PALM BEACH, Fla. – Mark Murphy expects 250,000 people will descend on Green Bay later this month for what he called a week-long commercial for the city and the state of Wisconsin.
Final preparations are being made to prepare Green Bay for its turn in hosting the NFL draft, a tentpole event for the league. Murphy said the league is coordinating most of the preparation with the city, rare in a town where the Green Bay Packers’ influence is ubiquitous. He and Packers chief operating officer Ed Policy have coordinated with NFL officials when necessary.
Murphy, the Packers outgoing president and CEO, was optimistic about how the event’s logistics will operate in a town that normally holds half the number of people expected to attend.
“There’s still a lot to do,” Murphy said, “but it’s the league’s event, and this isn’t their first rodeo. They’ve done quite a few of them now. I think we feel pretty good about it. Ed and I had a talk with he league office just going through some last-minute things. The number of league employees that are going to be coming to Green Bay over the next few weeks is pretty astounding.
“We’re really excited about it, and you can feel it. I’m sure you’re all in the community, you can feel it. People are talking about it. I think the (Green Bay) Press-Gazette has a daily article on it, all different aspects of the draft. It’ll be like a week-long commercial for Green Bay, Wisconsin. I think some of the things that we’ve done to really make it unique to Green Bay, I think people will appreciate.”
It will be a unique draft, given the size of the host city. But the league has had two years to prepare for the challenges of condensing the event and has prioritized its planning for Green Bay since concluding the 2024 draft in Detroit.
“Weather is something you can’t control,” Murphy said, “but that’s the reality. I think the size of the market, the hotel rooms are going to be different. People will be traveling from farther distances, but obviously the league, when they selected us, knew that.
“I think the positive side is, Lambeau Field is iconic. There’s probably a lot of NFL fans across the country that have never been to Lambeau Field that will come to the draft. We anticipate I think 250,000 people over the thee days of the draft.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Packers CEO Mark Murphy sees NFL draft as ‘commercial for Green Bay’
