Lambeau Field. MWC file photo
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Organizers preparing for Green Bay to host the 2025 NFL Draft are now projecting the footprint here will be more than double the size of the one for this year’s draft in Detroit.
The footprint hasn’t been officially set, but organizers say this is based on preliminary plans.
We’ve known the NFL Draft campus in Green Bay next April will include Lambeau Field, the Titletown District and the Resch Complex. Organizers say the rough footprint they are currently working with is about 4.5 million square feet.
That compares to Detroit’s of about 2 million square feet, according to Capt. Ben Allen of the Green Bay Police Department.
“These are measurements, computer measurements, so they’re general at best, but they kind of give us a better idea of what we think we can fit for people in these spots,” said Allen, who is leading security planning for the event.
The draft theatre, where fans can watch NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announce the picks, is tentatively going to be in the area of Oneida Street, facing Lambeau Field.
In Detroit, the theatre area is where daunting crowds packed in to an area that was about 88,000 square feet, according to Allen. He says Green Bay’s draft theatre area will be about four times the size of Detroit’s, at about 350,000 square feet.
Allen says figuring out the square footage of the different areas has him even more confident Green Bay will be able to accommodate large draft crowds.
“I know this is going to be bigger than a gameday,” said Allen. “We know that. It’s really jamming three gamedays all together and the crowd is different. The people coming and going is different.”
Another thing that could make Green Bay more confident is it is still keeping its crowd projection at 240,000 people, despite more than 750,000 people attending the draft over its three days in Detroit.
Organizers have said they are not changing the projection, partly because Detroit is a much larger metro area and their draft crowd was mostly made up of Lions fans from the immediate area.
The large showing in Detroit caused the draft campus to reach capacity and shut down twice on the event’s first night.
Draft organizers were asked if fans should still be concerned about the campus potentially reaching capacity next April in Green Bay.
“I think so and those are conversations we’ll certainly have with the NFL, with the Packers, with our other public safety officials,” said Allen. “We’ll get good numbers on what that looks like as far as crowd size, crowd push, crowd arrival, all those things will be determined to help us decide whether or not we shut down for a time.”
There is no timeline for when Green Bay’s draft footprint will officially be set. However, organizers for Detroit’s draft said plans didn’t start to finalize until six months before the event.
Comments