The competition to host an NFL draft is stiff enough that representatives from 14 NFL cities converged on Philadelphia for the 2017 NFL Draft to get a first-hand look at the task, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday.
Among those was Kansas City, where Goodell made his remarks while attending the Chiefs' fantasy camp.
"There's a tremendous amount of interest in all communities to host this," Goodell said, per the Kansas City Star. "It has a tremendous platform, in that it gives exposure to communities, and it has a tremendous econonic impact. But the event has become much bigger than it ever has, and it takes more infrastructure. Even our draft recently in Philadelphia, it set a new standard, it created a new event -- 250,000 people."
The NFL draft was held in New York City for decades until it moved to Chicago in 2015 and 2016. Philadelphia hosted the draft this year, and Dallas has submitted a bid to host next year's draft. The Green Bay Packers have expressed interest in hosting a future draft in the 2019-2021 range.
Goodell said that while Philadelphia raised the standard for cities looking to host a draft, a city's market size isn't a determining factor.
"I think we'd see the same kind of passion here in Kansas City. But I believe we had 14 cities in Philadelphia that were all there to talk about how we're going to improve our bid, our proposal, how we would make the draft even bigger. So the game and the standards keep going up," Goodell said. "... I think this community -- and in fact, I met with some of them in Philadelphia -- I think they could do a great job with the draft. It's not about big markets; to me, it's about passion, and having your own experience for the draft that's going to reflect well on this community and football, and they're going to be different."
Chiefs president Mark Donovan said in April that the Chiefs have "checked every box" in its effort to host a draft.
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