Sydney has put its hand up to host an NFL game after the sport’s powerbrokers confirmed Australia as a potential location for a historic competition fixture.
The NFL is growing its global presence by staging games in England, Brazil and Germany this year, with its clubs voting to approve an increase in international matches last December from four to eight games per season from 2025.
Melbourne is reportedly jockeying to stage a game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but Sydney has emerged as an option should an incursion into Australia go ahead. The Harbour City hosted a pre-season clash between the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers at Stadium Australia, now known as Accor Stadium, attracting a crowd of 73,811 spectators in 1999. It was the first American pro football game to be held in the southern hemisphere.
“We just saw Travis Kelce here with Taylor Swift: let’s get him out here in his helmet and pads for the Kansas City Chiefs,” Venues NSW chairman David Gallop told this masthead.
“Sydney is the perfect choice for the NFL and Accor Stadium would be the right venue. I was there in 1999 when the Chargers played the Broncos.
“Australians are bigger fans of the NFL now than then through the coverage of the game. It’s the most successful sporting league in the world and Sydney, being the gateway to Australia, is the right place for this type of event.”
Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift.Credit: AP
Charlotte Offord, the NFL’s general manager in Australia and New Zealand, confirmed Australia was a potential destination for a competition game.
“Nothing is confirmed at this stage,” Offord said. “We are continuing to explore Australia, along with many other international markets, as a potential international host country to take the game to more fans around the world.”
Offord’s comments echoed those made by Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s head of international affairs, during meetings with team owners.
“Australia is among a set, and it’s not a small set of markets, that we’re looking at,” O’Reilly said.
Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes.Credit: Getty
Kansas City star Travis Kelce recently visited Sydney when girlfriend Taylor Swift performed at Accor Stadium earlier this year.
Sydney has a history of bringing big US sporting events to town: the city made history in 2014 when it hosted competition Major League Baseball [MLB] games for the first time, between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks.
The NFL opened an office in 2022 and in April of this year announced the opening of a second NFL Academy, which will be located on the Gold Coast, to service athletes aged between 12-18.
The NFL and A.B. Paterson College will also fund the construction of an elite high-performance NFL Academy facility on existing college grounds, to be completed in 2026. The program will be central to promoting and growing flag football in the region.
The NRL is starting to see the benefit of its Australian development programs, with graduates Patrick Murtagh and Jotham Russell earning contracts with the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots, respectively.
The NFL’s push into Australia comes at a time when the NRL is trying to extend its footprint to the United States. The NRL kicked off its season with two competition games in Las Vegas as part of a five-year agreement.
