Well, I have to give NFL commissioner Roger Goodell credit. On the day he showed up to applaud Detroit for landing the 2024 NFL draft, he sure made it feel like draft day.
When only a smattering of people booed Goodell when he was introduced Thursday at Campus Martius Park, he egged them on for more, as has become the custom at every draft. Several hundred fans at the event were happy to comply.
“It makes me feel more welcome, honestly,” Goodell said.
WELCOME TO THE NFL: Detroit has landed the 2024 NFL draft. Here’s what it means for the city.
Then the commish took a step further and brought a real draft preview to Detroit. After nearly an hour of bloviating, speechifying and self-congratulatory remarks made by everyone from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to Mayor Mike Duggan to Detroit Lions owner Sheila Hamp, Goodell high-tailed it out of view with enough speed to give him a 40-yard-dash worthy of draft consideration.
Only Duggan was brave enough — or drew the short straw — to stick around and face reporters’ questions. Which is odd, considering that this was supposed to be a celebration and a chance for us ink-strained wretches to follow up on some of the good news that drew scores of people to the carnival-like atmosphere that featured Lions cheerleaders, the team’s drumline and former fan favorite players like Lomas Brown and Jason Hanson.
The largest and long-standing highlight was the unveiling of the 2024 NFL draft countdown clock, a gear-shaped structure 18 feet wide by 12 feet tall that will display the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the first round kicks off April 25, 2024. As of Thursday, a mere 742 days away.
So maybe there’s time before the Lions are on the clock with the No. 1 overall pick in two years for someone to ask Goodell what was the deciding factor in awarding Detroit the draft after five years of trying. The closest we got to that answer was Goodell’s praise for the Lions and the Ford family’s ownership.
“This is a tribute not only to the city, but also to the team that is the host city,” Goodell told the crowd. “And it’s something that the ownership takes very seriously. It’s been mentioned already: This is a true prize within the NFL ownership. And for that to be awarded is a tribute to the organization, the people involved. So thank you, Sheila.”
When you mention NFL ownership, money can’t be far behind, and it wasn’t. Goodell made sure to mention to the money that could be generated.
“All of this leads us to a very significant economic impact,” he said, “which we expect and we have seen already, will be at least $200 million to this community.
“But really the biggest impact will be the media exposure. And while it’s difficult to calculate exactly how much that will be, it will drive a tremendous amount of incalculable visibility for your community.”
Um … Rog? Maybe you would have an easier time calculating the media exposure if you stood still long enough to talk to the media. Just a thought.
The problem with estimates is that they’re exactly that. Nashville, Tennessee, which hosted the last pre-pandemic draft in 2019, reportedly had a $224 million impact with $134 million in direct spending.
Goodell also promised at least $1 million would be invested by the NFL “in long-lasting community projects that will be here well beyond the final pick,” though he wasn’t around to give more details.
“It’s the passion and dedication of all of you that will bring this to life and put Detroit on the big stage,” Goodell told the crowd. “And we believe the event will be successful because the city has that vision. They understand the value of the draft but they understand how it can help them accelerate the work that you’re doing here in this community, and that’s how the public and private sector will make that happen.”
What no one got to ask was exactly how that was going to work. Which corporate partners are already committed and which public projects might be in the works to accommodate the potential 600,000 people who could flood into the city, as they did in Nashville? Those logistics also place a financial and logistical stress the city with more need to traffic rerouting and emergency services.
And why had it taken so long? And what are Detroit’s chances for landing its first Super Bowl since 2006? In 2017, Lions president Rod Wood gave Goodell a tour of Ford Field’s $100 million renovation, with hopes of landing a draft and possibly another Super Bowl.
The former has happened, but we have no idea about the latter. Ford Field celebrates its 20th anniversary in August and it’s now the 17th-oldest out of 30 NFL stadiums. Last month, Wood conceded that it’s unlikely Detroit will “have another chance for a Super Bowl.” Unless, of course, the wrecking ball finds the building.
Of course, the Super Bowl is the biggest fish in the economic pool. The Los Angeles Times reported that this year’s Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium was expected to generate as much as $447 million, though the number also could have been a fraction of that.
Duggan, that brave soul, was the only VIP willing to stop long enough to speak with reporters. So I asked the mayor what it would take for Detroit to get another Super Bowl.
“We’ll get it someday,” he said. “You have a lot of cities that compete every year. It’s been 15, 16 years, but we’re going to keep competing until we get it back in the rotation. We’ll get the Super Bowl back, we’ll get the Final Four back. We’re going to keep at it until we get there.”
Give Duggan credit. “We’re going to keep at it until we get there” is the most Lions phrase he could have uttered, and a fitting motto for the hopes and dreams the city has for its football team.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.