When the NFL took its college draft on the road a decade ago, its first stops were Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas, three of the league’s biggest markets.
The concept was an instant success, turning a spectacle cloistered for half a century in Manhattan hotels and theaters into a free, three-day football festival that attracted hundreds of thousands of fans, many of them driving long distances to attend.
Soon, more than a dozen cities raised their hands to host the event. Unlike the NFL’s flagship event, the Super Bowl, the draft does not require large public subsidies, hotels and security. It also takes place at the end of April, when the weather is less of a concern, even in cities with harsh winters. This allowed the NFL in recent years to award the draft to Cleveland, Kansas City, Missouri, and other cities that have never, and perhaps never, hosted a Super Bowl.
Detroit hosted the Super Bowl in 2006, as a reward to the Lions for moving to a new stadium. But city officials hope that being the site of this year’s draft, which begins Thursday, will provide an economic jolt, although it is unclear to what extent. They also hope the three days of television exposure will showcase the city to fans who might not otherwise visit. Detroit, they say, is not the Detroit of a decade ago, when the city was bankrupt, tens of thousands of homes had been abandoned and the auto industry was emerging from a long crisis. Since then, new hotels, businesses and residents have flooded downtown; unemployment has fallen; and the city’s debt has returned to investment grade.
“We have an opportunity to reintroduce ourselves to America,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said in an interview. “The last time this country paid attention to us was 10 years ago when we were bankrupt. It’s been a long time since we had something of this magnitude. “We’re just looking to say hello to America and give our visitors a good experience.”
Recruitment as a mobile party arose partly out of necessity. Radio City Music Hall, which has hosted nine consecutive drafts since 2006, had a scheduling conflict in 2015, so the NFL moved the event to Chicago. The draft that fans watched on television, with top college players taking the stage as their names were called, took place in a theater on Michigan Avenue. The real surprise came across the street at Grant Park, where 200,000 fans from across the region attended what amounted to a temporary NFL theme park.
The team’s color scheme and family-friendly atmosphere was a proof of concept for the NFL, which created a process for other cities to apply to host the event. Their markets’ teams and civic leaders raised their hands, seeing the event as a kind of soccer Woodstock that draws many visitors. In 2016, Lions president Rod Wood began lobbying the league to bring the draft to Detroit. The following year, the Lions and the Detroit Sports Commission applied, but were ignored when the draft traveled to cities such as Nashville and Las Vegas. Detroit was ultimately chosen in 2022 to host this year’s event.
Like other cities, Detroit worked with the NFL to find a location that met the league’s requirements for issues such as security and transportation. The NFL chose Campus Martius Park downtown and a four-block stretch on Woodward Avenue leading to the Detroit River for the stage and fan zone. To push businesses out of that narrow footprint, the Downtown Detroit Partnership created fan viewing sites in nearby parks. Block associations in the Corktown, Greektown and Eastern Market neighborhoods will host their own viewing parties.
Bob Roberts, president of the Corktown Business Association, runs McShane’s, a sports bar in the area. He said he expected to triple his normal sales during the draft. Visitors, he said, can visit a local artisan market and the Detroit Police Athletic League down the street, where the NFL hosts youth activities. The partnership will offer shuttle services to nearby parking lots and the downtown project site.
“It’s going to be a big shot in the arm,” Roberts said. “We expect to be busy from the time we open to the time we close.”
The Michigan Black Business Alliance used the draft to persuade minority-owned small businesses to sign up to work on large events. Britney Hoskins, who runs Top Pic Collective, which rents chairs, tables and other furniture, said that after becoming certified, the NFL selected her company to outfit lounges, a beer tent and other areas. Having the league on her resume, she said, is validation that she hopes will help her land other business after the draft has left town.
“We’ve never been in the room before,” Hoskins said. “We’re now on all these large-scale event radars, so for me the impact is long-lasting.”
Cities and tourism offices often tout the economic benefits of hosting big events like the draft. The Kansas City Sports Commission, for example, said the event generated $164 million last year. However, most sports economists dismiss these estimates as fabricated to satisfy agencies trying to justify using taxpayer funds to host events for for-profit organizations like the NFL. Estimates often do not take into account expenses such as police overtime and road closures, or money raised by host committees from sponsors and local corporations.
Jordan Kobritz, who teaches sports management at the State University of New York at Cortland and has owned and operated minor league baseball teams, is skeptical of the projections but said publicity from the event could be positive, even if ultimately it was intangible.
“At the end of the day there are benefits because one thing that is very difficult to analyze is the publicity that the community receives,” he said. “Look where Detroit is. True or not, there is a public perception that the city center is a disaster zone. “They hope all this positive publicity will help attract people who want to live there or do business there.”
Detroit hasn’t put together any estimates of the potential blessing, in part because no one is sure how many people will show up or from where. Detroit is a five-hour drive from six NFL markets and just across the Detroit River from Canada. Officials hope the recent success of the local Lions and the University of Michigan football team, which won the national championship this year, will boost local attendance. But weather and other factors can affect the arrival of fans from out of town.
“That’s the question: When it’s not necessarily a ticketed event, how many people are going to attend?” said Dave Beachnau, executive director of the Detroit Sports Commission.
Once the draft is over, a ceremonial football will travel to Muskegon, Michigan; board the Lake Express ferry; cross Lake Michigan to Milwaukee; and then head north to the site of next year’s draft, Green Bay, the NFL’s smallest but unique market.
“I have a feeling people will make the pilgrimage” next spring, said Gabrielle Dow, vice president of marketing for the Green Bay Packers. “You’ll be able to see your favorite team’s picks and check the box to see Lambeau Field. Here you will kill two birds with one stone.”