Detroit sets all-time Day 1 Draft record with more than 275,000 attendees

More than 275,000 fans showed up for their teams during the first day of the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit — smashing the previous Day One attendance record.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made the announcement about halfway through the first round on Thursday, and hours after the NFL Draft site reached maximum capacity — prompting NFL officials to close off the entrance before the draft even began.

The previous Day One attendance record was held by the 2018 NFL Draft in Nashville, Tennessee, during which over 200,000 people were present on the first night.

Ever since the NFL anointed Detroit as the host of the 2024 draft of college talent officials touted the event as a way to raise the city’s national profile and deliver a significant economic impact. 

But some experts, as well as people in the draft’s downtown footprint, question what improving Detroit’s national image will truly mean for the city and its finances in the long term. 

Ahead of the big event, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said officials were ready to showcase a Motor City revitalized a decade after it declared bankruptcy. 

“The true test for our city won’t be what happens this next week but the long-term impact on our city,” Duggan said. 

In addition to the hundreds of thousands of fans who flooded downtown Detroit on Thursday, millions of others tuned in across the nation to watch the draft and Detroit’s cityscape. 

There were not any of the temporary storefronts or shrink-wrapped skyscrapers it used during the 2006 Super Bowl. 

This time the city’s showcasing its thriving downtown, with an almost 700-foot tower rising from the site of the old Hudson’s store as a backdrop. 

The head of the Detroit Sports Commission, Dave Beachnau, said the draft is also delivering funding for local nonprofit and community organizations. 

“Once the NFL leaves town, what’s left behind? As part of our bid we committed a million dollars to community organizations. And I’m proud to say that not only have we met that million dollars but we’ve exceeded it.”

— Dave Beachnau, executive director of the Detroit Sports Commission

“Economic impact is important. But what we’ve learned over the course of the last four or five years is that the community impact is equally as important,” he said. “Once the NFL leaves town, what’s left behind? As part of our bid we committed a million dollars to community organizations. And I’m proud to say that not only have we met that million dollars but we’ve exceeded it. If I had a football right now I’d spike it in the end zone.” 

Yet at least one sports economist predicts the draft may not exactly score a financial touchdown for Detroit. 

“As a general rule one would expect the economic impact to be approximately zero.” 

University of Michigan Professor Stefan Szymanski studies how major sporting events affect a region’s coffers. 

He argues three decades of research shows most people who attend such events come from the area where it’s held and would have spent their money somewhere in the region regardless. 

Szymanski says even estimates that the draft could deliver roughly $160 million of economic impact, like it did last year in Kansas City, is not that big of a financial boost.  

“$160 million sounds like a lot of money. Certainly, if you put that in my bank account it would make a big difference to my life. But in the life of metro Detroit it’s a drop in the bucket,” he said. “Metro Detroit has a GDP of $290 billion. It’s really a negligible event.” 

Szymanski says economists examined what happened to hotels and businesses in other cities after a sports party ended. Typically, he says, they found no evidence of lasting impact on local employment rates or residents’ income. 

“If additional workers are brought in for the weekend from, say, Ohio, they’re paid and then they go back to Ohio and spend their money in Ohio. And if a hotel is owned by somebody who lives in L.A., then is this a benefit for Detroit or is this just some people making money and it’s all kind of washing out across the whole of the United States economy?” 

It’s a debate playing out next to the site of the draft itself as well. 

Near Detroit’s Campus Martius, a fence stretching a city block separates the Draft Theater from those on the sidewalk, like law partners Todd Briggs and Sarah Colegrove. 

Briggs is a bit more excited than his colleague about what the NFL is building right across from their office building and what it means for the city. 

“A lot of money, a lot of positive support for Detroit. People can see what a great city we have. This draft will be great for businesses,” Briggs predicted. “There will be a lot of people from out of town. I think I’ve been reading posts that a lot of people have bought pre-tickets from all over the place, way ahead of anticipated amounts in other cities that have hosted.” 

But Colegrove’s enthusiasm is a bit more tempered by the day-to-day reality she’s faced. 

“For the people that work down here or live down here it’s been a huge disruption for the past three to four weeks. And I think it will continue to be after the draft leaves. So I have mixed feelings about it,” she said. There’s barriers around the entire downtown area. Wherever you want to go, it’s blocked off. The businesses are on the other side of the barrier. I wonder if it’s really gonna benefit the local businesses because people won’t be able to get to them.” 

Colegrove’s and Briggs comments are echoed a few blocks down Woodward Avenue, where other buildings remain wrapped in fencing. 

Inside the Townhouse restaurant, maitre d Gregory Michael says they’re ready for a blitz of business, courtesy of the draft. 

“It’s one of the best things that’s happened to the city in a long time,” Michael said. “It’s gonna bring a lot of people down here. And hopefully they’re going to spend some money. We are staffing for success. That means making sure we have enough people to accommodate the business that walks in the door, which could be significantly more than what we normally get.” 

But across the street, at the Salon Detroit, it’s difficult just to help a repair truck negotiate the barricades on the road in front of the shop. 

Salon owner Freddy Cohen whistles at a the work crew, trying to direct them, then shakes his thick mane of hair at the trucker’s driving dilemma. 

He says he wonders how customers are going to manage the same problem. 

“The draft is great, I love it for Detroit. I’m a little worried about it for our business because we are right in the heart of the storm. I’m hearing from my operators, they’re a little worried that their steady, regular clients can’t get here. This is tough to walk around here. They’ve got it sewn up pretty tight.”  

Yet Cohen says the Salon is adapting. 

“Couple of my hairdressers are going to the hotels and doing some people. I’ve done a couple people already who are from out-of-town, whether they work for the NFL Draft or they’re just here visiting,” Cohen said. “We’ll get some, we’ll get some. Not sure how many, but we’ll be OK. It’s one week. I can live with it for one week.” 

It remains to be seen how much revenue the throngs of fans bring Detroit or the region during the three-day draft. 

The verdict is also still out on whether city officials’ forecasts will prove true. 

They remain publicly confident the event could help change the national conversation about Detroit, delivering a new view of the city that, in terms of image and future investment, may truly be priceless.  

 WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.