The city of Nashville knocked it out of the park with their hosting of the 2019 NFL Draft. It was a wildly successful event for the league, and the Lions were taking notes.
Team representatives were in Nashville for the draft. Team president Rod Wood said Wednesday at the Taste of the Lions event at Ford Field the team got some ideas watching how Nashville handled hosting duties.
The Lions are hoping to bring the draft to the city of Detroit in the near future.
"I think they did a great job," Wood said. "Obviously, they have a special area there with Broadway and the bars and restaurants. I think what we learned, is we need to do something, if we're going to do it here, that's really iconically Detroit. We have a few ideas how we may do that. We're in the running a couple years from now, I think, to still have an opportunity to bring the draft here.
"We can't do what they did in Nashville, but there are things that we might be able to do that are in that vein and have the whole downtown showcased and probably use multiple venues."
The NFL is expected to announce the location of the 2021 draft sometime this offseason and the 2022 draft sometime next year. Wood is hopeful the Lions and the city of Detroit will be awarded hosting duties in one of those cycles.
The NFL started moving the draft out of New York City to other cities around the country in 2015. Chicago hosted it in 2015 and 2016, Philadelphia in 2017, Dallas in 2018, and Nashville this year. Las Vegas is set to host next year's draft.
