After Detroit set attendance records at last year's NFL Draft, Green Bay has a tough act to follow this weekend.
Lions president Rod Wood said Monday that he's already had conversations with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about bringing the draft back to Detroit down the line -- and that Green Bay doesn't stand a chance in matching the more than 750,000 fans that poured into the streets of Detroit last year from Thursday through Saturday.
"Trying to get the NFL to consider bringing it back, because I don’t think they’ll ever top it. There’s no way Green Bay will come close. They’ll finish second, or third like they did last year," Wood quipped in reference to the NFC North standings.
Wood added that while he knew Detroit "would put on a great show for the whole country, we exceeded everyone’s expectations, including mine, with the (amount of) people that showed up. Even on Saturday, which is a less interesting part of the draft, it rained in the morning, and we still had 250,000 people show up, so the draft looked great on TV."
Asked about his conversations with Goodell, Wood said, "I’ve mentioned to Roger, 'How could you ever do better than this?'"
After Green Bay gets its shot this year, with the bulk of the activities centered around Lambeau Field, Pittsburgh will host next year's draft. Washington D.C. and Denver have submitted bids for 2027. Buffalo is another rumored location in the future.
So while the draft might return to Detroit eventually, it won't be for at least another few years.
"A lot of the cities that are unlikely to host a Super Bowl, this would be their Super Bowl opportunity, so it’ll be competitive," said Wood. "But I know that when they reconsider Detroit, whenever that is, it’s not going to be tough for the league to support bringing it back here."