NFL Expansion to Australia and Japan: Uncovering the Real Customer Behind the Move

Greetings and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! Today feels like the perfect moment to crack open a Miller Lite.

We’ll discuss the NFL’s expansion into Australia and, in the near future, Japan. Is this a genuine push or is there more at work? We’ll also conclude with the results of our reader poll on the World Series.

Locker Room Roundup

• I can’t believe this was the best possible plan, but Game 6 of the WNBA Finals is set for 12:30 p.m. on Thursday (9:30 a.m. for California viewers of the Golden State Valkyries). It will sell out, but how many will actually watch on TV?
• “The search for the best place to pee on an American golf course”
• President Donald Trump campaigns with Johnny Manziel, Colt McCoy and Danny Amendola in Texas today. (It won’t work, just like it doesn’t work when Democrats campaign with Hollywood stars.)
• A district court judge grants injunction against Trump’s golf course renovation plans in Washington, D.C. (The Lorax reference was a bit much.)
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas) got booed when he handed the winners’ trophy at the Formula 1 race in Austin. Local politicians presenting trophies has always been my least favorite part of F1.
• After pouring billions into a new football stadium, plus renovations for an arena and a baseball park, some D.C. officials now want taxpayers to spend $300 million on more seats and a rain roof for a soccer field opened less than ten years ago.
• Elsewhere in Reason, we have all the Texas Senate race coverage you need: “Ken Paxton Survived Indictment, Impeachment, and Scandal. Can He Survive a Senate Race?” and “Will a Data Center Backlash Help James Talarico Turn Texas Blue?”
• If only more readers had checked out a certain award-winning magazine cover story about the simple way to avoid government conflicts over pickleball courts!
  

  Someone made a site that tracks what people are talking about at public city council meetings across the US.

  The only thing discussed more than data centers?

  Pickleball courts. pic.twitter.com/qyda81Tw1W

  — Turner Novak 🍌🧢 (@TurnerNovak) October 26, 2026

The NFL’s Expansion Into Australia and Japan Is Flawed

American football in Europe is one thing—taking hold in East Asia and Australia is another altogether.

After the NFL staged its first regular-season game in Australia in Week 1, Commissioner Roger Goodell now hints that the league may press further into East Asia and Australia. “Tokyo is clearly on our list, whether it’s next year or the year after,” Goodell told NFL Daily. “It’s coming at some point in the near future.” Another league official mentioned considering a 10th international game next season, up from nine this year. The logic, one could assume, is that a game abroad could convert casual NFL enthusiasts into devoted fans.

But this plan likely won’t succeed—at least not in the Eastern Hemisphere. The league remains deeply tied to the Eastern Time Zone, which makes scheduling across continents difficult. Consider the main kickoff windows (DST adjustments will shift them slightly).

Thursday Night Football: 8:15 p.m. Eastern, 9:15 a.m. Friday in Tokyo, 11:15 a.m. Friday in Sydney.

Sunday early afternoon: 1:00 p.m. Eastern, 2:00 a.m. Monday in Tokyo, 4:00 a.m. in Sydney.

Sunday late afternoon: 4:25 p.m. Eastern, 5:25 a.m. Monday in Tokyo, 7:25 a.m. in Sydney.

Sunday Night Football: 8:20 p.m. Eastern, 9:20 a.m. Monday in Tokyo, 11:20 a.m. in Sydney.

And so on for Monday Night Football.

Even the Super Bowl, the league’s marquee event touted as a global draw, begins around 6:30 p.m. Eastern. That translates to 8:30 a.m. Monday in Tokyo and 9:30 a.m. in Sydney. To watch live, you’d need to be an American expatriate or an exceptionally committed foreign follower—there are some, but they’re a rare breed (much like my friend @KoreaPistonsFan).

This isn’t the same as waking up on a weekend to catch European soccer—the NFL is banking on fans rising in the middle of the night for East Coast daytime games or tuning in during work hours for what would be considered primetime in the U.S. (In Japan, weekly viewing often requires an expensive subscription, while Australians seem to bundle many games into existing packages like Disney+.)

Ask yourself: Do you regularly wake at odd hours to follow the Australian Football League or J1 League soccer? Do you watch your favorite teams during the workday? If you have a flexible schedule like mine, you might catch daytime baseball or even a golf major on a second screen. When I posted about this on X, some responders argued that Japanese fans routinely watch day baseball—okay, fair enough; call me when the NFL lands a Shohei Ohtani.

I’m not waking at 2 a.m. to watch a game live unless I’m studying abroad in London and the Tigers are in the playoffs for the second time in my life. I don’t miss Formula 1, but if it’s in the middle of the night, I’ll watch the next day—sometimes with spoilers, sometimes not.

The NFL will likely sell out a Tokyo game, but the big dollars come from TV rights, not tickets. The 8:35 p.m. Eastern kickoff for this season’s Australia game (10:35 a.m. local, Friday) signals who the real audience is.

In short, the target audience is you—American viewers above all.

The novelty of London and German games is wearing thin. The NFL seems to think a Japan game, a Netflix deal worth well over $100 million, and a primetime East Coast slot will magically expand their global base.

What the league is probably after is not broad appeal in those markets but securing more U.S.-based primetime viewers, allowing it to rake in hundreds of millions from TV rights.

Fans Favor a Brewers World Series Title. Here’s the Reason.

Many readers seem thrilled with where the sport stands right now. Roughly seven in ten say they’re pulling for the Milwaukee Brewers, who have surged to a 3–0 advantage in the World Series after drubbing the Tampa Bay Rays 10–1 on Monday night.

I’m on team Brewers as well, though I hoped the series would stay a touch more suspense (Game 1 and Game 2 were closer!). Both clubs have earned their place in recent seasons and “deserve” to be here, despite hailing from smaller markets and often facing better-funded rivals within their divisions. Both clubs play in venues that—for various reasons—are owned wholly or in part by local governments. Yet the Brewers stand out with their positive energy, a striking navy-and-gold color scheme, and a devoted fan base that deserves happiness.

The survey responses backing the Brewers ran a wide gamut, from “The beer and cheese are better!” to “Beer. The answer is always beer.” (Shoutout to the line about seeing Milwaukee across Lake Michigan from Grand Haven.) Several respondents identified as Milwaukee locals or Midwestern folks, while others were just glad the Brewers toppled the Dodgers, or felt a northern team should win. A handful of Red Sox supporters chimed in simply because they dislike the Rays.

The Rays, to be fair, come off as less irritating to some since they don’t provoke as much fanfare. Nobody will be scaling street poles to celebrate a Rays title (though you never know). We did hear from a few Tampa residents and a couple Brewers detractors, plus one sympathetic note: “I have a dear friend who has loved the Rays from the start. She deserves a victory.” It looks like her wait will stretch at least one more year.

The Brewers appear near-certain to become World Series champions as we head toward what’s likely to be a tough MLB lockout. Here’s hoping there are no missed games—any 2027 World Series champion is better than no champion, or season, at all.

Replay of the Week

Keep your eyes on car No. 5. It’s unusual for a machine to swing from first to eleventh and back to first in a single lap! (And since everyone came out intact, you can also enjoy the spectacle of this massive crash.)

HOW DID KYLE LARSON PULL THIS OFF?!?! pic.twitter.com/nVhlg7JylD

— Rubbin is Racing (@rubbinisracing) October 25, 2026

That’s all for this week. Enjoy watching the main game of the week while skipping the school Halloween party—it’s Glendale at Salt River in the Arizona Fall League on Friday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, where MLB will test out a wild new outfield rule.