BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
When Detroit needed to come through in the clutch in order to send a message to the sports world that it was ready to host major events, the 2024 NFL Draft proved to be the right opportunity!
There would be no shortage of hotels when you factor in the suburbs. I stayed in my hometown of Farmington Hills and didn’t overpay. Despite more traffic, downtown was only 30 minutes from my hotel with minimal traffic.
But the numbers for this event were staggering. Day One of the NFL Draft set an attendance record of 275,000 + and people were turned away. On day two, the entry was paused again as the NFL Draft hit its max capacity for the second straight night.
Going into day three, Commissioner Roger Goodell let the Detroit crowd know that they are 100,000 people away from setting the all-time attendance of over 600,000 which would get smashed on day three.
When the event was over, Detroit set an all-time draft record of 775,000 + and I was talking to security people and officers and they said, the downtown and areas around the draft eclipsed over 3 Million.
I’m not a math major to tell you how much revenue was generated for the Metro Detroit Area and won’t even attempt to come up with a figure.
But from an overall standpoint, for me covering the NFL Draft in My Hometown was a once in a lifetime experience. The NFL rotates the event every year and Green Bay is on the clock.
One tool that helped my coverage was before the Media Center opened at 3 PM, there was a private company that housed the Media. I was able to do a Radio Show from “The Lambert Draft Media Hospitality House” to promote my book, “Lessons From the Microphone” and this was an awesome place to work out of because it was quiet, plus they had good food.
The amount of work I got done here, saved a lot of stress.
During the first two days, I didn’t have the opportunity to walk around the stage area because I wanted to avoid the crowds.
But day three would be totally different.
It was neat seeing the Stage Area where the players were introduced. I enjoyed walking around the entire area as the pictures will show you just talking to fans talking about football.
There were Lions fans and it was neat talking to NFL Fans from around the country.
My photographer Candy Ebling and my intern joined me as we were interacting with fans and meeting new fans/followers.
With an event like this, meeting football fans is great, in addition to networking, plus digging for content.
There is no doubt that Metro Detroit sent a message to the NFL that it’s capable of holding an event of this magnitude and don’t be surprised if the draft comes sooner than 31 years.
My message to the NBA, NHL and NCAA is after Detroit’s latest Big Event, the Metro Area will have no trouble hosting your All-Star Games and another Final Four. I wouldn’t be surprised if Detroit gets another Super Bowl.
But when this city needed to step up to the plate, it hit a grand slam home run when it needed it as the numbers indicated!
The folks in Windsor Canada and casinos across the river give tourists an opportunity to hang out in two countries.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at [email protected]. Feel free to follow him on Twitter/X @TribuneSouth. You can see his broadcasts by subscribing to the South Florida Tribune You Tube Channel.
Also, Scott wrote a book “Lessons From The Microphone” which talks about Old School Media VS New School Media. It’s available on Amazon/Kindle and Barnes & Noble.
