Eric Seals/USA TODAY NETWORK
The first night of the NFL Draft was a hit in Detroit, as the NFL reported a single-day attendance record of 275,000 fans while police officials estimated the turnout at 400,000. Driving "was an ordeal and parking a fantasy." Entire streets were "cordoned off and turned into tailgates." The crush of people was "so thick that pedestrians were allowed to walk in only one direction on some streets." Visitors wearing "a kaleidoscope of colors representing seemingly every NFL team" roamed from the draft theater in Campus Martius to an entertainment zone at Hart Plaza to a players' red carpet at the Fox Theatre. Detroit's NFL Draft footprint "hit maximum capacity" around 6:30pm yesterday, "prompting officials to shut off entry for the rest of the evening and causing some fans to try to go around police" (
DETROIT NEWS, 4/26).
Until yesterday, Nashville held the previous one-day attendance record of just over 200,000, officials said. The NFL used its X feed to show a drone video of the massive gathering, along with the words: "This is wild." The massive crowd "was not without problems," as many attendees "experienced trouble getting food or just getting where they wanted to go" (
DETROIT FREE PRESS, 4/25).
Eminem helped ring in the draft "in explosive fashion," as the rapper and Detroit native joined NFL Commissioner
Roger Goodell on stage before the Bears
took QB Caleb Williams first overall. The capacity crowd in Detroit then "went nuts" for former Lions
Calvin Johnson and
Barry Sanders, with current Lions
Jared Goff,
Amon-Ra St. Brown and
Aidan Hutchinson "sending the reaction home" (
MLIVE, 4/26).
A city and its fired-up fanbase "reveled in their shared renaissance." Detroit "didn’t just show out" -- it showed up en masse, turning Campus Martius and Cadillac Square "into another sea of blue." Some fans were lined up to enter the draft viewing area at sunrise yesterday, more than 12 hours before the actual show. It "seemed like a reprise" of the Lions' stirring playoff run, "scaled up in an almost unimaginable way" (
DETROIT NEWS, 4/26).
