Friendly reminder of what Detroit was able to do this time last year
The NFL Draft is now just days away, which means it’s time for Detroit to take another victory lap on how we showed out last year.
Everyone inside of Detroit knew we were going to absolutely show out for the Draft, but I don’t think the rest of the country was ready for it. Just because we have been so bad in everything for a decade did not mean that our passion for our sports teams had dwindled, and that showed in last year’s draft downtown. As a reminder of what Detroit was able to do, just before the fourth round last year, Gov. Witmer announced that we had broken the draft attendance record of 700,000 people.. and the draft wasn’t even over yet. We had 275,000 attendees on Thursday for the first round, over 550,000 through the second round, and absolutely fucking smashed the previous record of 600,000, held by Nashville from 2019.
The economic impact was in the range of $160 million for surrounding hotels, bars, retail, etc. and Detroit has already secured a Final Four in 2027 since putting on such a good performance. I wouldn’t be surprised for Ford Field to get another Super Bowl, the last one being back in 2006, especially now that the Lions have a brand new locker room to show off.
Later this week, the draft will be held in Green Bay. The expected number of attendees is laughable. It’s honestly cute. The NFL is expecting Green Bay to see 240,000 attendees for the 2025 Draft. I’m not so good at math, but is 240,000 anywhere near 700,000? Rod Wood took advantage of this fractionated expectation for a light jab at the Packers.
“Trying to get the NFL to consider bringing it back (to Detroit) because I don’t think they’ll ever top it,” Wood said. “There’s no way Green Bay will come close. They’ll finish second or as I said to Brad (Galli), they’ll finish third like they did last year”.
The Packers may have the history and the Super Bowls, but we own the ‘now’. I would bet my mortgage that of the people who traveled to Detroit last year and are also going to GB on Thursday, Detroit will only be heralded even more. A lot of people don’t realize that Green Bay is a tiny town in the middle of no where, and as storied as Lambeau Field is, it’s literally in the middle of a neighborhood. If you think I’m joking, look it up on Google street view. I think I’d rather be downtown at any bar or restaurant in Detroit this weekend than anywhere near that city.
Is Green Bay much smaller than Detroit? Yes, their population is just around 110,000. But that doesn’t matter to me. Last year, Detroit showed the entire country that we mean business and reminded all those we needed a reminder that we are a top sports city in the country. We deserve a victory lap this time every year until another city can top what we did (good fucking luck).
