The 5 O’Clock Club: The 2027 NFL Draft on the National Mall in Washington DC

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This was published this week by Pro Football Talk:

As Washington, DC plans its bid to host the 2027 NFL Draft, the city is hoping for a major event with hundreds of thousands of fans on the National Mall.

The National Park Service confirmed to the WashingtonPost that the National Mall could be used as a venue for draft events.

“The National Park Service has provided Events DC (the organization in negotiations with the NFL) with a letter of support for the NFL Draft ‘to the extent that portions to be held on the National Mall can be organized and managed within existing policies for special events, sponsor recognition and turf care for this iconic cultural landscape,'” NPS communications director Mike Litterst said in a statement.

According to the Washington Post:

According to the emails, the league proposed building the main stage for the draft on Fourth Street between Madison and Jefferson Drives, near the National Gallery of Art and the National Air and Space Museum. Part of the event could also take place on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, from where people could stream to the Mall.

The district had previously explored the possibility of hosting the 2024 draft, which was ultimately awarded to Detroit.

Detroit drew a record 775,000 visitors during the three-day event in April. D.C. was one of 12 cities whose representatives were on hand to conduct site visits during the design, a person familiar with the matter said.

Broadcasts of the opening round of the draft in Detroit this year averaged 12.1 million viewers – more than any World Series or Stanley Cup finals game last year, and more than all but one NBA Finals game and all but one regular-season college football game last year.

The NFL typically likes to decide on draft sites at least a few years in advance. Last year, it announced that Green Bay, Wisconsin, would host the 2025 draft, and in May, it announced that Pittsburgh would host the 2026 event. According to emails between NPS officials, the league was reportedly hoping for a guarantee of an approved construction permit for the mall for 2027, but the agency does not accept permit applications for special events that take place more than a year in advance.

It is still unclear when the NFL will award the 2027 draft. Team owners meet quarterly, but the selection process could last until next May if the NFL follows the schedule it used to award the 2026 draft.

Competition among cities vying to host a future NFL Draft is intense, and there is no guarantee that Washington’s efforts will be successful.

Assuming this actually happened in 2027, which city and/or football team representatives would you bring on stage with Roger Goodell to pump up the crowd just before the draft officially opens?