{"id":705599,"date":"2026-05-31T04:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705599\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T04:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:06:15","slug":"nfl-australia-expansion-how-the-league-is-growing-its-local-fan-base-challenging-local-sports-codes-for-grassroots-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/705599\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Australia expansion: How the league is growing its local fan base, challenging local sports codes for grassroots participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ticket queues of 125,000 fans, more than 80 per cent of the MCG sold in the first wave and a local fan base that has grown by more than half in four years: the National Football League says its Australian gamble has been vindicated before a single down has even been played at September\u2019s Rams-49ers opener.<\/p>\n

The first regular-season match on Australian soil \u2013 the Los Angeles Rams hosting the San Francisco 49ers at 10.35am AEST on Friday, September 11 \u2013 anchors a multipronged commercial push that the league hopes will turn a relatively small Australian footprint into a significant revenue stream.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney-bornSydney-born Super Bowl winner Jordan Mailata.AP<\/p>\n

NFL Australia and New Zealand general manager Charlotte Offord told this masthead the league had locked in a \u201ctwo-plus-one\u201d multi-year contract with the Victorian government \u2013 two confirmed games over four years, with an option for a third \u2013 and grown its local fan base from 5.7 million to 8.8 million in four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just enter a market and leave,\u201d Offord said. \u201cWe come in to invest and stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league makes money from the Australian market in four ways: free-to-air broadcast rights, subscription streaming, sponsorships, and game-day economics, including a confidential cheque from the host state.<\/p>\n

\"NFLNFL Australia boss Charlotte Offord.<\/p>\n

Seven Network holds the free-to-air rights and extended its deal in August 2025 to take Thursday Night Football live and free on Friday mornings. Seven\u2019s 2024 NFL season coverage reached 4.7 million Australians, the network has said, and the Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 Super Bowl LIX win pulled more than 2.6 million viewers across Seven and 7plus.<\/p>\n

The terms are undisclosed but small against domestic codes: the AFL\u2019s $4.5 billion deal with Seven and Foxtel runs to more than $600 million a year through 2031, and the NRL\u2019s deal with Nine and Foxtel tops $400 million annually.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s subscription revenue: international streaming sits inside a 10-year deal with Foxtel parent company DAZN, which sells NFL Game Pass in Australia at $32.99 a month for Season Pro.<\/p>\n

DAZN reported a 23 per cent jump in paid subscribers globally during the 2024 season. The league has also landed a number of local sponsors, including Unilever-owned Hellmann\u2019s and South Australian wine label Y Series.<\/p>\n

The Allan government beat off pitches from \u201cmultiple different states and cities\u201d, Offord said. Melbourne\u2019s status as \u201cthe major events capital\u201d, the MCG\u2019s 100,000-seat capacity and the walkability of the precinct were decisive.<\/p>\n

\"VictorianVictorian Premier Jacinta Allan gives gridiron a go at the MCG while MCC chief Stuart Fox, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Steve Dimopoulos talk up the game.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n

The financial arrangement remains commercial-in-confidence, with Premier Jacinta Allan declining to disclose how much taxpayers are contributing. Visit Victoria chair Andy Penn, the former Telstra chief executive, has said the partnership would translate into jobs in a visitor economy worth about $40 billion a year.<\/p>\n

Sport and major events minister Steve Dimopoulos said the deal had already paid off in global exposure. \u201cThe opportunity to host an NFL game is only afforded to the world\u2019s biggest cities, such as London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin and Melbourne,\u201d he told this masthead.<\/p>\n

Victorian tourism content \u2013 the Phillip Island penguins, the state\u2019s golf courses, Melbourne\u2019s dining scene \u2013 has been pushed to more than 7 million NFL fans in key markets and run on the 70,000-square-foot infinity screen at the Rams\u2019 home, SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n

The early tourism numbers support the government\u2019s case, with hotel bookings for September 10 and 11 running four times higher than the same dates last year, according to STR data, while American flight searches for Melbourne in early September are up 149 per cent. Fans from more than 35 countries have bought tickets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a little bit worried about it being at the MCG because there\u2019s going to be a lot of dead space.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata<\/p>\n

Visiting Melbourne in April, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell singled out the city\u2019s events track record. \u201cThis community knows how to do big events,\u201d he said. \u201cWe saw the passion and the understanding of what it takes to do an event like this. They\u2019re pros.\u201d<\/p>\n

That has done little to soothe critics in New South Wales, where opposition leader Mark Speakman called the state Labor government\u2019s failure to bid a \u201cspectacular failure\u201d, arguing the government had not offered \u201ca single cent to the NFL\u201d. NSW does not appear to have lodged a formal bid despite Accor Stadium offering a rectangular configuration better suited to gridiron than the MCG\u2019s oval.<\/p>\n

Even Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata \u2013 Australia\u2019s most prominent NFL player \u2013 told this masthead the MCG dimensions worried him. \u201cI\u2019m a little bit worried about it being at the MCG because there\u2019s going to be a lot of dead space,\u201d the Super Bowl winner said. Mailata was in Australia for a side role as Amazon Australia\u2019s packaging reduction officer, leading campaigns advocating for sustainable delivery and reductions in excess packaging.<\/p>\n

Despite the venue concern, the Sydney-raised Mailata is bullish on the league\u2019s prospects here, suggesting the match could \u201cstart funding some local leagues\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"NFLNFL player Jordan Mailata was in Australia in a side role as Amazon Australia\u2019s packaging reduction officer.<\/p>\n

On his home state\u2019s failure to land the fixture: \u201cWe didn\u2019t bid for it. I\u2019m glad someone picked up the tab, and we\u2019re able to bring the game back here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s global product also leans on a data partnership with US firm NetApp \u2013 its official intelligent data infrastructure partner \u2013 which manages player-tracking, broadcast video and fan analytics across team sites and league data centres.<\/p>\n

Offord plays down the idea of head-on competition<\/a> with the AFL or NRL, noting the NFL season overlaps with the AFL by only about four weeks. \u201cWe see ourselves as complementary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Ready<\/a><\/p>\n

The grassroots level is where things are more directly contested. NFL flag football has grown from 10 Australian schools three years ago to 740 today, Offord said, and the league has committed to sending a free kit to every school in the country over the next two years, a program that competes for participation time with AFL Auskick and NRL development pathways.<\/p>\n

Mailata, who came through rugby league before being drafted by the Eagles in 2018, sees the NFL capturing what he calls \u201ctweeners\u201d \u2013 kids too big for some codes but not always suited to AFL or rugby league. \u201cHopefully, we get more Aussies in the NFL, and more Pacific Islanders too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Time-zone friction remains the league\u2019s biggest commercial hurdle. \u201cWe\u2019re on Fridays and Monday mornings,\u201d Offord said. \u201cThey\u2019re not the most optimal times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"DavidDavid Swan<\/a> is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-705599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}