Minneapolis exploring possibility of hosting NFL Draft

Since leaving its (then) permanent home at Radio City Music Hall in New York, the NFL Draft has traveled all over the country, making stop in Chicago (for two years), Philadelphia, Dallas, and this year’s event in Nashville.

It certainly sounds like the city of Minneapolis wants to add itself to that list.

A report from KSTP in Minneapolis is reporting that a representative from Sports Minneapolis has gone down to Nashville this week to explore the possibility of bringing the NFL’s annual selection meeting to the Twin Cities. The event has proven to be a pretty significant economic boon to the communities it’s been hosted in. . .Dallas reported an estimated economic impact of $125 million, per the report.

When would the NFL Draft, potentially, be coming to Minnesota? Well, the 2020 event is already spoken for, as that will be held in Las Vegas. According to Sports Minneapolis director Matt Meunier, 2021 might not be promising, either.

“We heard 2021 might be really strong with cities that were involved in the last bid cycle. So potentially Cleveland, Kansas City and Denver that didn’t get a bid the last cycle, so they might be ahead of us,” Meunier said.

It sounds like 2022 might be fair game, though, and I think it would be pretty great to see the NFL Draft come to Minneapolis. I mean, surely it would be every bit as good, and probably better, than any of the other cities that have hosted it, right? And we know that Minnesota Vikings fans would turn out in droves for the party.

Hopefully we’ll see this happen in the relatively near future.