Debt-laden Victoria could be paying $15m per match to host NFL

Phillip Coorey and Gus McCubbing

Feb 6, 2025 – 8.00pm

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Already a subscriber?

The NSW Labor government rejected an offer to secure hosting rights for the first games of top-league American football in Australia after being presented with a “ballpark” cost of $15 million a game.

After the cash-strapped Victorian Labor government announced on Thursday it had landed a multiyear deal with the National Football League to host games featuring the Los Angeles Rams, NSW Premier Chris Minns said he rejected the proposal because the NFL – regularly ranked as the world’s richest sport by revenue – wanted a “king’s ransom”.

Phillip Coorey is the political editor based in Canberra. He is a two-time winner of the Paul Lyneham award for press gallery excellence.

Gus McCubbing is a journalist at the Australian Financial Review in Melbourne.