On Monday, Packers president Mark Murphy announced that Green Bay is a finalist for the location of the 2024 NFL Draft, along with Detroit and Washington D.C. This year, the draft is in Las Vegas, and 2023 goes to Kansas City. Mark Murphy said the decision will come by the end of March, at the league’s annual meeting.
Ever since the NFL stopped solely hosting the draft in New York in 2014, big cities have gotten a shot at hosting the big stage in April. Chicago, Philadelphia, and Nashville are among cities that have hosted. Last year, the NFL branched out to a smaller market in Cleveland, which was really cool, given the football history and crazy fans that come along with it.
The success of the draft in Cleveland bodes well for the idea of hosting the draft in another small NFL city like Green Bay. This is exciting news for Packer nation as Green Bay should be the easy pick (especially over D.C. and Detroit. I mean, c’mon). This is an awesome opportunity to show off the city and culture as football fans come from all around the country to celebrate college’s elite athletes being selected into the NFL.
Green Bay is widely considered to be a below average free agent destination due to the cold weather and the small-town feel. The intense TV coverage of a historic and passionate Green Bay would shed more light into what a wonderful city it is.
The main challenges Green Bay would face is in lodging and transportation. Green Bay is technically the NFL’s smallest city, but would be able to handle the flood of people and attention. With the emergence of the Titletown District, it shows the city is focused on the experience for fans and is ready to market itself.
Mark Murphy has been advocating for years for the draft to be in Green Bay. It only seems right that a city dubbed “Titletown” and has the Super Bowl trophy named after their legendary head coach should have a chance to host the NFL Draft. Hopefully that opportunity comes in 2024.
