The Rams are headed Down Beneath.
It’s a yr and a half away, however the Rams would be the residence staff for the NFL’s first regular-season sport in Australia, the league introduced Wednesday.
The opponent has not been introduced, however a report that will probably be the Eagles is inaccurate as a result of the Rams are the guests at Philadelphia in 2026.
The sport will probably be performed in Melbourne on the Melbourne Cricket Floor, and the Rams will probably be giving up one in every of their SoFi Stadium video games. Nevertheless, as a result of NFC groups may have 9 residence video games that season, there nonetheless will probably be eight video games performed in Los Angeles.
Peter O’Reilly, who oversees main occasions for the NFL, made the announcement Wednesday afternoon together with Rams president Kevin Demoff and Charlotte Offord, normal supervisor of NFL Australia, which was fashioned throughout the final two years.
The Rams have made an aggressive world push, acquiring the NFL advertising and marketing rights to Australia in 2021, New Zealand in 2022 and this yr Japan and South Korea. Together with China and Mexico, the Rams have rights to 6 world markets, tied for essentially the most within the league with the Miami Dolphins.
It was the Rams who initially explored the concept of taking part in in Australia, after they obtained the advertising and marketing rights, after which introduced that notion — and the willingness to be the house staff — to the league. Main these discussions, together with Demoff had been staff executives Tony Pastoors and Stephanie Cheng.
“As we’ve been lively in Australia over the previous three years, we’ve seen an incredible quantity of curiosity from followers and companies alike in bringing NFL soccer to Australia,” mentioned Cheng, who heads the membership’s worldwide pursuits. “We’re excited to be a part of this sport the league’s placing collectively.”
This world initiative not solely includes the Rams, but in addition Stan Kroenke’s different franchises: Arsenal, the Denver Nuggets and Avalanche, and the Colorado Rapids. SoFi Stadium, which he developed, will play host to eight FIFA World Cup matches in 2026 and Tremendous Bowl LXI in early 2027, and will probably be a central web site for the Olympic Video games in 2028.
The Rams have already got performed a number of worldwide video games, together with 4 in London between 2012 and 2019. The staff was to host the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in Mexico Metropolis in 2018, however that was moved again to the L.A. Coliseum due to poor area circumstances.
The 19-hour time distinction between Los Angeles and Melbourne will make for an fascinating scheduling problem. This season, the Rams had a watch get together in Sydney for his or her Thursday evening matchup towards the 49ers. The sport aired round midday in Australia.
“This can be a studying expertise for the league and a studying expertise for us,” mentioned Pastoors, Rams vice chairman of soccer and enterprise administration. “We’re lucky to have [coach Sean McVay] on board so none of these items scare us. We’ve been, for higher or worse, a touring street present at occasions. So that is simply one other problem, and we’re going to assault it.”