The only question with giving Green Bay the 2025 NFL draft is where to put all the people.
The NFL's smallest market by a mile will host the NFL's marquee offseason event, which was attended by 300,000 fans last month. At the NFL owners meetings this week Green Bay was awarded the 2025 NFL draft, multiple sources told The Athletic.
It's a great historic setting, the smallest city in the United States that still has a major professional sports franchise. It will be a great celebration of the history of the game. The Green Bay Packers have been around since 1919, one year before the NFL was even formed.
It's just a surprising choice because of the market size.
Green Bay has a population of less than 110,000 people. If it gets near the same attendance that Kansas City got for this year's draft, that's about three times the population of the entire city.
For decades the draft was held in New York City, which is as different from Green Bay as you can get. Then the NFL decided to start having the draft rotate each year. Many of the locations are spots that will never be host a Super Bowl or won't do so anytime soon. Green Bay is clearly never getting a Super Bowl due to the weather, but the draft is a nice way to show off a stadium that is one of the most popular bucket list destinations among sports fans, and a small town that would never have a chance at even being considered for an NFL team anymore.
It will be a unique experience for everyone. Start building extra hotels now.
