For nearly 50 years, New York was the semi-permanent home of the NFL Draft. But since the league decided to turn its marquee off-season event into a traveling roadshow in 2015, it has been staged in six different host cities.
Next up: Kansas City. In 2023, the Draft will take place between April 27 and April 29 in the home of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Plans are for the event to be set up in downtown Kansas City, around Union Station and the National World War I Museum and Memorial.
Kansas City won the bid to get the draft back in 2019. Aubrey Walton, the NFL's director of event location, strategy and planning, said with the continued growth of the draft, this event takes a long time to put together.
"Other conventions, other organizations, they're bringing their major events to these same cities," she said. "And so we have to get ahead of them to get those different locations and venues that we need to even be able to host the draft. So planning three-to-five years out is crucial."
A great indicator that fans are happy and the excitement is contagious, according to Kathy Nelson, CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission: "My inbox and email are full every week."
- Greg Echlin, KCUR sports reporter
- Kathy Nelson, CEO of KC Sports Commission
- Aubrey Walton, NFL Director of event location, strategy and planning
