CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The 2021 NFL Draft remains on track to be held in Cleveland this April.
David Gilbert, president and CEO of Destination Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, spoke Friday morning with Ken Carman and Anthony Lima on 92.3 The Fan.
“It’s a great opportunity for Cleveland, but of course trying to plan for it in the middle of a pandemic has not been easy,” Gilbert told Carman and Lima.
Events for the Draft are scheduled to be located on the lakefront to the north and east of FirstEnergy Stadium but details surrounding the events remain in flux due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re fortunate that the site that has been proposed is an enormous outdoor site,” Gilbert said. “So that really helps, that it’s not in some building; it’s not in a big, enclosed space.”
The 2021 NFL Draft is scheduled to be held from April 29-May 1.
“Anything can happen, any change,” Gilbert said. “We have not been asked to make any type of contingency plans other than those dates.”
Since the league turned the NFL Draft into an annual road show, hundreds of thousands of fans from around the country have gathered for the three-day event, making it a boon for local economies, but the pandemic forced last year’s draft to be cancelled in Las Vegas and Cleveland will not come close to realizing the original estimated economic impact this year.
“You saw in Nashville, which was the last in-person draft, it was just absolute hordes of people. It was elbow to elbow and estimated over 100,000 at any one time on the Thursday night, Friday night and then all of the activities during the day,” Gilbert said. “That’s certainly not going to happen, but we’re fortunate that we’ve got this enormous space.”
What the setup for the Draft will look like remains in flux, but as of now they are moving forward with as normal of a setup as they can have, including a massive stage for the announcement of picks.
“The plan is to have all the picks on a huge stage in front of lots of people with the commissioner and all the normal trappings,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert admitted that they have talked locally behind the scenes about requesting a future Draft.
“It’s certainly been on our minds,” Gilbert said. “We haven’t had those direct discussions [with the NFL] yet because we are planning for having the Draft live in Cleveland this year in about 90 days.
“If for some reason that is not able to happen due to the pandemic, we certainly would be having those conversations with the NFL and we would hope they would be receptive to it.”
The event will be free to the public according to Gilbert, but the question remains, how many can attend?
“The NFL is putting together lots of different plans,” Gilbert said. “We’re talking to the state about how it could work. If you can imagine distanced people in pods. It will be gated so there will be timed ticketing. Those are the types of things that’ll be planned so they can control the number of people and what the flow will be like.”
Even with limited capacity, Gilbert is confident that people will be able to enjoy the NFL experience or Draft in person. He just can’t put a number on it.
“It’s just so hard to tell right now because of regulations of how the state and city or what they will allow and the changing of the situation with COVID makes it really difficult,” Gilbert said.
Listen to the full interview in the podcast below.