By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It’s Las Vegas, so the NFL Draft red carpet will be in the middle of the Bellagio fountains on a floating stage and the players selected by NFL teams will get to the carpet by boat, then shuttled to the main stage next to the Caesars Forum. Oh, that floating stage — a platform for live acts. Not bad for a major NFL event in the middle of the desert.
You can go way over the top in Las Vegas, as the NHL Golden Knights have proven in this town. And that’s ideal for the NFL, which has grown its annual player selection draft from a mild-mannered hotel meeting room event to bigger-than-life display where 22-year-olds out of college are the big stars in elaborate sea-of-humanity scenes. Here’s a look at the Las Vegas Draft layout:
Clark County commissioners didn’t exactly quiz NFL events point man Jonathan Barker on the logistical issues, though Commission Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick asked about hotel-casino employees getting to their jobs and what will parking be like in the heart of the world-famous Strip during the NFL event set for April 23-25. The NFL easily convinced the county commissioners to close Las Vegas Boulevard at that busy Flamingo-Strip intersection. Las Vegas Boulevard has been closed before for events like the New Year’s Eve celebration, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon and a promotional NASCAR event to hype a NASCAR race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But the April Draft event means multi-day closures on the Strip.
In an interview after the draft event presentation, Barker said the biggest concerns by the Strip’s hotels were focused on how their employees and customers will reach the hotel-casino sites with all the road closures and crowds. The Flamingo-Las Vegas Blvd. intersection? Only the most-trafficked intersection in Las Vegas. Road closures are April 8 and also April 13-15 before the draft event is staged. April 23 and April 24 for the Draft event have schedules from that run from 12 noon to around 9:30 p.m., while April 25’s sked is from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Here’s more schedule info here.
Keep in mind those road closures on days before the April 23-25 draft event to install event stages and equipment. It’s one of the NFL’s marquee events and there’s little doubt Las Vegas would also be in line to host to a Super Bowl, potentially as early as 2025. The Raiders’ move to Las Vegas paved the way for the NFL to stage its draft in Sin City, but consider the Raiders are here because Southern Nevada is giving the NFL team $750 million in public money for the Raiders to build their 65,000-seat, domed stadium on 62 acres just on the west side of Interstate 15 across from the highway from Mandalay Bay hotel-casino.
Speaking before the county commission, Barker painted a rosy picture of the NFL event that drew 600,000 fans to Nashville for the 2019 NFL Draft. He said the Nashville Draft last year created $132 million in direct spending, but he did not explain that spending’s methodology or how that number was reached. Barker also did not have an estimate for visitor spending at the NFL draft in Las Vegas. He said an independent source will look at visitor spending for the draft in Las Vegas.
A Metro police officer attending the county commission meeting told LVSportsBiz.com that Metro costs for the draft event will be reimbursed by a group of sources including the LVCVA.
The NFL had renderings. Here’s a pic the NFL is using for the Las Vegas Draft.
Kirkpatrick did advise Barker on pronouncing, “Nevada” — a frequent lesson to Las Vegas outsiders and visitors.
After the county commissioners approved the draft plan, LVCVA head Steve Hill estimated it would cost the public tourism agency about $2.5 million for the NFL Draft event.
“This will be a great event for the community,” Hill told the county commission.
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