PHOTO: Courtesy of WLUK
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Last week, Discover Green Bay presented findings from an independent study that gives us a full picture of the economic impact the 2025 NFL Draft had on the area and the state of Wisconsin.
You might think the construction at Kroll’s West is a result of them making huge money throughout the NFL Draft. After all, the event was quite literally steps away from the restaurant’s parking lot.
However, that assumption would be wrong.
“Slightly disappointing,” said Vickie Mahlik, the bar team lead at Kroll’s West.
Mahlik said day one of the draft was busy, but the rest?
“We were all excited for Friday/Saturday, and we felt like it was less than what a Packers game would have brought in,” she said.
That’s as Discover Green Bay says Kroll’s West was actually one of the most-visited non-NFL-associated sites during the draft.
“What happened to us is our normal base crowd that we have for tailgating Packers games, probably most of them avoided us, because they didn’t want to come into the parking nightmare possibility,” Mahlik said.
Kroll’s West regulars shied away from visiting during the draft, and data backs that up.
Credit card data from the days surrounding the draft show that resident spending was down 11% overall compared to the same days last year.
Here are the numbers:
- Gas: -5%
- Groceries: -21%
- Restaurants: -11%
- Retail: -8%
- Bars: +127%
City tourism leaders see the disparities.
“Certainly, recognizing when you bring even an event of this magnitude in, not every business in the community is going to do really well,’ says Brad Toll, CEO of Discover Green Bay. “Some are going to do great if this is their area. Restaurants and whatnot, others may not do as well.”
To no one’s surprise, visitor spending skyrocketed up 145% compared to the same days last year.
Here are the numbers:
- Gas: +54%
- Groceries: +9%
- Restaurants: +231%
- Retail: +268%%
- Bars: +946%
The biggest winner, for both residents and visitors, was local bars.
“We had buses come in from our other bars and even buses from other places. They would come in through our parking lot and we’d be so full during the day because we’d be packed in the morning from the Dan Patrick Show. We almost had to, you know, send them back out the door because we had so many people in the bar,” said Isaac Rentmeester, a bartender and server at The Bar on Holmgren Way.
But even for places like The Bar, which saw the massive crowds, there were still some surprises.
“We actually didn’t do as well on food sales as we thought we were going to do, but we did very well on beer sales and stuff like that,” Rentmeester said.
The biggest takeaway from the draft could very well be that it’s nearly impossible to perfectly predict consumer behavior, and it’s clear that much of Green Bay experienced just that.
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