As Washington, D.C., plans its bid to host the 2027 NFL draft, the city is hoping for a major event that would have hundreds of thousands of fans on the National Mall.
The National Park Service confirmed to the Washington Post that the National Mall could be used as a venue for draft events.
“The National Park Service has provided a letter of support to Events DC [the organization in negotiation with the NFL] for the NFL draft ‘to the degree that portions identified to take place on the National Mall can be organized and managed within the special event, sponsor recognition, and turf management guidelines in place for this iconic cultural landscape,’” NPS chief of communications Mike Litterst said in a statement.
In the years since the league moved it out of New York City, the NFL draft has become a massive tourist event and a huge source of money for the host city. Detroit officials said this year that the city had its all-time greatest hotel revenue week when the draft was in town. As a result, cities are now pulling out all the stops to convince the NFL to bring the draft to town.
The 2025 NFL draft will be in Green Bay and 2026 will be in Pittsburgh.