GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Hosting an event for the NFL is no small feat, including the NFL Draft.
But the league’s smallest city with a professional football team showed that they were up for the task in 2025.
“I think there’s still a buzz around here, just with the draft and thinking back to what it was and what it represented and the energy that this community had for you know, a month that we were building up for the event,” said Green Bay Packers Director of Public Affairs Aaron Popkey.
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The event was historic for the city of Green Bay, Brown County, and the entire state of Wisconsin.
More than 600,000 fans attended the three-day event, and pumped more than 80 million dollars into the local economy.
The success of just a prolific event like the Draft is helping bring more big events to Green Bay.
“Continuing to pitch larger and larger events, that may have not, you know, thought of Green Bay before, but these big events are being planned out to 2030, 2031 right now. So, you know, we are definitely continuing to showcase the draft in our sales and marketing initiatives,” said Nick Meisner of Discover Green Bay.
Popkey and the rest of the Packers have had constant communication with the Pittsburgh Steelers, with them hosting this year’s event.
Sharing logistics on what went right in Green Bay, ahead of them taking the spotlight this year.
“We put together an after report that we were able to share with them. And I’ve had conversations with them leading up to it. And I know I’ve fired off some emails to my counterparts with the Steelers and some other folks in the Pittsburgh area,” said Popkey, “The campus is shaping up, pretty neat. They’ve got a neat area downtown near the stadium. You know, I think our campus is better, of course.”
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Stadium View is one of the businesses that just missed out on being a part of the draft footprint in Green Bay.
Despite that, the bar and restaurant still saw an influx of customers during the three-day weekend.
“People definitely made it a point to come in here, And even being outside of that footprint, I think it also helped to that all of like the free rides, like their main access point was that,” said Stadium View Bar Manager Jenni Snftleben, “A lot of people would be like, come in for a drink and then wait for their shuttle at the end of the night.”
The success of 2025’s Draft has many thinking it could return to Green Bay in the future.
“Some time, maybe down the road, maybe there is another opportunity to get it here in Green Bay,” said Popkey.
