The anchor of one of the most popular sports programs in the US has declared Melbourne\u2019s historic first NFL game will pave the way for more Australian matches by creating \u201ca spectacle\u201d its homeland can\u2019t match.<\/p>\n
NFL Red Zone host Scott Hanson last week visited the MCG for the first time, watching Collingwood draw with Hawthorn before 76,000 fans. <\/p>\n
With 100,000 spectators to pack the venue for September\u2019s LA Rams-San Francisco 49ers blockbuster, the Melbourne match will seat almost 20,000 more spectators than any NFL stadium in the US. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be one the best atmospheres, it\u2019ll probably be the biggest (TV) audience, the biggest stadium capacity of the season in the NFL, in the states or anywhere else,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cWe have college stadiums that rival the \u2018G but the biggest stadium in the United States for the NFL is a little more than 80,000. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo to have 100,000 people, I can\u2019t even imagine how it will look and sound in person and on television it will be one of the best spectacles of the year in the NFL.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n
Hanson told the Herald Sun he was convinced NFL matches in Melbourne this year and next would be a precursor to more games down under. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can say this, the NFL absolutely wants it to grow into something at least frequent, if not permanent,\u2019\u2019 he said. <\/p>\n
\u201c(NFL commissioner) Roger Goodell himself said, \u2018this is not a one-off \u2013 this is something we want to invest in this market\u2019.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
But Hanson said future Aussie NFL matches were likely to be played outside Melbourne. <\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely think that, assuming this game comes off the way we all expect that it will, that the NFL will have scouting executives back here in Australia to say, \u2018hey, can we do one in Sydney? \u2018Could Brisbane host a game?\u2019 \u2018Could anywhere else in the country?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this happen in Germany. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen it happen in the UK where they have their first NFL game in one city and then it was such a success, they want to get it to a different part of the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cI could absolutely see that happening here in Australia. <\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the \u2018G is tough to top when it comes to an atmosphere and the size of a facility that can host such a spectacle that we expect in September.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n
Fans rushed to buy tickets to the first regular season NFL match on Australian soil, with general access seats to Melbourne\u2019s September 11 blockbuster selling out within hours of going on sale last month.<\/p>\n
Goodell said fans from the US would be well represented in the stands.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously thousands of them will come over here to experience the atmosphere themselves,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut those who are staying back home \u2026 it will be one of the most watched regular season games of the year, guaranteed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s the second game of the season and it\u2019s between two Super Bowl contending teams that are division opponents and some of the biggest stars in the game are coming here to Melbourne.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
With NSW, Queensland, WA and even SA making inroads on Victoria\u2019s obvious status as Australia\u2019s sporting capital, Hanson said September\u2019s match would put Melbourne on the map to a US TV audience of about 20m.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll let you Australians fight over who gets the next game but let\u2019s get through the first one,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s put on a show and then we get what they call a high-class problem if both Sydney and Melbourne want to host the next game.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The anchor of one of the most popular sports programs in the US has declared Melbourne\u2019s historic first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[124,2513,23,133,10514,10507,10509,290,10506,2892,10517,260,4883,355,10510,119,135,288,10516,120,8241,10511,212,8007,10505,10515,10512,10508,10513,247,3386,117,68,293],"class_list":["post-9250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-america","tag-andrew-henshaw","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-soil","tag-college-stadiums","tag-division-opponents","tag-europe","tag-event-reporter","tag-ezra-shaw","tag-germany","tag-melbourne","tag-national-football-league","tag-new-south-wales","tag-nick-nick-riewoldt","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-obvious-status","tag-oceania","tag-peter-rolfe","tag-popular-sports","tag-queensland","tag-regular-season","tag-regular-season-games","tag-roger-goodell","tag-scott-hanson","tag-sporting-capital","tag-stadium-capacity","tag-sydney","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}