The NFL announced Saturday that 250,000 people "attended this year’s draft on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, breaking an NFL draft-attendance record," according to Chang & McCrone of NBCPHILADELPHIA.com (4/30). NFL Senior VP/Events Peter O’Reilly said, "Philadelphia has been a fantastic host and in our eyes, the bar has been raised for what the draft is and can be." He said that just under 100,000 fans "turned out on Thursday and 75,000 on Friday." O'Reilly added that "no decision has been made on where next year's draft will be held" but it "should come near the end of the summer" (PHILLY.com, 4/30). O'Reilly said that bringing the draft back to Philadelphia next year was a possibility, but "no decisions would be made until after this year’s event concluded." He added that about two dozen markets have "expressed interest, and Philadelphia would not automatically host next year’s draft simply because Chicago had it twice in a row" (PHILLY.com, 4/29). BLEACHER REPORT's Mike Freeman wrote while he was not in Philadelphia for the Draft, the "sense from afar was that this year generated far more intensity and passion than any other draft I've seen." Freeman: "It's quite possible we may regard this as perhaps the most successful draft event in league history" (BLEACHERREPORT.com, 4/29). In N.Y., Ken Belson wrote this year, the NFL "outdid itself by holding the event outdoors for the first time" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/29). In Orlando, David Whitley wrote, "The outdoor setting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was a masterstroke" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 4/29).
TURNING ATTENTION TO '18: THE MMQB's Peter King writes Philadelphia "performed like it should host the 2018 draft too." The NFL has an option for a second year in Philly, and will "strongly consider it after the city’s outstanding performance." King: "But I also think Dallas is still the favorite to host in 2018" (MMQB.SI.com, 5/1). The AP noted the NFL is "seeking cities that can turn the event into a showcase that essentially takes over a city, as it did in Chicago and Philadelphia." For example, Boston "could offer the Common," while Nashville has the Grand Ole Opry and Miami has South Beach. Jacksonville, another of the "potential bidders observing Philadelphia’s draft this week, may have such a place, an amphitheater being constructed outside the Jaguars’ stadium" (AP, 4/28).
FLYING OFF THE SHELVES: NFL Consumer Products Retail Manager Jessica Christ said that sales for the first two days of the Draft at the 10,000-square-foot NFL Shop "exceeded expectations." She said that while totals were not yet available, they "appeared to be ahead of sales for the first two days of the draft in Chicago last year." In Philadelphia, Suzette Parmley noted the shop's "hands-down biggest seller" was the white New Era Eagles Draft hat with the "cropped Eagle symbol and a green-and-gray metallic rim." Christ said that a "few hundred of the hats sold out Thursday night near midnight closing time, and a limited shipment of about two dozen hats sold out less than a half-hour from the time the store opened at noon Friday." Meanwhile, Pennsylvania-based Hunt Auctions President David Hunt said that anything with Eagles QB Carson Wentz' name "sold like crazy" (PHILLY.com, 4/29).
