San Francisco had made sure the historic game had a very clear ending.
4. Australia did not just show up… It watched.
The biggest question surrounding the NFL’s Australian experiment was always going to be whether the interest would translate beyond the stadium. It did…
The Melbourne game averaged 18.5 million viewers in the United States on Netflix, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel, and peaked at 21.3 million viewers between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. ET. The game ranked among the NFL’s top three most-streamed Thursday primetime games. Globally, the game drew 21.7 million viewers across more than 200 countries and territories. In Australia, it became the most-watched NFL game ever in the country. The Australian broadcast numbers were strong, too. Seven and 7plus Sport reached 2.19 million Australians, while the game delivered a national total TV audience of 938,000 on Seven. So while 100,021 people were physically inside the MCG, the audience watching from around the world was many times larger. That is the part of this whole experience that really puts the moment into perspective.
5. The NFL in Australia felt bigger than one game
Walking out of the MCG after the final whistle, I kept thinking about what this could mean for the NFL in Australia. Because this did not feel like a random international game that happened to be played somewhere outside the United States. Melbourne embraced it. The fans knew the players. They knew the teams. They knew the traditions. They showed up early, filled the stadium, made paper airplanes, wore jerseys, cheered, booed and treated the entire thing like a major sporting event. And the NFL responded with a production built for the moment.
For me, getting to experience it from inside the stadium as a media member made it even more surreal. I have covered plenty of sporting events, but there was something different about looking around the MCG and realizing that I was watching the first NFL regular-season game ever played in Australia. You only get one first. And Melbourne made sure it counted.
My 5 Takeaways From the NFL’s First Game in Australia
1. Melbourne showed up.
A 100,021-person crowd for a 10:35 a.m. local kickoff says plenty about the interest in the NFL Down Under.
2. The MCG was the perfect stage.
There was something surreal about seeing an NFL field sitting inside one of Australia’s most iconic sporting venues.
3. The atmosphere was unlike anything I’ve experienced at an NFL game.
The mix of American football culture, Australian sports culture and 100,000-plus fans created an environment that felt completely its own.
4. The 49ers made sure history ended with a statement.
San Francisco’s 27-7 win gave the first Australian NFL game a decisive ending, with the 49ers taking control after halftime.
5. This was bigger than one Friday morning in Melbourne.
The attendance, global audience and Australian viewership showed that the NFL’s first regular-season game in Australia reached far beyond the MCG.
For all the numbers, records and history attached to the NFL’s Australian debut, my biggest takeaway is probably the simplest one: Australia was ready for football. And after getting to see it firsthand, I completely understand why the NFL wanted to bring the game Down Under in the first place.
