{"id":888664,"date":"2026-09-11T22:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888664\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:46:11","slug":"rams-v-49ers-did-an-nfl-game-in-melbourne-actually-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888664\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams v 49ers: Did an NFL game in Melbourne actually work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, more than 100,000 people<\/a> from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and other countries packed the G \u2013 with a wide array of team jerseys seen roaming the grounds. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the Eras Tour for men. Look at you all in your costumes,\u201d a member of my group commented as we made our way in. <\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing American sports know how to do, it\u2019s put on a show. Once it starts \u2013 with the teams running out to warm up \u2013 it doesn\u2019t stop until the game ends. <\/p>\n

Commemorating the 25-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks, there were rousing renditions of the two anthems \u2013 Australian singer \/ two-time Commonwealth Games medal-winning swimmer Cody Simpson received a huge roar from the crowd \u2013 before a perfectly timed flyover. <\/p>\n

For gameplay itself, the size of the field might have made for a worse viewing experience in the front rows, with a lot more empty pitch space between seats and field than you\u2019d find in America, but further up it certainly didn\u2019t make for a worse viewing experience, while every break in the action was filled with some form of crowd engagement<\/a> from singalongs to musical performances to guessing games. <\/p>\n

The addition of pop heartthrobs the Jonas Brothers as the halftime act built on the occasion \u2013 the American trio led the crowd in a rendition of John Farnham\u2019s You\u2019re The Voice among a medley of their hits during which I was politely asked to sit down by the person behind me. <\/p>\n

Melbourne does sports extremely well, with its sporting precinct at Melbourne Park extremely accessible through public transport or by walking from the CBD, while the speed and flow at which people exit from the MCG is impressive; in this instance a large number flooding out towards the bars of Richmond\u2019s Swan St. <\/p>\n

If fans couldn\u2019t get to the game, there were several sites around the city broadcasting the game live, including Fed Square and The Rams House, a pop-up tailgate on the Yarra River that was complete with a floating football field.<\/p>\n

But it was about more than just the game. The NFL put together a week full of activations and activities, including the Kickoff Festival which, after the NFL game on Friday, showcased flag football where men and women\u2019s teams from Australia and New Zealand went head to head at Kia Arena – Australia won the women\u2019s match and New Zealand the men\u2019s – before Aussie rockers Grinspoon took to the stage. <\/p>\n

\"AA Flag Football showcase between teams from Australia and New Zealand was held later in the day at the nearby Kia Arena. Photo \/ Christopher Reive<\/p>\n

The Rams have been invested in the Australia and New Zealand market as part of the NFL\u2019s international home marketing areas initiative since 2022 and they jumped at the chance to host the event in a market where the Seattle Seahawks, Las Vegas Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles have also since invested in. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the very first in the market. There\u2019s a deep enthusiasm here for NFL football,\u201d Rams vice-president and head of international and special projects Stephanie Cheng told the Herald. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know fans have to wake up early or watch the games on delay, but that enthusiasm existed already. We\u2019ve just given a way for it to come to life and manifest itself in real life here today.\u201d <\/p>\n

The NFL secured arguably the most high-profile matchup they could for an LA Rams game, booking their week-one clash with long-time division rivals the San Francisco 49ers as their opponents. <\/p>\n

That helped to build the atmosphere in a crowd that involved NFL fans, but also had plenty of attendees who had no idea what was happening in the game. Being in the former category, I was, and I\u2019m sure many others like me were, all too happy to try and educate some of those nearby who were trying to get a handle on the basics. <\/p>\n

But the atmosphere started to build in the city throughout the week as more and more NFL jerseys and supporters\u2019 kits appeared on the streets of Melbourne. <\/p>\n

The Rams and 49ers were busy in the community, but the San Francisco side\u2019s decision to travel a week before the game certainly won over some of the more casual fans opposed to the Rams, who felt it gave their team the best chance of winning to fly in the day before the game. <\/p>\n

While it was a Rams home game, there was a lot of red and white in the crowd opposed to Rams blue, and the home team were booed as they made their way out for the game – with the 49ers faithful out in their numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have the biggest fan base in Australia from the NFL\u2019s perspective. So, as I said, our goal is to make as many people part of the faithful as possible. Anybody is welcome to join us. We love having everybody here,\u201d 49ers chief marketing officer Stephanie Rogers told the Herald.<\/p>\n

Rogers said more than 10,000 people had travelled into Australia for the game from overseas, with a significant number and NFL fans travelling from other states in Australia. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the faithful love to travel, they love to take over stadiums, and it\u2019s been a lot of fun getting to meet all of them this week.\u201d <\/p>\n

While it wasn\u2019t the closest contest fans will see this season, with the 49ers cruising to a 27-7 win, it was a terrific spectacle, and a strong way to kick off an arrangement that could see the NFL host three games in Victoria over a four-year period. <\/p>\n

The writer travelled courtesy of Visit Victoria. <\/p>\n

Christopher Reive<\/a> joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, more than 100,000 people from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and other countries packed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[5381,458312,23136,64,63,152345,364149,1862,4717,647,593,5378,307776,85,6624],"class_list":["post-888664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-49ers","tag-actually","tag-an","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-christopher","tag-did","tag-game","tag-in","tag-melbourne","tag-nfl","tag-rams","tag-reive","tag-sports","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888664","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=888664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}