The city of Detroit and the Lions franchise has long wanted the opportunity to host the annual NFL Draft. Their two years of preparation helped make this past weekend’s event a record-setting showcase for the Motor City.
More than 700,000 fans travelled into downtown Detroit over three days to witness the NFL’s most popular off-season event. The economic impact was estimated to be more than $160 million at sold-out hotels, retail stores, bars, and restaurants in the area.
NFL Alumni was among those groups that held Draft-related events. The local Alumni chapter sponsored a Draft viewing party on Thursday night that included dozens of former players. There also was an Alumni-UBS speaker series conference at the Detroit Athletic Club which featured several former players who discussed financial responsibility and related topics.
Thursday night’s television and digital coverage of the first round of the Draft alone generated a national audience of 34.3 million viewers. They had to be impressed by the enthusiasm and size of the downtown throng of local citizens and out-of-towners from almost every NFL community.
It is Green Bay’s chance next year to host its first Draft. Packers’ officials and local Wisconsin business leaders were in Detroit to witness the action first-hand.
“There’s almost as much demand among cities for the Draft as the Super Bowl,” says Commissioner Roger Goodell. “There are so many cities such as Green Bay that can’t host the Super Bowl in the winter but can host the Draft in the spring.”
The selection of players in the first round focused on the offensive side of the ball. The first 14 players drafted in that opening round were offensive picks. Five quarterbacks were among the opening 10 selections for the first time since the common AFL-NFL Draft began in 1967. At the end of the three days, 257 players were drafted. Michigan (13 draftees), Texas (11), Alabama (10), Florida State (10) and Washington (10) were the five leading schools with players picked.
The city and citizens of Detroit in conjunction with the Lions put on a great show last week.
We at NFL Alumni were pleased to have participated in the festivities. Now let’s hope the athletes selected will perform as well in the NFL as they did during their college days!
