Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
Packers could get answer on NFL draft next month
Green Bay — Green Bay might know as early as May if it will host the 2024 NFL draft.
Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said the decision might be made at the May owners’ meeting, “we think.”
The NFL is quite flexible about when and why it awards the draft, so a decision on 2024 could be made later, too.
Cleveland will host this year’s draft April 29 to May 1. Las Vegas is the 2022 host, followed by Kansas City in 2023.
Three cities, Green Bay, Detroit and Washington, D.C., are under consideration for 2024.
Loosely speaking, the draft is considered compensation for teams that never will host a Super Bowl. That’s not a hard-and-fast rule. Consider Las Vegas, for example, which could host a Super Bowl, and Detroit, which hosted Super Bowl XL, although, the Lions might rate some kind of extra remuneration for never having been in a Super Bowl.
Washington’s issues are more lurid. While Jason Wright, the president of the Washington Football Team, is well regarded, team owner Daniel Snyder is not so much. And the Washington organization has been hit with a series of sexual harassment claims that still are not resolved. A new American president will be elected in 2024, for what that’s worth, and, finally, Washington does not actually have an NFL team, although nearby Landover, Maryland, does.
Ask Murphy which one thing Green Bay could use to improve its chances and he quickly says “more people.” As the smallest market in the league, Green Bay always will be overshadowed by every other NFL city when it comes to population. The Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of 6.1 million and Detroit is 4.3 million. The Green Bay MSA, which generously includes largely rural Oconto and Kewaunee counties, is 306,000.
“Those are bigger population bases and it’s a little easier to get there,” Murphy said of Washington and Detroit.
But Green Bay is well placed near a couple of major cities and is a bucket list kind of destination.
“Between Chicago and Minneapolis, it’s an easy trip. I think a lot of people across the country have wanted to see Lambeau Field and I think this would motivate them to come out,” he said.
The draft could bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to Green Bay over the three days of the event, not counting television crews, NFL staffers and others needed for its production who would be here for about a week. Philadelphia reported 250,000 attendees in 2017 and Nashville claimed 600,000 in 2019.
Green Bay’s other selling point is its history. There is no other franchise in the NFL — perhaps even major professional sports — with a story like Green Bay’s: owned by the fans, smallest market in sports, most NFL championships. The networks love Green Bay, or so it sounds every time they broadcast from here.
“Lambeau Field and the iconic nature, people want to come to it for our history and tradition. I think we have a lot of positives,” Murphy said.
Green Bay would rely heavily on the Resch Center /Resch Expo complex, Lambeau Field and the Titletown District to house the event.
Cleveland, by comparison, will center the draft on FirstEnergy Stadium, home of the Browns, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center, in a physical footprint much like Green Bay’s. Both sites’ venues are within easy walking distance along a line about a half-mile long.
And despite the whole Frozen Tundra reputation, weather in Green Bay at the end of April can be expected to be no worse than in Philadelphia and Chicago, which already hosted drafts, or Cleveland.