Kyle Shanahan expects 49ers fan takeover vs. Rams in Melbourne

49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has been salty about the Rams’ desire to export a home game to Australia, in order to avoid yet another San Francisco-fan takeover of SoFi Stadium. Now that Shanahan and the 49ers have hunkered down in Melbourne, Shanahan feels differently.

Via David Lombardi of the San Francisco Standard, Shanahan explained in a Sunday press conference that he has a different outlook on the situation.

Shanahan reiterated his belief that the league “let the Rams off the hook” by allowing them to hand-pick the annual showdown against the 49ers as the game to be sent overseas. Shanahan currently believes “it won’t be much different” in Austrialia — and he expects the so-called Faithful to take over the 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday night.

It really is a consequential game, given the impact of the outcome on the tiebreakers within the division. Arguably, a game like that shouldn’t be part of the international series.

But if the Rams gave up their supposed home-field advantage against the 49ers in order to avoid the embarrassment of having red far outnumber blue in the L.A. venue, it apparently won’t be much different for the NFL’s first-ever game in Australia.