NFL fans ready to descend on Detroit for NFL Draft
Hundreds of thousands of people will flood into the city for the NFL Draft next month, creating a major economic impact for the region.
The Detroit Sports Commission and Visit Detroit celebrated the milestone of 150 days until the city of Detroit and its surrounding communities welcome the world for the 2024 NFL Draft from April 25-27.
The Detroit Lions had an amazing season and that’s only brought more hype to Detroit hosting this year’s NFL Draft.
From April 25 to 27, potentially hundreds of thousands of people will flood into the city, creating an economic impact that may rival that of a city hosting the Super Bowl.
Claude Molinari, president and CEO of Visit Detroit, joined The Metro last week to talk about what Detroiters and visitors to the city can expect during the NFL Draft. He says during the event, Hart Plaza will be turned into an NFL fantasy land where fans can participate in a variety of activities, like a 40-yard dash, flag football, high jumps and more. Historic NFL jerseys and trophies will also be on display.
“We’re so excited about this. And with a worldwide audience of over 60 million people watching, this is going to be an incredible platform to show just how far Detroit has come,” he said.
Molinari says they’ve been deliberate in hiring Detroiters to work the event. Seventy percent of the jobs have been filled by Detroiters and the remaining will be filled by other Michiganders.
Kansas City hosted the NFL Draft in 2023, seeing an economic impact of about $160 million, Molinari says. Draft weekend is going to be busy in Detroit.
“We have six NFL cities —Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cleveland— all within a four hour drive of our city. So we’re anticipating that we may be having record breaking attendance for the NFL Draft.
The Kansas City Chiefs won the Superbowl in 2023, the same year they hosted the draft. Could this be a positive sign for Detroit? We’ll have to wait and see.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 11 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
