Even before the dust settled after Detroit hosted the NFL draft April 25-27, it was clear that the event was a resounding success. It shattered the previous NFL draft attendance record of 600,000, attracting 775,000-plus fans during the three days. East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group LLC calculated it was likely to exceed $160 million in economic impact. That total accounts for expenditures inside and outside of the event, including hotel stays, spending at restaurants and bars, and merchandise purchases.
Such outcomes don’t happen by chance. They result from years of hard work and planning. And it all paid off, according to those who were part of it.
Quarterback the Plan
The Detroit Sports Commission helped manage the bid effort that caught the NFL’s eye in the first place. “A big part of our pitch to the NFL in bringing this event to Detroit was the draft would have a significant impact on our community,” says Marty Dobek, deputy director of the Detroit Sports Commission, who unofficially became the “quarterback” by serving as primary liaison between the NFL and local stakeholders. “And we set out to deliver on that promise, not only through the economic impact that would come with hosting the draft but also the community impact through legacy programming, through small business management, through supplier diversity, and through really ensuring at the end of the day that the residents of the city of Detroit were prioritized in hosting this event.”
The Detroit Sports Commission, Visit Detroit, City of Detroit, State of Michigan, Detroit Lions, Downtown Detroit Partnership, Rocket Cos., and Wayne County were key stakeholders in planning. An organizing committee was established early on to shape the event in a way that was pure Detroit.
“Someone with the NFL said it’s like a Broadway play and your city is the main character,” Dobek says. “We wanted to make sure that Detroit was lifted up and shined its brightest.” One of the Detroit Sports Commission initiatives involved launching an “On the Clock Tour” in January to reach out to residents in each of the city’s seven districts, surrounding suburbs, and other cities statewide. Running through the weekend before the draft, the tour was designed to inform and get people excited.
Dobek estimates some 30 different experiences or parties were held between the NFL and local leaders. Area nonprofits benefited from a “community impact draft” the sports commission held to kick off draft week. Night one draft picks partnered with Special Olympics of Michigan and other nonprofits to present a clinic for young athletes.
Dobek is proud that the NFL OnePass—a free app that provided access to the NFL Draft Experience as well as information about events and the city—became one of the most downloaded sports apps, ahead of ESPN, at the time. “It really says a lot and is proof of just how Detroit delivered with hosting this event,” he says.
And the success underscores a premise that Dobek says applies across the board when it comes to staging events. “Communication is so important, relationships are important,” he says. “It takes everybody, from our hospitality community, the hotels, the bars, the restaurants, the attractions, and obviously, working with your local partners—your city, your county, your state, and then the other partners who are involved.”
Multiple Activations Downtown
Rock Events provides event services to associated Rocket Cos. and manages about a dozen iconic and cool venues downtown around Campus Martius and Hart Plaza, where the draft was centered. Lyn Gleasure, Rock Events senior manager of business development, says while the NFL was focused on the draft itself and how it would look on TV, local stakeholders were locked in on what Detroit itself could pull off.
“It wasn’t just about what the NFL in a fenced-in area was doing,” she says. “Both Bedrock [a commercial real estate firm part of Rocket Cos.] and Rock took it upon themselves to work closely with the Downtown Detroit Partnership, the local organizing committee, and the sports commission, to say what’s it going to take to make it more than just that. It was a huge undertaking.”
Nine Rock Events venues were used for gatherings, including nontraditional and vacant spaces that are not normally part of such occasions. Rocket Mortgage—a national residential mortgage lender—threw its own party for clients, partners, and team members at The Qube, a 14-story Albert Kahn-designed tower. Some 250 people attended each day, with design highlights including a large platform built out over the front of the building covered with a tent and with a lounge for guests to watch the draft on TVs.
“It was about a two-week installation and three-day activation,” Gleasure says, noting that interactive food stations, photo opportunities, and custom cocktails were key features. “And we really used a lot of local vendors as much as we could in everything we did.”
Other Rock Events venues were used for private corporate gatherings, the NFL Madden Collegiate Championship Finals, and a broadcast of the Rich Eisen Show. Rocket Mortgage
headquarters doubled as home base for the NFL. “It has been a long road,” Gleasure says. “So, to just see it evolve from a small working group to the initial request for proposal for it, to seeing it come to life, was amazing.”
Executing the Plan
The Shinola Hotel is located on Woodward Avenue in the heart of where all the draft action was. Director of Events and Catering Mary-Catherine Moore says staff expected to be busy that week, and they were. The hotel was the site of multiple private gatherings. Its American beer hall, The Brakeman, opens into Parker’s Alley, where Shinola partnered with Bedrock that week to activate a popup bar.
“We have been talking about the draft for three years,” Moore says. “We were prepping for probably three months before in terms of internal operations, stocking up on supplies, and revising menus to make sure they were streamlined and available for longer hours just so we could accommodate as many people as possible. We checked it off as a really successful weekend. It was awesome.”
Getting From Here to There
Kristina’s Catering of Shelby Township was one of the vendors that worked the draft, handling catering for six events including one that hosted the University of Michigan football team at a Rock Events property. Business Manager Liz Bakunovich says getting around the city during the draft, especially as a vendor trying to get employees back and forth on time was, in a word, nuts.
“One of our team members was in a minivan doing pickup and drop-off,” she explains. “That’s all she did 12 hours a day, picking up staff at a parking lot just outside the city and taking them to their shift, then at the end of the day taking them back to their cars.”
While they anticipated road closures in planning for transporting food, supplies, and staff to venues, sometimes others popped up unexpectedly. And there were times, like after fireworks, that they were delayed about 90 minutes in being able to load back up following events. Security checkpoints also slowed progress, although Bakunovich commends security professionals for the work they did.
“Some of us in our company lived through the Super Bowl in 2006,” Bakunovich says. “Detroit did not have the huge event footprint in 2006 that it does now. There are so many more venues, so many more hotels, so many more outdoor venues. It was so cool to see it come together. They did it.”
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