The big talk has already started, with Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris stating: “I believe we’ll get over a million people.”
It was announced earlier this week that the 2027 NFL Draft will be staged on the National Mall in Washington D.C. With the event being staged in such a large open space, it opens up a new world of possibilities; especially in regards to attendance.
The big talk has already started, with Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris stating: “I believe we’ll get over a million people.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell feels the same way.
“We believe we’ll have well over a million people when we come here,” the Commish proclaimed.
Is this possible? Would it set a new standard?
In 2015, the NFL Draft left its traditional annual home of Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and started moving around. In 2015 and 2016 it was held in Chicago, and then started alternating cities every year.
According to estimates by Front Office Sports, as cited in Yahoo, the 2023 edition in Detroit drew more than 775,000 people. That’s the best attended so far, with this year’s event in Green Bay drawing approximately north of 600,000, which ties it for second with Nashville (2019).
In other words, there is a bar that needs to be raised here.
And what about the National Mall- has it ever attracted a million or more people for a single event?
Yes, at least twice, actually. Politico cites these figures:
- 1.2 million: Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 inauguration
- 1 million: Bicentennial fireworks display, 1976
But with this caveat:
Source: Media reports. Data on crowd sizes are notoriously difficult to compile, and in some cases event organizers issued numbers higher than those cited here.
So Harris and Goodell are making some big forecasts here. And whatever the final numbers may eventually turn out to be, they should be taken with a grain of salt.