Eventually, it’ll be easier to list the cities that don’t want to host the draft.
Atlanta is the latest NFL town to covet the opportunity to present the annual rookie selection process.
“Absolutely, we want to see it in Atlanta,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank told Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com. “We’ve told that to the NFL. But right now, we’re competing for a Super Bowl. So, I think the league’s view on that is that they probably are not going to spread the wealth, so they’re not going to be holding the draft where the Super Bowl is going to be held as well.
“We’re competing for the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Super Bowls, and the vote will be in May. So, we’ll see how that comes out. But we definitely have made it clear that we’d like to be a city that is considered for the draft in the future.”
With the draft moving to Chicago in 2015 after decades in New York, the league surely realizes (despite Blank’s belief that the league won’t spread the wealth) that the NFL will want to get the best deal (and the most free stuff for the NFL) for the draft. To do that, the league should make the process of awarding the event every bit as competitive as the process for bidding on the Super Bowl.
“No locations have been determined beyond this year’s draft,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told McClure. “Multiple cities and teams have expressed interest in hosting future drafts. No decisions will be made until later this year.”
In other words, any city that has any interest in hosting the draft should start putting a proposal together. Whichever city puts the best offer on the table (with the most free stuff for the NFL) will have the best chance of securing the rights to host the draft.