After years of trying, the humble city of Green Bay, Wisconsin will finally play host to the National Football League’s biggest offseason event. Yes, the NFL Draft is finally coming to Green Bay.
On Monday, reports emerged that the city will be the host for the 2025 NFL Draft. First reported by Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic and later confirmed by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the league will be voting on the decision shortly at its spring meeting but Green Bay is the expected winner of that vote. In fact, Schefter noted that there are no other cities in the running.
It is now official, with the Green Bay Packers’ Twitter account making a formal announcement:
This will make 2025 the first time that the home of the Green Bay Packers will host a significant league-wide event. The NFL Draft has become a massive spectacle in recent years, exploding in popularity beyond its roots as a giant conference call in a board room to become a three-day destination event.
Even in just the last decade the draft has evolved, with the NFL moving it out of New York City in 2015 for the first time in over 50 years. Since then, the league has awarded the draft to numerous NFL teams’ home cities. Initially, the event took place in larger markets such as Chicago, Philadelphia, and Dallas, but more recent years have seen the draft go to Nashville (2019), Cleveland (2021), and Kansas City (2023). Detroit will host the 2024 NFL Draft, making it three consecutive years that it will take place in the Midwest.
The 2025 NFL Draft will take place from April 24 through April 26. The Packers’ announcement confirms that Lambeau Field and the greater Titletown area will be the primary location for the official events of the draft. NFL stadiums have not been significant portions of the draft-related activities at previous host cities, so this event may take on a somewhat different look than those over the last decade.
According to the NFL, more than 300,000 fans visited Kansas City for the 2023 NFL Draft last month. That number is about three times the total population of Green Bay and is roughly equal to the population of the entire Green Bay metropolitan area.
