By Kris Leonhardt
Editor-in-chief
The 2025 NFL Draft will take place in Green Bay in the area around Lambeau Field and Titletown on April 24-26, 2025. We continue our coverage of the planning already taking place.
GREEN BAY – “There are about 33 different committees right now — about 33-34 give or take,” said Discover Green Bay President/CEO Brad Toll, “and some of those will not get started probably until 2024. Once we know what the layout is going to be, they will probably get started then.
“We have some that are already working and talking; Beautification is one of those,” Toll explained.
“Each of the different areas like GBI downtown and Definitely De Pere, and different areas of the city — Military Avenue — that represent a particular area and neighborhood associations, we really encourage them to look at the community and what kind of things, you know, ‘We talked about ripping that garden out and redoing it,’ and maybe now’s a good time to do that so that when the draft comes, it’s a beautiful garden and what you want to have done. It might be putting in some bulbs that pop out early in the spring because it’s the end of April. So, as the leaves are starting to pop, what kinds of things can we do to make certain that our community is (ready.)
“It won’t be as green as it is in July, but what can we do to make April look really nice. That’s about the time that we’re pulling out some of the dried things from the fall that maybe didn’t get cut down or whatever, we’re kind of doing that spring cleanup. So as a community, what can we do to plan? Do that spring cleaning the middle part of April, so when we have thousands of visitors that come into the area, we look great.”
Some of the other committees in the organizational process include Destination Marketing Organizations, Public Affairs, Ticketing, Hotels, Retail, Community Projects, Marketing & Promotion, Communication Internal, Communication External, Experiences for Prospects, Arts & Family Entertainment, Finance, Welcoming, Volunteers, Business Connect, Hospitality/Concessions, NFL Digital & Social Covering Draft, Youth Football, Local Community Development, NFL Environmental, Travel to Wisconsin, Logistics, Security/Public Safety/Command Center, Highways & Road Construction, Transportation and Permits & Road Closures, with several other committees branching from these.
Toll said that organizers have also been talking with previous host cities such as Cleveland, Nashville and Kansas City.
“We’re visiting with the ones who have hosted. We’ve been talking with Detroit, so we know a little about the timeline because they are a year ahead of us; they will have the draft in 2024,” Toll said, adding that even with that draft half of a year out, some of the things are still getting moved around.
Toll added that the majority of the work on the 2025 Green Bay Draft will not be initiated until next year.
“They start working with us when that draft is complete. This team from the NFL — their events team — they do the Super Bowl, they do the (NFL) Combine, they do the Drafts. So there are two Super Bowls, two Combines and a Draft before the Draft in Green Bay,” Toll explained.
Regardless of that timeline, local committees are already in the process of getting the planning started as they prepare to “roll out the red carpet” for the 240,000 visitors expected to attend.
Next week: A bucket list destination