Ahead of the 2025 Super Bowl showpiece game, the National Football League (NFL) has confirmed that Melbourne, Australia, will host regular season NFL fixtures as part of a multi-year commitment.
Launched in partnership with the government of the Australian state of Victoria and the iconic 100,024-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground, that venue will begin to host games annually in what has been reported to be a three-year commitment.
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The Los Angeles Rams franchise, one of two with marketing rights for Australia through the NFL’s Global Markets Program, will be the designated home team for the inaugural 2026 fixture.
Speaking on the announcement of the NFL’s latest international market, Rams owner Stan Kroenke said: “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.”
The NFL claims it has as many as 6.6 million fans in Australia, with league commissioner Roger Goodell adding that the hosting move will “accelerate international growth” and expand the league’s international footprint.
Goodell has been public with his ambition to bring the NFL to as many different territories as possible and has found success in partnership with local sports leagues in these territories, a strategy the league may continue in Australia thanks to the popularity of rugby in the market.
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By GlobalDataThe league is currently in talks to extend its commitment to hosting games in Brazil and has also committed to staging fixtures in Madrid, at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, as well as in Berlin, Germany, at the city’s Olympiastadion, and a trio in London in 2025.
Currently, NFL rules state the league can play as many as eight international games per season, with five currently scheduled for the 2025 campaign, however, if the league were to expand its regular season to 18 games rather than the current 17 then it could host as many as 16 international games per year, which is known to be Goodell’s ambition.
That plan has hit a setback this week however as the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) the representative body for NFL players, said that it will not accept a move to an 18-game regular season.
The NFL moved from 16 games to 17 in 2021, and NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. said this week (February 5) that "No one wants to play an 18th game. No one.”
He continued: “Seventeen games is already, for many of the guys, too long. Seventeen games is also so lengthy that you're still dealing with injuries going into the next season. So, there are a variety of issues that hang off of the length of the season before any formal negotiations.”
The length of the NFL season is codified into the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NFLPA, which currently is set to run through the 2030 season.
Any addition to the regular season would require a further drop to the number of pre-season warmup games, which Goodell has long been a critic of.
Howell continued that because the prospect of an 18-game season has been floated in order to further internationalization, work will have to be done to prioritize player welfare against the increased burden of travel, pointing to teams flying out and back to Brazil in 48 hours to play the league’s first game in that country.
