Leagues

Lions President Wants NFL Draft Back in Detroit—Takes Shot at Packers

The Motor City smashed the attendance record last year for the NFL Draft, and as the event shifts this weekend to rival Green Bay, the Lions are already thinking about a return engagement.

By Eric Fisher

Apr 22, 2025 | 11:17 am

Detroit Free Press

Lions president Rod Wood is quite clear about what he thinks about the rival Packers hosting this year’s National Football League Draft in Green Bay.

“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,” Wood said at the Detroit Economic Club, also referring to the Packers’ 2024 finish in the NFC North division.

Jabs at a rival team aside, Wood is already pushing to bring the draft back to the Motor City. Detroit drew an event-record 775,000 people last year, celebrating the ongoing rebirth of the city’s downtown and representing one of the largest sports events in Michigan history.

“I’m trying to get the NFL to consider bringing it back, because I don’t think they’ll ever top it,” he said. “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. A lot of cities are bidding on it. … It’ll be competitive. But I know when they reconsider Detroit, whenever that is, it’s not going to be tough for the league to support bringing it back here.”

Schedule Watching

The Lions, meanwhile, also figure to be a major part of the league’s upcoming schedule release. Detroit previously made the leap into a top national draw, a status expected to go this season to the Commanders. The Lions’ 2025 season, however, features home games against the perennially popular Cowboys and Steelers, and road games at the Super Bowl LIX champion Eagles, Bengals, Chiefs, Commanders, Rams, and Ravens.

All of that is in addition to the normal rotation of home-and-away intradivisional games against the Bears, Packers, and Vikings, as well as several other lesser contests. The Lions are coming off two straight division titles and entered last season’s playoffs as the top seed, but they were upset by the Commanders.

“I would expect that you’ll see us on prime time a lot,” Wood said. “We have a road schedule that’s maybe as tough as anything, at least on paper. … If you like Sunday 1 p.m. [ET] games, you’re going to be very disappointed because there aren’t going to be a lot of those.”