National Football League
CLEVELAND, OH (WSAU) — After last year’s NFL Draft was moved from the Las Vegas Strip to Commissioner Roger Goodell’s basement, the 2021 first-year player selection meeting is once again back on the road in Cleveland.
The scaled-down event will feature fans but social distancing will still be encouraged and many of the people involved in the event will have face coverings. Though Goodell has been fully vaccinated, therefore he will be able to give players hugs and shake their hands after their name is called.
Packer fans will have to wait to see what they do with the 29th overall pick from afar, but that may not be the case in 2024 as the city remains one of three in the running to host the three-day party and the millions in economic impact that goes with it.
The draft has become a destination event for fans beginning with an outdoor event on the famed “Rocky” steps in Philadelphia in 2017. Then Nashville set the bar even higher in 2019 by packing hundreds of thousands into Lower Broadway, an area already famous for dive bars, live music venues, and southern BBQ.
Vegas will get a make-good for last year’s event in 2022. The 2023 Draft will head to Kansas City. No venues beyond that have been announced, but Green Bay has previously made it clear that they want in on the traveling party.
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In July 2020 the team’s website reported that they were still working with local officials to make a final push for the event. President Mark Murphy said improvements around the Titletown district along with the history of the team and mystique of Lambeau would make the city a perfect host.
Reports indicate Detroit is also vying to host the event in 2024. It’s not clear who that third city may be, or if they are still in the running.
Many other “cold-weather” NFL markets such as Denver and Boston have also expressed interest in hosting the event. In fact, since the NFL changed its policy on deciding future Super Bowl sites the draft has become the more accessible option for markets who want to host one of the league’s two big fan events.
Super Bowl host sites are now handpicked by the league each year, with the hosting terms then negotiated with local officials. That essentially narrows the list of candidate cities to those with experience hosting the event. The draft is awarded based on applications from interested markets.
An estimated 600,000 people the ’19 Draft in Nashville. According to numbers from the city’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Green Bay has just over 4,650 hotel rooms.
That means if Green Bay can win the league over, they’ll need help from cities as far away as Wausau, Appleton, and Milwaukee to house those in attendance.
It remains unclear when the league will award the next batch of Draft host sites.
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