When the NFL granted the city of Green Bay — by far the smallest market in the league — the rights to host the 2025 NFL Draft, there was some skepticism. It is a football city through and through, but did they really have the facilities for an event that draws massive numbers? It turns out the answer was a resounding YES, and it should already be putting pressure on next year’s hosts in Pittsburgh.
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Green Bay itself has fewer than 110,000 residents, and even when you count its surrounding suburbs, the total population only slightly exceeds 320,000. Yet, this year’s three-day event attracted over 600,000 visitors.
They started off hot with 205,000 on Day 1, dipped to 170,000 on Day 2, and then bounced back to an impressive 220,000 on Saturday for Rounds 4–7, which are typically considered the least important. That number is not only good enough for a tie for second all-time (2019 Nashville), but also blew the original projections of about 250,000 total attendees out of the water after just one day.
Green Bay still fell short of the 775,000 who showed up in division rival Detroit for last year’s draft. And yet, the Packers seem to have gotten the last laugh, as they surely came closer to matching Detroit’s attendance total than Lions President Rod Wood suggested.
“There’s no way Green Bay will come close [in attendance]. They’ll finish second, or as I said offstage, they’ll finish third like they did last year. I’m trying to get the NFL to consider bringing it back, because I don’t think they’ll ever top it. I’ve mentioned to [NFL commissioner] Roger [Goodell], ‘How could you ever do better than this?’ I think it’s probably going to be a few years from now,” Wood said.
Following the success, Green Bay had to cap it off with a cheeky social media post.
And they said the smallest market couldn’t do it@amfam pic.twitter.com/OfHTqkq4Qu
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) April 27, 2025
It wasn’t just the in-person attendance that exceeded expectations last weekend. The TV ratings were also huge for the event. Round 1 averaged 13.6 million viewers, also the second-best mark in NFL Draft history.
The numbers for Days 2 and 3 of the draft have not been officially released. However, Nielsen fast national numbers suggested that both days averaged a whopping 7.4 million viewers. That’s up 40 percent from last year, and would represent once again the second-highest Day 2 TV ratings of all-time.
Many won’t want to admit it, but the NFL owes Shedeur Sanders for those big numbers on Day 2 and 3. His ignominious slide down into the fifth round of the draft no doubt kept many casual fans interested long after they otherwise would have.
Pittsburgh likely won’t have the luxury of a projected top-five pick dropping into the fifth round to keep people interested next year, so they’ll have to get creative. Green Bay also made good use of their ‘Titletown’ district surrounding Lambeau Field, which is something Pittsburgh won’t have.
Pittsburgh’s stadium, meanwhile, is right downtown, which could cause some logistic issues. If the Pittsburgh planners wanted to eclipse what the Packers were able to do this year, they’d best be brainstorming ideas already.
