GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Packers have been talking about bringing the NFL draft to Green Bay for years now.
While the team hasn’t landed it yet, the Packers think Titletown has what it takes to host.
600,000 people attended the NFL draft last year, taking over Nashville’s famous Broadway Street.
The Packers say they want to host the event to show off everything Titletown has to offer, but they’re not there yet. The team shut down reports that Green Bay had landed the 2022 draft.
“The NFL has not awarded the 2022 NFL Draft to the Packers or any other club at this time, but we remain aggressively committed, with members of our community, to bringing a draft to Green Bay in either 2022 or beyond,” Packers CEO Mark Murphy said in a statement.
The Packers say Green Bay is a desirable place to host the draft pointing to its growth in recent years including Titletown and the new Resch Expo.
Before the Resch Expo hall had a name or a footprint, Murphy said it could be the key to landing the NFL draft.
“Having an expo hall, that fills a real need. I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the plans. We anticipate a lot of the events if we hosted the draft a lot of the events would be centered there with the Resch Center.”
Terry Charles with PMI Entertainment tells FOX 11 the Resch Expo will provide more than twice as much space as the old Shopko Hall and Brown County Arena combined.
“125,000 square feet of column-free space. Which means no pillars, so it’s a wide open floor space that can be used as one large open space or cut down two or three spaces. The wide-open space, the beauty of the building and everything that it has to offer should help our chances.”
The Packers say they’ve submitted bids for the 2022 and 2024 NFL drafts. Locations have already been chosen for the 2021 and 2023 events.
