49ers-Rams season opener draws historic crowd in Australia
While the logistics of having a Week 1 game in Melbourne, Australia, caused some headaches for the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, NFL fans didn’t have an issue traveling to Melbourne Cricket Ground for a Friday morning game.
The 49ers put on a dominant display, beating the Rams 27-7 to score an early win against their NFC West rival.
Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, a historic crowd watched the contest, with the 100,021 in attendance the seventh-most for a regular season contest.
“Meanwhile, with an attendance of 100,021, the Rams vs 49ers in Melbourne is the 7th most attended regular season game in NFL history,” Rapoport posted on X.
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The regular season crowd record belongs to the Dallas Cowboys, who had 105,121 fans in attendance for a matchup with the New York Giants on Sept. 20, 2009.
Some of the fans at Melbourne Cricket Stadium had seats a sizable distance from the game field. That didn’t seem to dampen any excitement from the crowd during the game.
During an interview with CNBC, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league’s goal is to develop its brand globally. These international contests can pave the path for expansion to Europe. He suggested the league could put a division in Europe in the future.
“As you develop your business, at some point in time, you may get to that place where you say, you know, putting a franchise or franchises globally is a good idea,” Goodell said. “You’re looking down the road, maybe you do a division in Europe, so they’re playing against one another. The beauty and the advantage we have is that we’re playing once a week.”
There seems to be an appetite for the NFL in Australia. It remains to be seen if that’s a country that could see an expansion team in the future.
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