Tirico, Goodell Discuss ‘Uniquely Detroit’ NFL Draft
Dana Wakiji, Special for the Detroit Sports Commission
DETROIT — Fresh off the Detroit Lions’ playoff victory over the Los Angeles Rams Sunday, Ford Field was host to another capacity crowd Wednesday morning.
Visit Detroit welcomed its hospitality partners to its Annual Partnership Meeting, billed this year as The Pregame Huddle, to celebrate both the successes of 2023 and the future successes, which includes the upcoming NFL Draft from April 25-27.
With such a special event comes some spectacular guests.
NBC Sports broadcaster and longtime Ann Arbor resident Mike Tirico got the attendees in the perfect frame of mind with his fireside chat with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who spoke about the Lions’ first playoff win in 32 years.
“The crowd makes such a difference,” Goodell said. “The enthusiasm and the energy of the crowd comes through the television set. As I’m sitting there, I could feel the passion, I could feel the excitement, I could feel the pride of everybody in the stadium. It just was off the charts.”
Tirico also had some questions from audience members, including one which asked what will make the 2024 NFL Draft the most successful in history.
“You do it your way,” Goodell responded. “You show off this community the way it deserves. What you’ve done in this community is amazing. I’ve been coming here for decades. You see what you’ve done physically in the downtown area but it’s really as much about the way you’ve come together, the public and the private sector, and you’ve rallied around this community. And I think people around the world should see it.
“If everyone sees what Detroit really is, and the passion of the people in this community, that will be a successful draft.”
Goodell became the commissioner in 2006, the same year that Detroit hosted Super Bowl XL, in which the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 21-10.
Many of the people at Ford Field Wednesday remember that event and truly appreciate how much Detroit has changed since then.
“When somebody comes into the city that may have been here for the Super Bowl in 2006 and see it in 2024, they won’t even know that they’re in the same city,” said Nicole Piach of the Banner Sign Company, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2024. “I’m really excited to see, it’s going to be all eyes on us, the conversation that it’s going to generate about coming back to the city.”
David Cowan, the Chief Public Spaces Officer of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, was a volunteer during Super Bowl XL.
“When there were visitors for large-scale events in the past, 15-20 years ago, you knew that they were here for a specific purpose and they were here to do that, that’s what they did, and they got out as quickly as possible,” Cowan said. “When people are coming downtown now, they’re not just walking in the stadium and walking back out to their car, they’re checking it out, they’re taking advantage of everything that a great downtown has to offer in terms of not just amenities and public spaces, but great bars, restaurants, small businesses. We’re not just a one-stop shop anymore, there’s any number of things you can do.”
Now one of the things many people are doing is trying to find tickets for the Lions’ second home playoff game, as they are playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday in a Divisional Round game.
The average ticket price on the secondary market is $1,186, higher than any divisional round game in history.
It’s as if Hollywood wrote a script for Detroit, with the kismet of getting the NFL Draft just when the home team is experiencing playoff success for the first time in a long time.
“When you see that Detroit’s going to get the draft, probably in your mind you’re thinking, ‘Well, that’s good, they’ll pick early, it’ll be kind of a party, it’ll be fun,’” Tirico said. “But now the longer they go, the longer the wait ’til they pick, it’ll kind of keep the atmosphere going until the end of the night on that first night for sure. I think this will be a benefit to the draft, having all of this attention around the NFL and the Lions and the draft is coming. Even that 35-40 million people watching over the last game and this game will hear, ‘Hey, the draft is here in April.’ If that inspires a bunch of fans to go, ‘Hey, we can get there, why don’t we plan on that for April.’
“Now you’re getting the impact the draft can have.”
After Tirico spoke with Goodell, he led a panel discussion with Claude Molinari, Visit Detroit President and CEO; Alexis Wiley, Moments Strategies Founder and CEO; Rod Wood, Detroit Lions President and CEO; and Kai Bowman, Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance COO.
What Goodell felt watching the Lions on TV, Wood experienced in person with a standing-room-only crowd of thousands of hyped-up Lions fans.
“It was amazing,” Wood said. “Dan (Campbell, Lions head coach) mentioned this in his press conference, an hour before kickoff, before the players had even come on the field, the stadium was completely full and the energy was equivalent to the end of a game, before the game even started. That’s when you really realized that this was going to be a special night.”
Everyone is expecting a special weekend when the NFL Draft comes to town in April.
Being chosen by the league for one of its premier events has already led to many other great things in Detroit, including the formation of a coalition of business, civic and non-profit leaders that is creating even more opportunities.
“I think that helped us acquire the NCAA Final Four,” Molinari said. “I think one of the best things I’d say about acquiring these major events is our partnerships with the Lions, with the city of Detroit, the Downtown Detroit Partnership, the Riverfront Conservancy, all of these things have brought us so close together and now we have such a tight-knit, focused hospitality community that makes us very formidable in going for these events.”
That community is committed to inclusivity in the city, which is a big reason why the Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance has been integral in planning for the NFL Draft.
“When I think about the draft and what it means to our community of black business owners, this is one of the biggest opportunities that has existed in a really long time,” Bowman said. “So we’re trying to do our part, along with our local partners and local organizers, to make sure that, there’s 100-plus million dollars, in a 78% black city, that black entrepreneurs get a taste of that and then long-term, how do we set them up so that they can take advantage of future opportunities?
“I’m excited. Our community is excited about what’s to come.”
The vision for what Detroit has already become and the level it is striving to reach does not end as soon as the NFL packs up its tent and leaves after the final day of the draft on April 27.
Instead, it will be both a coming-out party and a launching pad for the city, its residents and the entire Metro Detroit region.
“You think about where we came from. When I started with the city, we were in bankruptcy,” Wiley said. “Things were so different. Look at where we are today. This is something that everyone should be able to celebrate and participate in.
“That’s what we’ve been really focusing on, making sure the impact is broad and deep throughout the city, and goes far beyond just this one weekend of the draft.”
