Sports Authority makes bid to host NFL draft in ’19 or ’20
Janis Schmees Burke, chief executive officer of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, went to New York recently to bid on the 2019 and 2020 NFL drafts for Houston.
The city is hoping to host one of those drafts. Philadelphia hosted this year. Dallas hosts in 2018.
“We’d love to have it here,” Burke said Tuesday. “The 2019 and 2020 (drafts) were open years, so we pitched our idea. There were six cities, and they’ll cut it down to four, and we should know (final four contenders) in the next six weeks or so.
“Next spring, they’ll announce who has it for 2019 and ’20.”
Houston has hosted multiple Super Bowls downtown, and city leaders like Burke believe it’s an ideal location for the NFL to select for its biggest offseason event.
“Our vision is to kind of repeat that great footprint we have with downtown, the George R. Brown Convention Center (and) the Convention Center hotels,” Burke said. “It’s been great for (Super Bowls), Final Fours and mega events.”
Since the NFL elected to move the draft out of what had been its permanent home in New York, the league went to Chicago for two years before going to Philadelphia this year.