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NFL Debuts in Australia as Goodell Plots Global Growth

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Roger Goodell talks NFL's first regular-season game in Australia, his contract to 2031, and plans for up to 16 international games and overseas teams.

The National Football League stages its first regular-season game on Australian soil this week, with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams set to kick off the Week 1 matchup on Thursday at 8:35 p.m. ET. Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking in Melbourne, framed the milestone as one piece of a much longer campaign to plant the sport around the world.

Goodell, 67, told CNBC that running the league now means mapping out decisions over a decade or more. "Whether it's media, or whether it's labor, or whether it's our international plans or what we're doing with stadiums, all of that [requires] taking a 5-, 10-, 15-year look, and it's critical to do that," he said, adding that failing to plan that far out would be "irresponsible."

The commissioner has secured the time to see those plans through. Earlier this month he agreed to a four-year contract extension that keeps him in charge until March 2031. This season marks his 20th at the helm, a tenure that has seen the league expand to a 17-game regular season and move its broadcast inventory onto streaming platforms.

Overseas expansion may prove the most consequential shift of all. The NFL has already brought regular-season contests to Germany, France, Brazil and Mexico, and the Melbourne fixture widens that footprint further. The schedule calls for nine games outside the United States in 2026 and 10 the following year. Goodell has said he would eventually like to reach 16, but that ambition depends on the players.

That constraint is written into the sport's labor deal. The current collective bargaining agreement limits the league to 10 games abroad, and it runs out in March 2031 - the same month Goodell's new contract concludes. Pushing past the cap will require fresh negotiation and the athletes' agreement.

Long flights and time-zone changes can upset the strict routines players lean on to stay healthy across a grueling season. Even so, Goodell said the roster embraces the trips. "I think they see the opportunity. I get calls, texts from our players during the offseason, and they're all over the world, so I think this generation of players is used to being international," he said. He added that today's athletes view the games as a chance to build their personal brands, calling that "great for the NFL."

Beyond a one-off visit

Goodell was candid that dropping a team into a foreign city for a single week does little to create lasting supporters. The league is betting instead on its Global Markets Program, under which every franchise holds marketing rights to at least one country. The idea is to nurture followings in places that have no historic tie to any particular club.

"You don't want to be at the circus to come in and play a game and leave," Goodell said. "You want to have events and sponsors and media partners. I think we'll continue to modify [the Global Markets Program], but I think it's worked well."

The numbers show how far that work still has to go. Last season's Week 1 international game, between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers, streamed on YouTube and drew 18.5 million viewers inside the United States. Abroad, it pulled in just 1.2 million. American audiences remain enormous - NFL broadcasts regularly top the country's television rankings - but interest elsewhere is still slight.

A franchise overseas

Goodell has gone further in describing his vision, saying he expects the league to one day place a team permanently outside the United States. He suggested he could picture multiple NFL clubs based in Europe. He would not attach any timeline to establishing an overseas franchise, saying it forms part of the broader strategy still taking shape.

For now, the focus is on Thursday's contest in Melbourne, a first for the sport in a country the NFL hopes to add to its growing list of overseas hosts. The game tests, in real time, whether a week-long visit can be turned into something more durable - the central question behind Goodell's international push.

NFL Australia game, Roger Goodell, NFL international games, San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, NFL Global Markets Program, NFL collective bargaining agreement, NFL streaming right

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