Will Detroit beat Kansas City when it comes to crowds, economic impact of NFL draft?
Will Detroit beat Kansas City or not?
We're not talking about any potential matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Kansas City Chiefs here. Instead, we're wondering whether the crowds — and the economic impact — generated by the 2024 NFL draft in Detroit will outrun the numbers that Kansas City put on the board last year.
When asked about the economic impact of the NFL draft in Detroit, Visit Detroit has consistently referenced the 2023 NFL draft in Kansas City, where the draft reportedly led to $164.3 million in overall economic impact. Kansas City's draft drew 312,000 people.
Visit Detroit and the Detroit Sports Commission did not release any specific economic projections ahead of the event. Data on the economic impact from on-going research won't be available until possibly late May, said Chris Moyer, senior director of communications and public affairs at Visit Detroit, which works to promote metro Detroit as a convention, business meeting and tourism destination.
"We want to be meticulous in how we go about this process," Moyer said.
Moyer said he expects to have results of how many people attended the 2024 NFL draft in Detroit on Monday. On Wednesday, he expects to have more data on hotel occupancy during the three days of football festivities.
Moyer said Visit Detroit is working with Patrick Rishe, "one of the leading sports economists in the country, to conduct a full, post-event economic impact analysis."
Rishe is director of the sports and business program and a professor of practice in sports business at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Rishe, who has been a contributing sports business writer at Forbes.com, has done research in economic impact studies, as well as secondary ticket pricing in sports.
He's been quoted on the impact of legalized sports gambling on viewership. "When you got stake in the game, i.e., when you bet on something, you are much more likely to watch, whether on TV or go in-person. This is changing all aspects of the sports industry including even how you're designing your venues," Rishe said in February in a Yahoo! Finance report.
Rishe estimated that about $20 billion to $25 billion would be wagered on the Super Bowl this year in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box."
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After nearly 50 years of anchoring the draft in New York, the NFL began moving the draft among its team cities in 2015. The NFL draft heads to Green Bay in 2025.
NFL cities that host the annual draft want to harness the economic energy that can be triggered by hundreds of thousands visiting football fans. Entry to many events is free but food, beer and booze, and travel costs are not.
The record for attendance is more than 600,000 for the NFL draft held in 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. But many times, we hear expects looking back toward last year.
The Kansas City number of $164.3 million is clearly top of mind in economic forecasting.
Back in January, I talked with Visit Detroit's Moyer about flood of cash that would be generated in Detroit during the Detroit Lions playoff games. Each Detroit Lions home playoff game was expected to fuel $20 million in economic activity in Detroit.
And yes, we talked a bit about the upcoming draft too.
Then, Moyer told me that the economic impact for Detroit hosting the NFL draft was expected to exceed $100 million and could approach $200 million. A pretty wide range there.
The East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group put out its forecast on April 11, saying that the net economic impact of the 2024 NFL draft in downtown Detroit will exceed $160 million.
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AEG pegged the potential number of unique visitors at 255,000 and anticipated that some will attend more than one event during the draft that runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
The direct economic impact would include what visitors spend "on things like hotel stays, spending at restaurants and bars, and merchandise purchases," according to AEG.
Hosting the NFL draft also can foster "long-term tourism and investment prospects in the city and state," AEG noted.
Visit Detroit CEO Claude Molinari was quoted in the Detroit Free Press in late March, predicting that the event would be the largest and "most inclusive sporting event in the state of Michigan" and generate "hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact."
A "Fast Company" article this week predicted a range for economic impact between $150 million to $200 million over the three days.
Can football fans heading to Detroit move that much money around? $200 million in three days? We'll want to watch the tape on that one.
Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) @tompor.po
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit may see more than $160 million economic impact from NFL draft
