CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland’s turn at hosting the NFL Draft April 29-May 1 won’t be what David Gilbert, President and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, originally envisioned, but he’s confident it will jumpstart a struggling downtown in the wake of the pandemic.
“In many ways, I really believe that the relative impact of the draft that we’re going to have may be even larger than it might’ve been with an event that was much larger in terms of numbers of people because of where we are in this pandemic,’' Gilbert told cleveland.com. “We’re still planning for large groups of people to be traveling to Cleveland, all being done in a very healthy, safe space atmosphere, especially now with more people getting vaccinated.
“Certainly masking and all of that is going to be very much enforced, but our hotels, our restaurants, our retail that have suffered so much this past year, what these three, four or five days of incredible business will mean to them in terms of making it through to the other side of COVID may actually be even more impactful than that it might otherwise have been.’'
Last year’s NFL Draft, scheduled for Las Vegas to celebrate the Raiders moving there, was canceled amid the pandemic and conducted virtually. Vegas will now host in 2022.
This year’s draft coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Browns, who have been involved very step of the way.
“The great thing is that you have FirstEnergyStadium right in the footprint,” Gilbert said. “So, the Browns and their home are going to be visible to everybody who’s here and everybody around the country and around the world. And even though there will be fans from every team in the league, it’s going to be Browns first and foremost, and I think that’s going to show tremendously.’'
He stressed that Cleveland will also have the opportunity to dust itself off after a difficult year and shine bright on the worldwide stage.
“Last year, 55 million people watched the draft around the US and around the world, and we expect those types of numbers for this year’s draft,’' he said.
Gilbert, head of the Host Committee for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in 2016, hosted officials from the NFL Events department last week to conduct a walk-through for the three-day extravaganza.
He noted that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s easing of some of the restrictions for indoor and outdoor venues over the coming weeks will have a tremendous impact on the scope of the events. The last time the draft was held live, in 2019 in Nashville, about 100,000 visitors flocked to the city each of the three days. Gilbert can’t quantify the attendance yet, but anticipates larger numbers under the new rules.
In a coronavirus briefing on Feb. 25, DeWine announced that indoor entertainment venues will be permitted to re-open at 25% capacity, while outdoor events including Indians games and other sporting events will be allowed 30% capacity. He said mandatory masks and social distancing will be a condition of reopening.
“It’s all tied together,” Gilbert said. “The great thing is, the NFL, they know how to do this. They put on — very successfully — an entire season. Their health and safety people have been dealing directly with the state and the city as well.’'
He noted that intel from the Super Bowl last month in Tampa has helped inform draft plans. A total of 280,000 people took part in Super Bowl festivities, including 240,000 who attended the Super Bowl Experience in downtown Tampa. Despite the large numbers, Hillsborough County Officials saw only a slight uptick in the covid positivity rate.
The festivities here will include two major components, which will be free: the draft stage for concerts and the draft itself; and the NFL Draft Experience, which will draw tens of thousands of fans over the three-day period. Gilbert described it as “a large, live almost outdoor NFL playground for fans.”
“[Tampa] utilized time-ticketing and they took an event that usually doesn’t have boundaries so to speak, and they made sure it was all barricaded off so there were particular entrances,’' Gilbert said. “You could monitor the number of people that were in and out, and it was done very well, very successfully in a very healthy way. Quite frankly, we looked at it as a great test run for what would happen in Cleveland.’'
He said many other events are planned in and around the city so that fans can enjoy everything the area has to offer.
“We’ve been preparing for a long time to kick off a major, major marketing campaign around the region — and in some cases well outside of the region — knowing that this is a pilgrimage of sorts for NFL fans,’' Gilbert said. “We’re within an eight-hour drive of half of the NFL markets, so you have incredible passionate fans, not just here in Cleveland who we think are the best and most passionate, but you still have great passionate fans in Cincinnati, Indianapolis Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia on and on and on.’'
Market research has revealed that people from these cities are willing to travel, especially if they can drive.
Gilbert acknowledged that the NFL Draft will help Cleveland attract more events and prepare for others already on the schedule, including the 2022 NBA All-Star Game and the 2024 NCAA Women’s Final Four.
“Our ability to pull it off successfully particularly in and around a pandemic we hope will speak volumes for our ability to keep doing this over and over again,” Gilbert said.
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