Having the proper venue is step one in attracting the NFL Draft to your location, according to Brad Toll, President, and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Visitors and Convention Bureau. He says the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena was simply not an attractable venue to league officials.
"That's why having updated facilities, updated wiring and what not, those are all things that a planner that is planning an event like this would be looking for," he explains. A major upgrade is coming in the form of a $93 million Brown County Expo Center in 2021, which would check all the boxes.
Two architectural firms are teamed up on the project. Kahler Slater of Milwaukee and Populous of Kansas City, released design renderings at an open house in March.
Brown County Expo Center Rendering - Kahler Slater/Populus
"I think once we have a state-of-the-art building we'll pique their interest even more," Toll says.
But the old Brown County Arena has to come down first. Miron Construction will begin demolition on May 1st. The process is expected to take two months. Construction is expected to begin in June with a projected January 2021 opening of the new building.
Final concert at the Brown County Arena on April 6th, 2019
Next up, is having enough lodging for all the NFL employees and media.
"We have 4,500 hotel rooms and they need 1,500, so we certainly can fill the request," explains Toll.
Things get a little dicey when imagining the number of fans that travel to the designated location and would need a place to stay, but at that point, it would become a group effort.
Toll says many fans would opt to stay out-of-town in locations such as Door County, Appleton, Milwaukee, or even Madison.
Brown County Expo Center Rendering - Kahler Slater/Populus
The third component is something that Green Bay has seemingly had on lockdown for decades: football background.
"The history, the tradition, the nostalgia, I think we compete very well in that area," he says.
With that in mind, the city says they are not mincing words with the league about their interest in hosting the event sometime in the future.
"We have let them know that we continue to be very interested in a draft likely in 2022 or after," explains Toll.