Let me be honest about something from the start: I’m not the biggest football fan.
I grew up in a baseball family in the Bronx. The kind of baseball family for whom the idea of flying to another country to watch the Yankees play would have been received with the same bafflement as, say, flying to another country to get a slice of pizza.
And yet there I was, one early September day, on a 10,000 mile trip from New York City to Melbourne, Australia, for an NFL overseas game between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers.
What to Know Before You Go
Host Cities Go All In: Expect a full week of fan activations, branded storefronts, pop-ups, and team-specific events well beyond the stadium.
Skip the Parking: Public transport is almost always the right call on game-day. Parking near international NFL venues tends to be limited or nonexistent, so give yourself plenty of extra time to get to the game.
Bring a Clear Bag: The NFL’s clear bag policy applies at international games, too. Here’s the exact bag I used to help me breeze through security.- Anyone Can Enjoy the Festivities: You don’t need to be a football fan to have a great time. The spectacle, crowd, and the city’s energy are all part of the experience.
To be fair, I didn’t initiate this. My boyfriend’s Rams-loving family did. And when I caught wind that their plan was to fly to the other side of the planet, watch some football, and fly home, I knew two things immediately. First, that someone had to save their itinerary. Second, that I would not miss this for the world.
This was history, after all. The first-ever regular-season NFL game played in Australia. Over 100,000 tickets sold at Melbourne Cricket Ground, a stadium that normally hosts, well, cricket. I may not know a first down from a first pitch, but I do know a good opportunity when I see one.
What Is an NFL Overseas Game, Actually?
“Greetings from Melbourne” at the Rams tailgate on the Southbank Riverwalk.
The short answer: NFL overseas games are fully real, fully counted, regular-season NFL games — just played in another country.
The NFL has been staging international games since 2007, when London’s Wembley Stadium hosted the first overseas regular-season matchup (Miami Dolphins vs. New York Giants, if you’re curious). Since then, the league has staged 62 games internationally, packing stadiums in places like London, Mexico City, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, São Paulo, Dublin, and Madrid. In 2026, the NFL pushed further than it ever had, announcing a record-breaking nine games across four continents and seven countries.
Melbourne was new territory, as the first city in the Asia-Pacific to host an NFL regular-season game. And unlike the London games, which have been running long enough to feel somewhat routine, this game had the unmistakable energy of a debut. The city knew it. And anyone stepping foot in the land Down Under could feel it the moment they landed — that is, if the hoards of Americans wearing jerseys on their flights didn’t already give it away.
Getting There – A Note on Not Flying Directly
When traveling for an NFL overseas game, you may be tempted to take one agonizing long-haul flight. But here’s my two cents on why you probably shouldn’t.
For the game in Melbourne, I first flew from New York to Los Angeles to meet up with my partner’s family before the transatlantic — sorry, transpacific — leg of the journey. A two-day buffer in L.A. allowed me to slowly start winding my body’s clock in the direction of travel, and made the total distance feel far less punishing. We also opted against a direct flight to Australia, choosing instead a route through Fiji. The layover gave us a chance to stretch our legs and, better yet, eat something that wasn’t served in a tiny foil packet.
How I compare flight paths: Before booking, I run the route through Google Flights or Skyscanner to compare prices for layover and stopover cities. You'll often find a cheaper route and a built-in excuse to stop somewhere worthwhile.
The principle applies wherever the NFL lands. Flying to London? Consider a longer layover or tacking on a night in Reykjavik. Germany? A stopover in Paris or Amsterdam to sample cheese and Belgian beer! There’s no prize for arriving the fastest, and the host city will be waiting.
In our case, we flew into Sydney first and spent a few days exploring Eastern Australia before heading down to Melbourne. Once there, we hit the ground running rather than shuffling through the city in a jet-lagged haze.
What the Host City Is Like During Game Week
The Melbourne sign outside the airport got an NFL glow-up ahead of the 49ers vs. Rams game.
Even after a Knicks Championship summer in my city, nothing could’ve quite prepared me for how Melbourne committed so intensely to a single NFL game.
Melbourne’s CBD was consumed by NFL branding. It was everywhere, from a lighting show at Flinders Street Station (part of a formal partnership with the City of Melbourne) to airport terminals and every major transit corridor in between. Truly, if you managed to arrive in Melbourne that week by any means other than hiking in from the bush, the NFL found you.
In fact, five NFL teams activated across Melbourne during game week. Not just the Rams and 49ers, but even the Seahawks, Eagles, and Raiders brought their own fan experiences to the city. Street art murals went up across key locations. Hotels, restaurants, and cafes served NFL-themed menu items. The whole city had essentially been rented out to the league.
Some of the features at the Rams tailgate on the Southbank Riverwalk.
The Rams planted their flag at Crown Melbourne, turning the Southbank Riverwalk into a two-part fan zone: a tailgate area with trucks, food, and live music, and “The Deck,” a viewing platform built around a 22-yard floating football field on the Yarra River. Yes, a floating football field. On a river. In Australia.
As the designated “home” team, the Rams had a noticeable edge in signage around the city. Storefronts widely featured the fan call “Whose House? Rams House!” in large lettering. The team’s mariachi band and cheerleaders even made the trip from L.A., and Rampage, the team’s mascot, posed for photos at the tailgate. But the 49ers had something the Rams didn’t: Australians themselves.
According to the NFL, the 49ers are Australia’s most popular team, and local fans proved it by donning the team’s colors and snapping photos at a fresh mural in Melbourne’s Hosier Lane. The 49ers had also turned up a full week before kickoff to acclimate, their players visiting local spots and complimenting everything from the wildlife to the flat whites. The charm offensive seemed to work. Melbourne went red and gold, and the Rams were loudly booed when they ran onto the field despite being, technically, the home team.
The Rams mariachi band came all the way out from Los Angeles and showed up to the tailgate.
Getting to the Game – Budget Extra Time!
We were staying in Williams Landing, a suburb about 45 minutes from the city on public transport. On game day, our group of eight (including me, my boyfriend, his parents, his sister, his best friend, his uncle, and his uncle’s girlfriend) had a rental car and chose, wisely, to not drive it anywhere near the MCG. There was no public event parking at the stadium, and even the commercial options nearby were predictably overwhelmed.
Public transport was the right call. But public transport on game day, as anyone who has ever attended a major event knows, is not the same as public transport on a regular weekday.
The trains, trams, and buses were absolutely packed. Fans walking from the CBD could start at Federation Square, walk through Birrarung Marr, and cross the William Barak Bridge to reach the stadium entrance (a walk of around 15-20 minutes). Many people ended up on foot for that stretch between Flinders Street and the MCG, which was longer than expected when you’re navigating it with 100,000 of your new closest friends.
The lesson here is simple and universal: plan for more time than you think you’ll need. This applies to literally every major sporting event, in every country, on every continent.
What the Game-Day Experience Is Actually Like
My partner, his best friend, dad, uncle, and uncle’s girlfriend were all awake at an early hour to experience the full pre-game fanfare, and indulged in it wholeheartedly.
They arrived at Flinders Street to a sea of fellow attendees and sponsors who came loaded with freebies: posters, jellybeans, Celsius energy drinks, the whole works. As they made their way to the stadium, a new stranger seemed to approach with a small token of Melburnian appreciation at every corner.
Later that morning, my partner’s sister, his mom, and I made it to the stadium ourselves — long after the thick of the early entry rush. We had an extremely smooth experience, entering the secured perimeter around Yarra Park and undergoing the standard body scan and bag check security screening. I brought a clear purse and a sealed water bottle; both came through without any issue. Finally, our mobile tickets were validated, and we walked over to the stadium itself.
From the energy outside to inside the stadium, game day at the MCG in Melbourne was electric.
My boyfriend noted that our post-game movements were just as seamless. Apparently, it was one of the quickest stadium exits he’d experienced. The merch line moved quickly, too; we beelined from the stadium and were never stuck standing still, making it inside the merch tent in under 15 minutes. The organizers, it seems, had given real thought to how to move over 100,000 people efficiently. And in the end, they did it very well.
What to Expect From the Crowd at an NFL Overseas Game
A total of 100,021 people made it out to Melbourne for this NFL overseas game. It marked the league’s highest attendance at any game in the last 15 years, the seventh-highest attendance in NFL regular-season history overall.
This was a crowd that had traveled, in many cases, from the far corners of the earth. According to the Victoria Premier, there were people in attendance from over 30 countries. There were Rams fans in blue and yellow, 49ers fans in red and gold, and, interestingly, locals in whatever NFL jersey they happened to own.
The rule at an NFL overseas game is simple: a jersey is a jersey. After all, an overseas Bills fan has little opportunity to wear their jersey to a game, because the Bills are rarely, if ever, in whatever city they live in. So when the NFL comes to town, every jersey gets its moment.
Just about all of the NFL’s 32 franchises were represented in the stands. The blues and reds were peppered with the kelly green of the Eagles, the black of the Raiders, the orange of the Bengals — even the cheese heads of the Packers. A Sam Darnold jersey, a Dak Prescott jersey, and a Joe Montana jersey were all just about as likely to go grab a beer during halftime.
At some point, someone in this crowd of mismatched jerseys started the wave. It went around. And then around again. And again. And then, impossibly, again. I lost count of the laps, growing giddy the way one does when they’re reminded they’re a part of something much bigger than themselves. It was, hands-down, the biggest wave of my life. And it happened in Australia, at an American football game, inside a cricket stadium. How fun!
What Nobody Tells You About an NFL Game in a Cricket Stadium
The MCG is, as advertised, impressive. It is, however, oval-shaped. And an NFL field, which is a rectangle, doesn’t exactly agree with an oval stadium.
Some fans in the lower levels complained about their view of the field, which was awkwardly placed in the middle of the oval. This is worth knowing before you book seats. If you’re attending a future international NFL game at a cricket or football (soccer) ground, spend some time thinking about sightlines. The upper levels, counterintuitively, might give you a better look at the whole field. This was our “nosebleed” view:
No complaints whatsoever.
The entertainment, though, was distinctly NFL. The halftime show featured the Jonas Brothers (who, it must be said, missed the obvious opportunity to play their song “Australia” in Australia.) The Rams’ mariachi band played quarter-time. A separate live band covered Bryan Adams, a longtime favorite in Australia, at various points throughout the afternoon.
The whole thing had the maximalist quality of American sporting events, dropped into a city that knew exactly how to match the spectacle. Take “The Horses,” Daryl Braithwaite’s 1990 ballad that has evolved, through sheer collective agreement, into Australia’s unofficial national anthem. Stadium organizers played the song during a break in the action, and every Australian in the crowd belted along in deafening unison. For a few minutes, an American football game in a cricket stadium felt, improbably, like a perfect fit.
After the Final Whistle, the Rest of the City Is Still There
The Rams lost. My boyfriend and his family, who had flown thousands of miles for this, had the particular deflation of people who had invested a lot in hopes of an outcome that did not come to pass.
Meanwhile, about 60% of the crowd was supporting the 49ers, making the final score feel like a home win. Niner Gang has a habit of claiming enemy territory as their own, famously dubbing L.A.’s SoFi Stadium as Levi’s South in years past. Walking out of the MCG to a sea of red and gold, it was hard to argue they hadn’t just added Levi’s Asia-Pacific to their portfolio.
Still, we humbly made our way back toward Flinders Street and ended up at Metro Burgers, which famously serves kangaroo burgers. The burger was sampled. The company was consoled. Melbourne, which had been decked out in NFL branding for a week, would soon start to feel like itself again: cool, possessed of excellent coffee, and deeply unimpressed by anyone who thinks Sydney is the better city.
The point I would make to anyone considering a similar trip is, obviously, that the game isn’t everything. It’s just the occasion.
What makes an NFL overseas game worth it, for a football fan or otherwise, is everything that surrounds it. From the way a city transforms for an event like this and the people who travel from around the world for it, to the absolutely surreal experience of watching American cheerleaders and a mariachi band perform Mexican music in front of a crowd of Australians who came wearing different NFL team jerseys, because, why not?
That’s an experience if I ever heard one. The final score is incidental.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an international NFL game a real game?
Yes. Every NFL international game counts toward the regular season. Heading into 2026, 62 regular-season NFL games had been played outside the United States, in cities like London, Mexico City, Munich, Frankfurt, and São Paulo. The Melbourne game between the Rams and 49ers took place in Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season.
What do I need to bring to an NFL overseas game?
Rules can vary by venue, but the Melbourne game in Australia followed the NFL’s clear bag policy: one clear bag up to 30.5 x 15.25 x 30.5 cm, or one clear resealable bag, plus one small non-clear clutch. All tickets were mobile-only, so make sure your phone is charged. The NFL OnePass app is the central hub for entry procedures, schedules, and appearance times.
Should you drive to an NFL overseas game?
Probably not. Parking near major international NFL venues is either typically unavailable or pretty much inaccessible on game day. At the MCG, there was no public event parking, and fans were strongly encouraged to use public transport. Make sure to account for the crowd and delays as you plan your trip.
Is it worth going to an NFL overseas game if you're not a die-hard football fan?
Arguably more so! The game itself is just one component of an experience that includes a transformed city and fans from dozens of countries coming together for (hopefully friendly) competition. I went without strong feelings about either team, and I came away knowing I’d gladly do it again.
So, Is an NFL Overseas Game Worth It? The Verdict
I’d go again! And remember, that’s coming from someone who’s not even a huge football fan.
Not necessarily because the game will be close (though the 49ers’ demolition of the Rams was, in its own way, entertaining), but because I’m now convinced that the strange alchemy of American sports dropping into another country is something you just have to see to understand — and once you do, you’ll have an even greater appreciation for both sides (and I’m not just talking about the teams). There’s something unexpectedly moving about watching another country, and its people, throw themselves into someone else’s party with this much conviction.
Melbourne delivered everything a host city should. The fanfare was electric. The logistics, at least at the venue level, were impressively managed for a crowd that size. And the city’s own culture survived the NFL takeover more or less intact. At their core, Melburnians know how to show up; whether it’s to a café off the main street or the band playing a Tuesday night at a room with 80 seats. That instinct translated exceptionally well for an occasion like this.
If you’re even a little tempted, I’d say lean in and book the trip! And while you’re at it, give yourself more than a few days. The NFL will be back in Australia, and I’ll soon share the exact itinerary we used to make the most of our trip so you can, too.
Heading to an
NFL Overseas Game?
Check Out These Resources
- Book your flight: I always start with Skyscanner to compare routes and find the best stopover options. For long-haul game trips, a well-placed layover can save you money and make the journey a lot more bearable.
Get covered before you land: A sold-out game, an international flight, and no backup plan is not the situation you want. SafetyWing covers trip interruptions, medical emergencies abroad, and the kind of travel chaos that tends to happen when you least expect it.
Book accommodation early: NFL game weeks sell out fast abroad — so fast, the host city starts to fill up the moment the schedule drops. I use Booking.com to lock in something central before prices spike.
Make the most of the host country: The game is one day, but the destination is the rest of the trip. GetYourGuide is my go-to for booking tours and experiences with local operators, which matters to me when I’m somewhere new.
Stay connected the whole trip: I used Saily for my entire week in Australia and never lost coverage, including more rural areas outside the city. Download the app and set up your plan before you fly so you have data the moment you land. You can use my code JENZIA2371 for $5 off your first plan.- Pack smart for game day: Long-haul travel plus stadium security is its own puzzle. My travel essentials page covers the gear that’s made every trip easier.
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