PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Green Bay Area is breathing a sigh of relief, now that the NFL has announced the dates for the 2025 NFL Draft. Green Bay will host the event April 24 – 26.
It’s a bit unusual for the NFL to announce the dates of a draft as early as it did. But, as the smallest market in the league to ever host a draft, that is expected to bring up to a quarter of a million people to the area, knowing sooner rather than later was a must.
“Yes, we’re not kind of worrying when those dates are but now we can really look forward to it and really plan and do what we do best and start working on events,” said Beth Richgels, owner of Ruby Design.
Discover Green Bay, with support from the Packers, actually pushed the NFL for an early decision, understanding not only the impact the draft weekend will have on the local economy — but the potential harm and uncertainty of not knowing the dates could have caused too.
According to Nick Meisner with Discover Green Bay, “Right now we’re in the cycle of selling for ’25, ’26, ’27 and into the future. So, in a larger market the space that they needed reserved may not have been as big of an impact as it is here in Green Bay, so we really needed to know so those spaces could open up the dates that were not selected for other events that will have a great economic impact here in Green Bay.”
That includes local hotels. There are a little less than 5,000 hotel rooms in the Greater Green Bay area. The NFL has said it will need at least half of those for their staff, crews, sponsors, and other people associated with the draft.
Meisner said, “They’re hoping by the end of the year that those contracts and agreements are completed, so at that point we’ll know how many are leftover and available.”
But even with the dates released, industry standard typical dictates room availability only a year out from an event. So, even if people are trying to book rooms now, the majority, if not all hotels in the area, aren’t even looking that far ahead.
“Room booking engines don’t open up the rooms for public consumption until about a year out, so if you go to a hotel’s website and select the dates you won’t even be able to select the dates on the website for a lot of those,” added Meisner.
And while excitement is building in the area for the draft, Richgels said, “From the gas stations to the retail locations to the venues it’s definitely something we’re looking forward to.”
There are still more than 500 days until the event.
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