GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – With the NFL Draft only a couple of days away, Packers fans are left wondering if the event will ever make its way to Titletown.
One local official says the city’s chances are better now than ever before.
Having the proper venue is step one in attracting the NFL Draft to your location, according to Brad Toll, President and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Visitors and Convention Bureau.
He says the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena was simply not an attractable venue to league officials.
“That’s why having updated facilities, updated wiring and what not, those are all things that a planner that is planning an event like this would be looking for,” he explains.
But he says to fear not.
A major upgrade is coming in the form of a $93 million Brown County Expo Center, which would check all the boxes.
“I think once we have a state-of-the-art building we’ll pique their interest even more,” he says.
Next up, is having enough lodging for all the NFL employees and media.
“We have 4,500 hotel rooms and they need 1,500, so we certainly can fill the request,” explains Toll.
Things get a little dicey when imagining the number of fans that travel to the designated location and would need a place to stay, but at that point, it would become a group effort.
Toll says many fans would opt to stay out-of-town in locations such as Door County, Appleton, Milwaukee, or even Madison.
The third component is something that Green Bay has seemingly had on lockdown for decades: football background.
“The history, the tradition, the nostalgia, I think we compete very well in that area,” he says.
With that in mind, the city says they are not mincing words with the league about their interest in hosting the event sometime in the future.
“We have let them know that we continue to be very interested in a draft likely in 2022 or after,” explains Toll.
That date corresponds with the projected opening of the new expo center, which is being set at some time in 2021.
