The NFL’s endless quest to turn into a world sport will proceed in 2026 with the boldest worldwide sport the league has ever floated: An everyday season sport in Melbourne, Australia.
There’s no query that one of many world’s nice sporting cities deserves to host an NFL sport — however there are questions surrounding this endeavor which point out that no one spent any time considering this via.
All we all know so far as particulars are that the Rams would be the “residence” workforce within the matchup, and that it is going to be part of the common season.
It’s going to be a spectacle, to make sure. The sport itself might be held on the Melbourne Cricket Floor (MCG), one of many world’s largest and most iconic venues with the power to carry over 100,000 followers. The sport will doubtless be a sellout, and appeal to main consideration inside Australia, which is the plan, however there are mammoth hurdles the league hasn’t defined but.
No. 1: The time distinction
It’s one factor to carry NFL video games in Europe with a six or seven hour time distinction, however Australia is nineteen HOURS forward of Los Angeles, and 16 hours forward of the East Coast. If we assume it is going to be an evening sport underneath the lights then a 7 p.m. kickoff native time in Melbourne might be midnight on the West Coast, or 3 a.m. ET.
Essentially the most logical could be a mid-afternoon sport regionally, which might end in a Saturday Night time sport within the USA — however TV scheduling is simply the smallest factor of all this.
No. 2: Jet lag
It’s typically accepted that it takes roughly in the future, per time zone crossed to totally acclimate to jet lag. This is the reason groups fly out to England and Germany a couple of days prematurely forward of their video games, so gamers are capable of alter.
Australia is SEVEN time zones other than the west coast. As somebody who makes the journey from the US to Australia on a semi-regular foundation it doesn’t take fairly a full week to really feel regular once more, however simply 4-5 days to get used to the huge shift.
This happens each methods, and it’s unclear how the NFL expects gamers to be in peak bodily situation when their sleep patterns are fully altered like this. It wouldn’t matter in a preseason state of affairs when starters barely play anyway, however when each sport issues it is a bizarre alternative.
No. 3: How are they getting there?
Nearly all of NFL groups fly on Boeing 777 and Boeing 737 widebody airplanes, with customized inside modifications to remodel the inside from having over 200 business seats, to 50 pod configurations for gamers to stretch out, with extra seating for help employees.
The difficulty is that neither the 777, nor the 737 could make the 7,900 mile flight to Melbourne. Even with a logical layover in Hawaii they will’t make the second leg of the flight. Previously when exhibition video games have been performed in Australia gamers have taken a number of flights, however that ruins the pregame preparation stream that groups are used to, which is a matter in the case of an everyday season sport.
Primarily it will require both groups discovering fully new plane to be customized match for them to make a flight this far, or altering the way in which the leadup to the sport is dealt with all collectively.
There’s a logical reply right here the NFL hasn’t explored
As a substitute of attempting to cram an NFL common season sport into the schedule and play it so many hours away in Australia, why not carry again the Professional Bowl and play that? The motivation for gamers could be the league footing the invoice to fly whole households to Australia, making a once-in-a-lifetime expertise for NFL gamers, whereas soccer followers Down Underneath would get to see stars from a number of groups, not simply these the league has determined to showcase.
There’s no nice method to play a sport so far-off, however this ain’t it.