The inside story of how Melbourne secured the NFL deal

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A coffee at Federation Square followed by a walk along the Yarra River to the MCG was the key to sealing the deal to bring the NFL to Melbourne.

Visiting delegations usually travel between their hotels and venues in blacked-out people movers but Melbourne’s negotiating team was determined to do things differently to win over the National Football League.

By walking to the MCG, Brendan McClements, the chief executive of Visit Victoria, says he was able to show the connection of the MCG to the city “which is unusual in world terms”.

Walking along Birrarung Marr, he could also point out to the visiting contingent the railway lines at Jolimont and tram tracks showing the capacity for spectators to move in and out of the venue.

“I got to show our city off in a way that I think everyone would like it to be represented,” he says. “Beautiful day, lovely walk, magnificent stadium, and you get to enjoy it all.”

How much was paid the NFL to secure the deal is unclear, with estimates of $30 million to $45 million for the three-game deal, a figure that McClements won’t be drawn on, claiming the information is “cabinet in confidence”.

McClements is otherwise happy to reveal how Victoria out-negotiated New South Wales, Western Australia, Korea and Japan for the NFL deal which resulted in the San Francisco 49ers taking on the Los Angeles Rams at the MCG on Friday.

Landing the first NFL game to be played on Australian soil was a long process. McClements first approached the NFL 15 years ago.

“It’s been on Victoria’s radar for quite a while,” McClements says. “A distinguishing feature now is that the NFL is very much focused on its international footprint, where it wasn’t really there in 2011.”

With the NFL set to play a record nine international games across four continents and seven countries during the 2026 season, the timing was right.

McClements flew to London for an initial meeting with long-serving NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“What I took away from that was, OK, actually, this is very serious,” McClements says. “We’re not dancing with our sister here. We’ve got someone who’s serious about wanting to come to Australia.”

It didn’t hurt that Goodell has friends who have been to Melbourne for the Australian Open tennis.

“He was aware of Melbourne’s capacity to host and deliver major events in part through his own social network,” McClements says. “There’s nothing like a third-party recommendation to give you some credibility.”

The capacity of the MCG, which could hold more than 100,000 fans for the game on Friday, was also “significantly appealing” to Goodell.

The NFL commissioner was worried about whether 100,000 people would turn up at 10.30 in the morning for a sporting event but McClements pointed to the Boxing Day Test and Melbourne Cup as proof of Melbourne’s devotion to sport.

McClements says he also wanted to make sure Goodell had authority to close the deal after the tourism boss had a bad experience trying to bring Premier League games to the city. In that case, talks hit a hurdle because the governing body did not have the support of the clubs.

“I was interested in the commissioner’s views on where his clubs and his players were at,” McClements says. “He confirmed that they’d given him commitments that they would make this happen.”

During the negotiations, the NFL flew about 30 to 40 people to Australia in five or six stages to go over every aspect of Victoria’s proposal to host the competition.

This is where it got down to “granular details” including how big the change rooms are, the closest hospital, whether Melbourne Airport operates 24 hours, and how far away hotels are from the MCG.

A major issue was the quality of the turf at the MCG and the grass profile which required “deep examination”.

“It’s a high-performance sport at the end of the day,” McClements says. “First and foremost, it’s about athletes’ ability to perform and athletes’ ability to perform safely.”

McClements says the NFL spent a lot of time examining the quality of the MCG’s surface and of the training facilities which include AAMI Stadium and Marvel Stadium.

“People think growing grass is simple,” he says. “There’s a huge amount of science behind it, but pleasingly, the AFL surface is consistent with NFL standards.”

Stuart Fox, chief executive of the Melbourne Cricket Club, says the MCC began assisting Visit Victoria two years ago in its bid to host the NFL Melbourne game by working through the logistics of hosting a regular season game at the ground.

“We helped to outline how we could facilitate their turf, locker room and broadcast requirements which were some of the operational deliverables important to the NFL,” he says. “Having hosted rugby union, NRL State of Origin and soccer matches in recent years, we are well versed in adapting the MCG into different sporting modes, and this no different.”

The Victorian negotiation team made its final presentation to the NFL over Zoom, adopting the lighthearted style of the Saturday Night Live comedy show.

“It was much more relaxing, much more engaging,” McClements says. “I think that’s something that probably set us apart.”

What’s not as clear is the financial return to Melbourne and Victoria from winning the right to host the NFL games.

Visit Victoria calculates that 51 per cent of the tickets to Friday’s game have been sold inside Victoria, 39 per cent to interstate visitors and about 10 per cent to international visitors.

Accommodation Australia has Melbourne’s hotel occupancies tracking at 40 per cent higher than the same days last year.

“That’s 12,000 additional hotel rooms that have already been sold to domestic and international visitors over just two nights,” says Dougal Hollis, general manager of Accommodation Australia. “That’s at the upper echelon of demand for major events.”

The game is being broadcast to 200 countries and millions of fans around the world.

“There’ll be a plethora of domestic and international visitors in key markets who will see Melbourne shine and hopefully be encouraged to plan future visits,” Hollis says.

However, like the cost of securing the contract to host the NFL games, the economic impact remains “cabinet in confidence”.

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