'Knocking down walls': NFL puts global event machine to test in Australian debut

MELBOURNE, Sept 4 — When the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers run onto the Melbourne Cricket Ground in a week's time, they will be the final pieces in a giant logistical ​puzzle that the National Football League has plotted for nearly two years as part of a greater mission to convert the world to American football.

Standing over the whole circus is Jon Barker, the NFL's Global Event Operations and Production boss, who is across everything from turning Australia's premier sporting ‌cathedral into an NFL stadium to moving hundreds of staff and tons of equipment around the globe.

With experience producing Super Bowls, Drafts and other NFL tentpole events, Barker says there is no one thing that keeps ⁠him awake at night in the days leading up to kickoff.

"I worry about ​most everything," he tells Reuters in a video call from New York.

"At ⁠the end of the day, we want to make sure that our fans in Australia feel that this is their game. Yes, we're going to bring that feeling ‌of being inside an NFL stadium for ‌an NFL football game because we want them to have the authentic experience.

"But we also want make sure that it feels like ⁠their game."

Sports-mad Australia is no stranger to hosting major events, having staged the Olympics, Grand Slam tennis ⁠and other international spectacles.

The 100,000-seat MCG with its sprawling oval-shaped field is also a proven event chameleon, switching quickly between sports and rock gigs, including Taylor Swift's biggest concert in 2024.

But the NFL's September 11 debut in Australia may be the biggest logistical operation the country has seen for a single match of team sport.

The teams will each bring about 225 players and support staff on their own Qantas A380 – the Australian carrier's largest commercial aircraft – and haul a combined 32 tons of cargo.

The NFL shipped an additional 27 tons of equipment by sea and has arranged a charter plane to fly the ‌teams' gear back to the U.S. in time for Week Two of the season.

BEHIND THE SCENES

By the day of ​the game next Friday, there will be up to 200 NFL staff in Melbourne, including dozens in media production and outreach as the league looks to leave a footprint in a market it deems strategically important.

The MCG is in the midst of hosting playoffs for the Australian Football League – the top flight of Australian Rules football – but Barker has had people on site for weeks making behind-the-scenes changes to meet NFL specifications.

"In every stadium we go through, we're knocking down walls and we're plumbing and we're adding showers and toilets and cold tubs and hot tubs – if they don't have them," said Barker.

The 173-year-old MCG's playing surface is huge even for a cricket ground, and dwarfs a standard NFL field.

But the stadium has retrofitted plenty of rectangular pitches for rugby ​and soccer in the past.

The field aside, there will be changes to add locker room space to accommodate the NFL's large playing squads, coaches booths and broadcasting facilities.

With the teams travelling far and with ‌their support vital ‌for the NFL's global push, making ⁠them comfortable is a priority.

"We have to make sure the Rams – this is their home game – feel like they're going to SoFi and it's just another game for them," Barker said, referring to the team's Los Angeles stadium.

"It just happens that the road's just a little bit longer to get there."

Fans will find their match-day experience different when they get to the MCG.

People without tickets are usually free to walk around the outside of the stadium as they please, but a security perimeter will be set ‌up around it and ticket-holding fans can ​only bring in personal items in clear plastic bags.

Once seated, they'll soak up a programme with ‌pre-match and half-time entertainment, what Barker calls the ⁠NFL's "pageantry".

The whole thing is geared for ​the new generation of sport fans who value experiences over material things, he said.

"Because there's a lot more than just the sport; it's the environment that's created."

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; ​Editing by Alex Richardson)

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