Detroit officials gathered Monday morning to talk about the wild success of the NFL Draft, which took place April 25-27 in downtown Detroit. It was the highest attended draft ever, with 775,000 in attendance. It was a great boost to the city and the region.
Claude Molinari, Visit Detroit president and CEO said, "Last week, the week before the draft was the best hotel revenue week of 2024. This past week with the draft could be the best hotel revenue week ever in Southeast Michigan."
Molinari said the total economic impact of the draft is estimated between $150 million and $175 million, but could go higher. An analysis is in the works that should be completed by June.
Mike Duggan noted how Detroit was welcoming to its visitors and made a great impression that will last.
The draft footprint was in Hart Plaza, Campus Martius, and Cadillac Square, where we saw so many people gathered in front of the draft stage. But there were a lot of people outside that space, in activated parks and everywhere around downtown.
Crews were already ahead of schedule getting downtown back open to cars; all streets should be back open by next Tuesday, May 7. The Qline will be running back downtown by that time, with Campus Martius later this week and to Congress next week.
And visitors used our transit! The People Mover saw nearly 70,000 riders, while the Qline had over 68,000.
But that many people didn't equal great business for everyone. Many Corktown businesses reported that they had set up tents with screens to watch the draft, but they weren't well-attended; many people parked in Corktown and took the shuttles downtown.
Many think that the success of this sets us up for future bigger events (All-Star games and the Final Four in 2027).
Were you downtown for the NFL Draft this weekend, either in the draft footprint or greater downtown? What did you think? How did you get there? And what was the overall mood? Let us know in the comments.
