Much like most of America, I was keenly tuned into the first week of NFL action earlier this month, and while the ultimate fate and performance of my beloved Buffalo Bills was at the top of my list, there was one other thing I was particularly interested in following.
Many of you already know that the first week of season this year included perhaps the grandest experiment in differing approaches to business travel in NFL history.
The second game of the season was a marquee matchup between Super Bowl favorites Los Angeles Rams and their divisional rivals the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia.
The fact that the game was in Melbourne led to the most interesting part of the whole week in football from a travel perspective. And that's because the two teams involved took as disparate position on how to handle trans-Pacific travel as possible, which had both significant on-field and brand-building implications.
Let's start with the 49ers, who were technically designated as the visiting team for the week 1 matchup but showed up in Australia a week before the game, allowing themselves to acclimate physically to the 11-hour time difference and take in some of the local culture while they were there.
The Rams, on the other hand, were both the "home" team and the team designated to have marketing rights to Australia, but they didn't arrive until 24 hours before the game, sleeping on the flight over in a hope of preserving their California-based schedule and rhythm. The team has been dubbed something of a super team, and the clear Super Bowl favorites for the season, by the way.
In the end, the 49ers left with a 27-7 win and a lot of goodwill in Australia after the sold-out game, with over 100,000 spectators packed into the famed Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Quick side note: The NFL ended up getting extremely lucky with how the ongoing Australian Football League Finals — what they call the playoffs over there — have played out as no Melbourne teams needed to use the MCG that week despite a disproportionate number of teams in that league being either Melbourne-based or adjacent. As I sit to write this, only a single Melbourne team remains in the contention — the Hawthorn Hawks. But I'm still rooting for the Sydney Swans.
But I digress.
So what's the ultimate travel-related lesson we learned from this?
Well first, if you require any of your people to travel far distances, especially internationally, give them some wiggle room to extend their trips to fully adjust. Second, giving time to take in the culture also can quietly, or not so quietly, pay dividends both reputationally and spiritually.
If anything, this seems to indicate there could be real, functional benefits to so-called "bleisure," and maybe extending work trips has significant societal benefit!
Now, it's worth noting that the Rams could still be somewhat vindicated in their strategy, as you could easily argue that the 49ers will have a much more significant disruption ahead of their week 2 matchup against the Miami Dolphins than the Rams will against the New York Giants simply because the Rams never stopped functioning on Pacific time.
If we're honest, the biggest disruption is the Rams losing Myles Garrett to injury, but that's not relevant to the argument I'm making.
So in the end, the takeaway is to live a culture when on the road, and that takes a little more time.
Let me know what you think on LinkedIn or via email.
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