The NFL will play a regular-season game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this season and one in Madrid, Spain, in 2025. It has other countries in its sight, too, as the league seeks to continue to expand its footprint internationally.
Australia is among the countries the NFL is scouting as a potential host for a future regular-season game.
The league recently announced an NFL Academy will open on the Gold Coast in Australia in September.
“Australia is among a set, and it’s not a small set of markets, that we’re looking at,” Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s head of international affairs, said Tuesday, via the Associated Press.
Australia has a strong fan base and media partners, and the Eagles and Rams have global market rights there.
The obvious problem with playing a game in Australia is the distance from the U.S.
“When you start to talk about Asia, Pacific and Australia, you talk about distance and logistics and the football component of that,” O’Reilly said. “So, those factors are real. But our role is to really look at the globe, look at where the fan base is strong and do the diligence, make the evaluations.”
Dublin, Ireland, also is under consideration by the NFL, as league officials began visiting potential hosts this summer.
Owners recently approved eight international games each season. In 2024, the NFL will play three games in London and one in Germany as well as the first regular-season game ever in South America. The Eagles and Packers will play at the Corinthians Arena — home to Brazilian soccer team the SC Corinthians — on Sept. 6.
The NFL has played 50 regular-season games internationally through the league’s history, with London, Munich, Frankfurt, Mexico City and Toronto all hosting games to date.
