The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will meet at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday, September 10, at 8:35 p.m. ET in the first regular-season NFL game ever played in Australia. The matchup, airing live on Netflix and kicking off in Melbourne at 10:35 a.m. local time on Friday, September 11, anchors an unprecedented international slate of nine games across four continents, seven countries, and eight stadiums during the 2026 season. It is the most ambitious global expansion effort in the league’s history.
The game arrives less than 24 hours after the 2026 NFL season officially opens on Wednesday, September 9, in Seattle with the Super Bowl LX champion Seahawks. That sequencing is deliberate. The NFL is positioning the Melbourne game not as a novelty sideshow but as a Week 1 headliner, dropping an NFC West divisional rivalry into the world’s sports-obsessed southern hemisphere at a venue that seats more than 100,000 people.
Key Takeaways
- The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday, September 10 at 8:35 p.m. ET (Friday, September 11 at 10:35 a.m. AEST), the first regular-season NFL game ever held in Australia
- The game is part of nine international games in 2026 spanning Australia, Brazil, London, Madrid, Munich, Tokyo, and Mexico City across five consecutive weeks starting in Week 1
- The MCG holds more than 100,000 spectators, making it one of the largest venues to host an NFL game. General admission tickets started at AUD $95 (standing room) and AUD $140 (seated)
- The Jonas Brothers will perform at halftime, announced alongside their Disney Legends induction at D23 on August 16
- Netflix holds the broadcast rights for the Melbourne game, continuing its push into live sports programming after securing NFL rights in 2024
- The NFL Kickoff Festival presented by American Express runs September 10 to 12 at Melbourne Park, with interactive experiences, flag football, player appearances, and watch parties
Why the MCG, and Why This Matchup
The Melbourne Cricket Ground was chosen for reasons that go beyond its capacity. The MCG is the spiritual home of Australian rules football, the country’s most popular sport, and it occupies a status in Australian sports culture comparable to Yankee Stadium or Lambeau Field in the American imagination. Placing an NFL game there signals the league’s intention to meet Australian audiences on their own turf, literally, rather than treating the game as an export to a neutral venue.
The Rams hold the designated home team role because they own international marketing rights for Australia and New Zealand under the NFL’s Global Markets Program, a status they have held since 2021 alongside the Philadelphia Eagles. The 49ers were selected as the opponent because of their established popularity in the Australian market, according to NFL Australia and New Zealand General Manager Charlotte Offord. The NFC West rivalry between the two franchises also guarantees competitive stakes. Rams versus 49ers games have been consistently physical and closely contested over the past five seasons, the kind of matchup the league wants representing its brand on new soil.
The field dimensions do present a logistical challenge. The MCG’s playing surface is a wide oval built for cricket and AFL, and fitting a rectangular NFL field inside it will leave significant dead space between the sidelines and the lower stands. The NFL has not disclosed the exact seating configuration or how sight lines will be managed for fans in the oval’s broader sections, though the league has experience adapting rectangular fields to non-standard venues from its London games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley.
Nine Games Across Four Continents in Five Weeks
The Melbourne game opens a five-week international stretch that represents the most concentrated global schedule the NFL has ever attempted. Week 3 brings the first regular-season game in Brazil, with the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys meeting at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, September 27 at 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS. The London Games begin in Week 4 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with Indianapolis versus Washington, followed by Philadelphia versus Jacksonville in Week 5 at the same venue. The schedule shifts to Wembley in Week 6 for Jacksonville versus Houston.
Madrid, Munich, Tokyo, and Mexico City round out the international slate across the remaining weeks. The Jacksonville Jaguars and San Francisco 49ers each appear twice on the international schedule, with the Jaguars continuing their established London presence and the 49ers adding the Melbourne game to their global portfolio.
The strategy behind the compressed international window is operational as much as it is commercial. By front-loading the global games into the first six weeks of the season, the NFL minimizes disruption to the playoff race in the second half while maximizing early-season attention across multiple time zones. The league is betting that international audiences will engage most enthusiastically when the games carry genuine standings implications rather than feeling like exhibitions.
Netflix Gets a Prime-Time Global Stage
Netflix holds the broadcast rights for the Melbourne game, placing the streaming platform at the center of one of the NFL’s most-watched international debuts. The assignment continues Netflix’s expansion into live sports programming, which began with its NFL Christmas Day games in 2024 and has since grown to include regular-season inventory. The Melbourne kickoff time of 10:35 a.m. AEST translates to 8:35 p.m. ET on the U.S. East Coast, positioning the game squarely in American prime time on a Thursday night.
For Netflix, the Melbourne game offers a dual audience play. Australian subscribers get a morning appointment with their first taste of regular-season NFL football, while American subscribers get a Thursday night game with the novelty of an international setting. The NFL’s 2026 season also includes Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video starting in Week 2, meaning the two largest streaming platforms in the U.S. will both carry NFL games within the first two weeks of the season.
The Entertainment Package Extends Beyond the Game
The Jonas Brothers will perform at halftime, an announcement that arrived alongside the band’s Disney Legends induction at D23 on August 16. The halftime booking adds a major entertainment draw designed to broaden the Melbourne game’s appeal beyond core football fans, particularly among Australian audiences who may be encountering the NFL’s game-day spectacle for the first time.
The NFL Kickoff Festival presented by American Express runs September 10 through 12 at Melbourne Park, adjacent to the MCG. The three-day event includes interactive NFL experiences, flag football activations, player and legend appearances, retail pop-ups, an American food village, live entertainment, and watch parties. Grounds passes start at AUD $49 for Thursday and Saturday sessions and AUD $59 for Friday, with children 13 and under admitted free with an accompanying adult ticket.
For the city of Melbourne, the game arrives as the latest addition to a sporting calendar that already includes the AFL Grand Final, the Australian Open, and the Australian Grand Prix. Victoria’s state government partnered with the NFL to bring the game to Melbourne, and local tourism authorities have positioned the event as both a sports milestone and a destination travel opportunity, with official travel packages available through Sportsnet Holidays and On Location for fans traveling from the United States.
FAQs
When is the NFL game in Melbourne, Australia?
The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday, September 11, 2026, at 10:35 a.m. AEST. For U.S. viewers, the game airs live on Netflix on Thursday, September 10, at 8:35 p.m. ET (5:35 p.m. PT).
How many international NFL games are there in 2026?
The NFL has scheduled nine international games in 2026 across four continents, seven countries, and eight stadiums. Games will be played in Australia (Melbourne), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), England (London), Spain (Madrid), Germany (Munich), Japan (Tokyo), and Mexico (Mexico City).
Who is performing at halftime of the NFL Melbourne game?
The Jonas Brothers will perform at halftime. The announcement came alongside the band’s Disney Legends induction at D23 on August 16, 2026.
