Plan in place for historic NFL game despite AFL problem
Sebastian Tan |
The Melbourne Cricket Club has floated the idea of playing an AFL semi-final on a Sunday after the date of the historic NFL clash at the MCG was locked in.
The first-ever NFL regular-season game to be held on Australian soil, featuring the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, will kick off at 1035 (AEST) on Friday, Sept 11, allowing it to be telecast live in prime time on Thursday evening in the United States.
But two AFL semi-finals will also take place on the second weekend of September, raising the possibility of the MCG having to be reconfigured swiftly for a match on Saturday if one or two Victorian clubs earn hosting rights.
The MCC’s chief executive Stuart Fox insists they have a plan in place if there is a clash.
“We’ve obviously worked with the AFL on this issue, and we don’t know what we’re working with yet, and we won’t know until five or six days out,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“We’re ready to play a game of AFL if needed, the next night or twilight, and we’re also available the next day after that, Sunday.”
The AFL has rarely hosted a week-two finals fixture on a Sunday, with the league usually opting to play on Friday and Saturday to maximise preparation time for the preliminary finals.
West Coast did play Melbourne in a semi-final on a Sunday in 1991.
Fox said the logistical challenge of shifting from an NFL pitch to an AFL oval was an exciting one.
“We’ve been working on it for a year, and it feels like we’re nearly ready to go with it,” he said.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan also ruled out the option of a public holiday, but said there would be a significant cash injection with more than 140,000 people registering interest for the game.
“The British Lions events (last year) that were held at the MCG generated over $100 million in economic return for our state. This will be potentially even bigger than that,” she said.
Melbourne will host one of nine international NFL games in 2026 across four continents, seven countries and eight stadiums, joining London (three games), Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Munich, Madrid and Paris as hosts.
Elsewhere, the NFL announced on Thursday they would open their season on a Wednesday night for just the second time for a game involving the defending champion Seattle Seahawks.
The only other time the first encounter of the NFL season was played on a Wednesday came in 2012 when the Dallas Cowboys visited the New York Giants.
With AP.
AAP