Cowboys Want To Bring The NFL Draft To AT&T Stadium

[BillsImpossible]

Amid reports that the league is considering moving the NFL Draft (http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000345952/article/report-nfl-draft-could-leave-new-york-city-as-early-as-2015) out of New York City as early as 2015, Cowboys (http://www.nfl.com/teams/dallascowboys/profile?team=DAL) executive VP Stephen Jones admits he'd love to see the event shift to Big D.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000346432/article/cowboys-stephen-jones-bring-draft-to-att-stadium

I forgot who it was, but a Bills Zone member posted about this idea of having the draft in NFL stadiums.

I think it's a great idea. But I don't like the idea of having the draft shared every year between each NFL city because that means each city would host the draft every 32 years...and that's lame. The host city should have to earn the NFL Draft, not have it handed to them on an annual rotational basis.

How about this idea...

The NFL Draft host city should be decided upon three factors and an equally distributed point system.

1. Fan attendance. The Jacksonville Jaguars don't deserve to host the NFL Draft because their fans don't support the team.

2. Fan conduct. The Philadelphia Eagles were the first NFL team to build a jail inside of their stadium.

3. Fan voting. Let each NFL city's fans vote online at NFL.com

Tiebreakers are decided upon which city's team has the fewest penalties.

To be on the grand stage, hosting the NFL Draft is a good incentive for football fans all over the league to be on their best behavior and stop spoiling a good time for everyone else.... Peer pressure alone..."Don't act like a dick bro, don't get too sauced up or you're going to cost us the draft."

Every fan that gets booted from an NFL stadium for having too many beers costs their team points.

Miami? Attendance sucks.

Washington? Fan conduct is a problem in Washington.

Are Packers fans the darlings of the NFL?

It would be interesting to find out on a yearly basis which team's fans had the best attendance, best conduct, and best voting percentage.

The NFL could make a show out of it.

The NFL Host City Draft.

Held in late February after the Super Bowl?

[YardRat]

Fan voting would suck...too many ballot stuffers.

Fan conduct is difficult to gauge, and may lead to massaging the numbers. Who here doesn't believe that if fan conduct was involved, the Patriots would astoundingly have the least amount of reported incidents in the league?

Attendance is good...or performance on the field. Give the draft to the team that loses the Super Bowl.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Fan voting would suck...too many ballot stuffers.

Fan conduct is difficult to gauge, and may lead to massaging the numbers. Who here doesn't believe that if fan conduct was involved, the Patriots would astoundingly have the least amount of reported incidents in the league?

Attendance is good...or performance on the field. Give the draft to the team that loses the Super Bowl.

Better yet, give it to the team that has the #1 pick. That will generate a lot of excitement in the host city.

[YardRat]

Better yet, give it to the team that has the #1 pick. That will generate a lot of excitement in the host city.

Good point.

Then team's fans would really have a reason to root for 'suck for Luck' scenarios.

[gr8slayer]

Bring it.

[DieHrdBillsFan23]

Keep the draft in NYC...Radio City Hall is a perfect spot, don't change what ain't broken

[BLeonard]

Living in Indiana, I might be a bit biased, but why not Indy...?

Centrally located, they already do the Combine every year and Bankers Life Fieldhouse holds 3x the amount that Radio City does...

IMO, doing the draft in NFL stadiums would be too big... You think over 100k is gonna show up in Dallas for the friggen DRAFT?

IIRC, they give away tickets for the Draft as it is now... Even if 20k showed (which is over 3x the capacity of Radio City), an NFL stadium would look vacant. Not the image the league wants.

-Bill

[GingerP]

Don't really see the draft as a stadium event. It is more of an arena event. I know Radio City Music Hall, where it is currently hosted, seats about 6,000. Before that it was in the Theater at MSG, which held about 5,600. While they could without doubt have more people like that there, but the 3rd day it is near-empty of non-media observers. It would look stupid in a huge stadium, with lots of empty seats.

Of course, they could still rotate sites in various cities, but find an indoor arena or convention center to host it.

[BillsImpossible]

Don't really see the draft as a stadium event. It is more of an arena event. I know Radio City Music Hall, where it is currently hosted, seats about 6,000. Before that it was in the Theater at MSG, which held about 5,600. While they could without doubt have more people like that there, but the 3rd day it is near-empty of non-media observers. It would look stupid in a huge stadium, with lots of empty seats.

Of course, they could still rotate sites in various cities, but find an indoor arena or convention center to host it.

If the Draft was held at the Ralph in late April with free tickets, I think the stadium would be filled.

Any excuse to hang out and tailgate in late April, twist my arm.

I've never tailgated in the spring.

[Scumbag College]

Give it to LA and have that be their NFL experience. Then maybe the NFL won't be so hot to put another team in there to fail.

[BillsImpossible]

Give it to LA and have that be their NFL experience. Then maybe the NFL won't be so hot to put another team in there to fail.

That would look worse than a Miami Dolphins game in late October.

[Raptor]

They'll never put it into a stadium, to big...You need a venue like Radio City music hall because a couple 1,000 make it look slammed.

If been to the draft twice and honestly you really are not missing anything. It is FAR better on TV

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Don't really see the draft as a stadium event. It is more of an arena event. I know Radio City Music Hall, where it is currently hosted, seats about 6,000. Before that it was in the Theater at MSG, which held about 5,600. While they could without doubt have more people like that there, but the 3rd day it is near-empty of non-media observers. It would look stupid in a huge stadium, with lots of empty seats.

Of course, they could still rotate sites in various cities, but find an indoor arena or convention center to host it.

Well yeah I agree with this. I wouldn't actually put it in a stadium, but every NFL city short of Green Bay should have a 5000 seat theater or convention center.

[trapezeus]

the worst team that year getting the draft would be fun. the electricity in the air when the commissioner comes to stage would be out of control.

think if the bills were the #1 pick holder, draft is held at shea's or FNC....the weeks of anticipation and predictions.....it'd be crazy. and if it's a year you are taking a QB....that'd really be something. and every year, you'd get that kind of excitement.

I think all 32 teams could easily support this with their hotels and infrastructure. They can hold a crap load of football players and agents and TV people....and then the fans would probably not travel as much, but the local fans would really drive up business because they are vested in the first pick outcome.

[better days]

From what I have read & heard, you can expect the draft to be held in May from now on.

May is TV sweeps month & the draft draws huge numbers.

I think the draft should stay in NYC myself. A great place for the players about to be drafted & fans to spend a few days.

[Historian]

Rotate it through every city.

Rotate the combine too.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Rotate it through every city.

Rotate the combine too.

The combine needs to be in a dome/warm weather city, but I agree it should move around.

[stuckincincy]

From what I have read & heard, you can expect the draft to be held in May from now on.

May is TV sweeps month & the draft draws huge numbers.

I think the draft should stay in NYC myself. A great place for the players about to be drafted & fans to spend a few days.

Agreed.

[trapezeus]

i thought the word on the street was that the NFL was pissed that radio city made them move the draft back for a production and in the end that production did not go on and radio city would have been available for its normal time.

[stuckincincy]

i thought the word on the street was that the NFL was pissed that radio city made them move the draft back for a production and in the end that production did not go on and radio city would have been available for its normal time.

Yes - that's what they said, but it's hard to believe that after so many years of the draft being held there that Radio City double-crossed them. The NFL excels at scheduling venues in advance.

[trapezeus]

this isn't a double cross. a few years ago, they had an issue with MSG or whoever owns radiocity and held it at the javitts center across town. i don't think this is a totally harmonious relationship. it benefits both sides, but both sides keep pushing the other to keep getting better deals.

i would guess the nfl would wait to see what the GM's say (most don't like it from most articles i've read), but they'll also want to see if there was any loss in productivity in getting the players ready with 2 less weeks for teams to sell the new faces of the team and get them into camp, etc.. i would think it won't make a huge difference, but i think the nfl is pretty good about wanting to see the whole picture before making changes permanent.

[stuckincincy]

this isn't a double cross. a few years ago, they had an issue with MSG or whoever owns radiocity and held it at the javitts center across town. i don't think this is a totally harmonious relationship. it benefits both sides, but both sides keep pushing the other to keep getting better deals.

i would guess the nfl would wait to see what the GM's say (most don't like it from most articles i've read), but they'll also want to see if there was any loss in productivity in getting the players ready with 2 less weeks for teams to sell the new faces of the team and get them into camp, etc.. i would think it won't make a huge difference, but i think the nfl is pretty good about wanting to see the whole picture before making changes permanent.

Thanks for the further info.