NFL coming to Australia? ( It’s official a NFL game will be play in Melbourne, Australia in 2026)

Poison said
As part of its international expansion, Australia has been allocated the LA Rams as “our” team. If this is to go ahead, in all likelihood, it will be the Rams and another west coast team. It won’t be the Saints.

For the record, it’s about a 15-hour flight from LA to Melbourne. It’s approximately 11 hours from LA to Frankfurt (11.5 hours from Kansas City, noting the Chiefs made that trip last year). I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Plus, there are quite a lot of Australians playing in the NFL now (including, arguably, a top-3 LT in Jordan Mailata). I am sure the marketing executives at head office would use the term “synergies” to describe that.

Frankly, I reckon players on the west coast would much rather come to Melbourne in November/December when it’s warm, enjoy the opportunity to play in a historic stadium like the MCG with 100,000+ fans, and in a city that is famous for international sporting events (the Australian Open and the F1 Grand Prix to name a couple), as compared to travelling to places like Lambeau Field, Foxborough, Soldier Field or whatever multitude of freezing and/or unsafe destinations there are in the US.

valid points, but i have to disagree. it is a brutal trip, at least on the the return flight(s).

using new orleans as an example (as i've done this trip from nola about a dozen times), 4 hours to la, almost undoubtedly will have a layover until 8pm (if you are lucky, more like 10/11pm), and 16 hours to melbourne. australian customs takes for what feels like years to get through. 20 hours invested in flying alone. good thing is, from la to australia is mostly nighttime. on the way back though, the opposite as most flights leave in the am; jetlag like a maternal fornicator.

west coast to london can be done in roughly 10 hours. much more feasible.

as for fans, yep. i bet a lot of people would love to visit australia and use it as an reason to do so. wait till they apply for those visas and people quickly find out it is a pain in the arse process. reminds me, my australian passport expires this month.