{"id":455953,"date":"2026-09-07T03:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T03:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455953\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T03:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T03:52:09","slug":"49ers-in-melbourne-rams-plan-to-avoid-san-francisco-fans-could-backfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/455953\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers in Melbourne: Rams’ plan to avoid San Francisco fans could backfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL seemingly took away a significant advantage for the San Francisco 49ers by scheduling head coach Kyle Shanahan’s team to face the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia, in Week 1.<\/p>\n

The 49ers have essentially benefited from two home games each season while playing the Rams twice a year. That’s because San Francisco is always well represented at SoFi Stadium when the team travels to Southern California, thanks largely to its significant local following and well-traveled fanbase.<\/p>\n

“It’s cool for us just always having an advantage, getting\u2014I see it as one home game a year in LA, just the way our fans are, and take over that stadium,” Shanahan said on Sunday night (Monday morning in Melbourne). “So, it was disappointing to let them off the hook and get them out of that.”<\/p>\n

The Rams’ strategy could backfire, though.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles may have thought it was doing itself a favor by taking away the 49ers’ annual road game in front of a large contingent of San Francisco fans. Instead, the Rams could be in for a surprise when they see just how much red might be in the stands at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when the two NFC West rivals meet.<\/p>\n

Melbourne has been plastered with 49ers signage throughout the week<\/a>, and San Francisco’s early arrival could work in the team’s favor. By getting to Australia well before the Rams, the 49ers have had more time to acclimate to their surroundings\u2014and potentially turn some casual local fans into supporters before kickoff.<\/p>\n

The 49ers also have a significant following in Australia, and Shanahan expects plenty of members of The Faithful to travel to Melbourne for the Week 1 matchup.<\/p>\n

“But knowing how our fans roll, I have a feeling they won’t be much different here,” Shanahan said. “I expect to have a good showing. And I wouldn’t say it hit me right on the plane, but after being here for a couple of days, this is the right time to be here, it’s the right place to be, and it’s the right team to go against.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL seemingly took away a significant advantage for the San Francisco 49ers by scheduling head coach Kyle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1818,299,752,101,296,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-455953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-49ers","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}