After Detroit shattered attendance records at the NFL Draft this April, Lions president Rod Wood told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, "They can bring it back anytime they want to."
"I think the NFL was blown away, the folks that visited Detroit for the first time, I can’t imagine a better commercial for the city for three days. The way the draft looked, the way the city looked, the way it looked on TV. You never know when you host a party if people are going to show up, and they did," Wood said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket.
775,000 fans flocked to downtown Detroit over the three-day event, blowing the previous record held by Nashville out of the water. The feedback the Lions received from around the NFL was, "Congratulations for putting on a great show," said Wood.
"And then I think Green Bay’s a little nervous following us. So, good for them. They’ll need the whole state to show up to match our attendance," said Wood. "I think other teams that are hoping to get a draft in their city were paying attention and saying, ‘OK, what did Detroit do that we can maybe learn from?’
Wood said the Lions and Detroit studied the 2019 Draft in Nashville "because it was the last one that was in a downtown environment like (ours). They had 600,00 people and we went way beyond their number. So I think other cities are going to pay attention and try to do whatever they can to come close to what we experienced."
The Draft is headed to Green Bay next year and to Pittsburgh the year after. The host city in 2027 has yet to be determined. David Beachnau, the director of the Detroit Sports Commission, said last month that bringing the Draft back to Detroit has "already been mentioned, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility."
Wood covered a wide range of topics Tuesday morning, including the Lions' future in Allen Park. Amid speculation that the Lions could move the location of their team headquarters, Wood said they'll be staying right where they are "for the foreseeable future."
"We just did a huge investment in the building again this year, a $4 million enhancement to the training room. It’s all about player safety and health and getting them back on the field. It’s a great location. We’re a little land-locked, but we’re looking at things that maybe we can do around the building. And we just announced a partnership with Meijer to name the facility, which is great. So right now, this is the foreseeable future for us," said Wood.
Other highlights from Wood's interview on 97.1 The Ticket:
On the gameday experience at Ford Field: "We’re sold out on season tickets again. We still have a wait list of 15,000 people for season tickets. We’re down to under 500 single-game tickets for every game, so it will be standing room only. We’ll have a few tweaks to the stadium that people will see when they come in, concessions and those kind of things. We did add some more suites this year. Who would’ve thought a few years ago that we’d need more suites, but we do.
"But to me, the game-day experience is being there with other people and experiencing something you can’t get at home. That Rams game, I don't know that we can ever replicate that environment. It was unbelievable. And then I think Tampa almost exceeded it, because we knew we were going to the championship game when we won that one. And we get to start with those two teams those first two home games this year, which is kinda crazy."
On what he would tell fans who have been priced out of their season tickets: "Totally get it. I know it was a huge jump in price, but we’ve been very cautious about raising prices for the preceding three or four years. So we were really in a catch-up mode this year, and also reflecting the demand. If you go out and look on the secondary market, the cheapest ticket I saw for the Rams game (Week 1) is, like, $350 in the last row of the upper bowl, which is $100 more than the average ticket price for the whole stadium. So there’s still demand there.
"I understand that it may have taken some people out of the market, but we tried to do the best we could to relocate them to seats that were more within their budget. And still, a 96 percent renewal rate is one of the highest in the NFL. So even with the increase (in prices), it was a very, very strong renewal rate."
On the Lions potentially landing an international game in the future: "We talked to (the league) about it. A lot of it depends on how the schedule falls. This year would have been the year that we could have gone international because you’re required to give up one of your extra (home) games when you have that, and we have nine home games year. I think we were a little bit in the mix for Germany and Brazil, but the way the schedule came out, this wasn’t our year — which I’m not all that disappointed about.
"It's probably overdue. We’ve not been since 2015, we went to London the last time. I would imagine it’s coming up. Next year we could go as a road team, and then I would think in the following year we’re likely to be going international. And the league’s going to keep adding games. We’re at 5 or 6 this year and they’re going to try to get it up to 8 to 10. New markets they’re considering, France, Spain. Brazil and Germany are examples: once the tickets go on sale, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the queue line. Other countries notice that and say, ‘Why don’t you bring a game here?’ We’re a popular sport now, not just in the U.S. but all over."
On the NFL potentially expanding to an 18-game season: "It would have to be something we negotiate with the union. A lot of it could depend on how you adjust training camp and there’s been some discussion about tweaking the spring. And then I think the other thing is, do we add a bye? We were talking internally, it might be something to consider where everybody gets a rotating bye and then maybe the whole league takes one week off. So everybody has that late-season bye at the same time, which levels the playing field. I have not heard any of those discussions, but it seems likely to happen. Certainly it would add another game on TV, the revenue goes up, all the players win, the teams win."