NFL's First Australian Game Draws 100,021 as League Widens Its Global Map
San Francisco beat the Rams 27-7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but the size of the crowd and the time-zone trade-offs are what the league will study.
The San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday in the first regular-season NFL game ever played in Australia, in front of a crowd of 100,021.
That attendance was the seventh-largest for a regular-season game in the league's history, and it came at a stadium better known for Australian rules football and cricket than for American football.
The context
The NFL has spent almost two decades taking regular-season games abroad. London has hosted them every year since 2007, and the league has since played in Mexico City, Germany, São Paulo, Dublin and Madrid. Melbourne is the furthest it has travelled so far.
Playing that far away forces compromises on the calendar. Kick-off was at 10.35am on Friday in Melbourne, which placed the game in Thursday evening prime time in the United States. The traditional season opener, between Seattle and New England, was played on Wednesday instead.
The game itself
San Francisco were in control for most of the morning. Quarterback Brock Purdy completed 25 of 34 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns, finding Demarcus Robinson, Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel Sr. for scores. The 49ers also ran for 174 yards as a team.
The Rams' only touchdown, a 5-yard run by Kyren Williams in the second quarter, was the first ever scored in a regular-season NFL game in Australia. Their best chance to add to it ended when quarterback Matthew Stafford was stopped on fourth down at the 1-yard line.
Linebacker Fred Warner forced a fumble and, with 11 tackles, moved past Patrick Willis as the 49ers' all-time leader in career tackles.
Why it matters
For the NFL, the crowd figure matters more than the score. International games are meant to build audiences and commercial interest in countries where American football is a minority sport, and filling one of the world's largest stadiums is a clear sign of demand in Australia.
The country already has a link to the league. A steady stream of Australian punters, many of them with backgrounds in Australian rules football, has reached NFL rosters over the past two decades, giving local fans familiar names to follow.
Distance is the harder problem. A game timed for American television has to be played in the morning in eastern Australia, and the teams face one of the longest journeys in professional sport. How both sides perform in the weeks after the trip will be watched closely by clubs that may be asked to make similar journeys in future.
- Result: San Francisco 49ers 27, Los Angeles Rams 7.
- Crowd: 100,021, the seventh-largest regular-season attendance in NFL history.
- Firsts: the first regular-season NFL game, and the first touchdown, on Australian soil.
- Knock-on effect: the Thursday slot went to Melbourne, so the season opened a day early in Seattle.
Outlook
Both teams now head back across the Pacific. San Francisco host the Miami Dolphins on 20 September, and the Rams host the New York Giants the following day.
Whether Melbourne becomes a regular stop will depend on the league's wider international plans and on how teams cope with the travel. But a crowd of this size, for a game played on a weekday morning, gives Australia a strong argument for another visit.
Image: Alexander Sheko via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0