DETROIT (WWJ) — Thursday marks two weeks from the start of the NFL Draft in Downtown Detroit, with upwards of 300,000 people set to converge on the city and city officials are “strongly urging” those planning to attend to have plans in place.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and other draft planners held a press conference Thursday to help make sure fans “have their expectations in order” as to just how many people will be downtown and how big of a hassle traffic and parking will be.
While the hype for the draft has been building for years, Thursday served as a bit of a reality check for those hoping to make it in front of the main draft footprint — with the main Draft Theater set to be near Campus Martius, with viewing areas extending south along Woodward Avenue to Hart Plaza.
WWJ’s Jon Hewett reports it could be “nearly impossible” to drive into downtown and park within walking distance.
“If you’re used to going to a Lions game or a Beyonce concert — ‘I get down an hour and a half, two hours early, I park three or four blocks away and I walk’ — that’s not going to work,” Duggan said Thursday.
“That will not get you in, because this is going to be, I think, similar to those who remember the fireworks in their heyday, when if you weren’t here by very early afternoon, you had no hope of driving into downtown,” he said.
Another comparison made by Claude Molinari, President and CEO of Visit Detroit: “it’s almost like Times Square on New Year’s Eve.”
Getting to, from and around Downtown during the NFL Draft
There will be several options for transportation — FAST shuttles, park and ride shuttles, the QLine, SMART Bus shuttles, DDOT, Uber and Lyft rideshares, and the Detroit People Mover — to help get fans to and from the central business district.
SMART Bus is offering “park & ride” services from 12 locations across Metro Detroit:
• Great Lakes Crossing, 4000 Baldwin, Auburn Hills
• Lakeside Mall, 14000 Lakeside Circle, Sterling Heights
• Mount Clemens Farmers Market, 141 North River Road
• Sterling Heights Meijer, 36000 Van Dyke Ave.
• Troy Civic Center Park and Ride lot, 520 W. Big Beaver Road
• Oakland Community College Orchard Ridge Campus, 27055 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills
• Southfield Civic Center bus terminal, 24350 Civic Center Drive
• Westland Police Department, 36701 Ford Road
• Fairlane Town Center, 18900 Michigan Ave., Dearborn
• Lincoln Park Community Center, 3525 Dix Hwy.
• Southgate Meijer, 16300 Fort Street
FAST buses will also run along Woodward, Gratiot and Michigan Avenues.
The city says DDOT services will continue to operate as scheduled, but with modified downtown routes due to road closures.
The People Mover will run 24 hours a day, with all 13 stations operational. The Financial District & Millender Center stops will be right next to entry points into the Draft footprint.
The QLine, the north-south rail service along Woodward, will run 8 a.m.-midnight Thursday-Saturday, stopping at Sproat Street, near Little Caesars Arena. Visitors can then walk to the main draft footprint or take the People Mover from Grand Circus Park.
While the draft is a ticketless event, officials are stressing the importance of downloading the NFL OnePass App.
More detailed transportation information will eventually be available on the app, as well as on the city's website. More details are available on the NFL website.
What if you can’t get into the main NFL Draft footprint?
While the NFL Draft Theater will be the place to be — along with the South Woodward corridor and Hart Plaza — there will be plenty of other excitement in the surrounding areas.
“We’d be failing in this draft if we did not take care of the areas on the perimeters,” Molinari told WWJ Thursday. “Not to throw shade on other drafts, but we felt that (there were) really large screens around the main stage, but once you started to get outside that perimeter, it was kind of hard to be a part of the draft.”
That’s why Molinari says draft planners were “deliberate” in bringing access to other areas of the cities outside of the draft theater. There will be giant screens and speakers set up along Woodward and in Hart Plaza, Capitol Park, Grand Circus Park, Corktown, Greektown and Eastern Market, while other areas will also have activities.
“So if you’re downtown and walking in those neighborhoods, you’re able to really have a great adventure, being able to see the draft and experience it,” Molinari said.
There will also be 5G internet towers at Hart Plaza and Cadillac Square to provide more access to the hundreds of thousands of fans.