Green Bay is already exceeding expectations as host of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Thursday night’s Round 1 drew 205,000 fans around Lambeau Field, the league announced. That’s roughly double the population of Green Bay, and already 82% of the predraft projections of roughly 250,000 people expected to attend the event.
If the crowds on Friday night and Saturday mirror trends from previous years, Green Bay will easily blow by that 205,000 figure—and challenge for a spot in the top three most-attended drafts.
Last year, 275,000 fans attended the first night of the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit, en route to a record 775,000 fans across all three days. Even if Green Bay dips from that pace, seeing attendance surpass 300,000 shouldn’t be a problem. Kansas City drew 312,000 in 2023, and Las Vegas hit 300,000 in 2022. The second all-time record is Nashville’s 600,000 in 2019.
One potential issue, though, is the weather. Rain is forecast for most of Friday afternoon in Green Bay before tapering off in the evening, when temperatures will be in the 40s. Round 2 of the draft begins at 7 p.m. ET, with fans allowed to enter the main draft stage area three hours before.
Saturday is expected to be much better, with no rain predicted. Round 4 begins at noon ET, and the remainder of the draft will play out from there.
Seeing Green
Ahead of the draft, Lions president Rod Wood took a shot at his franchise’s NFC North rival, saying there was “no way Green Bay will come close” to Detroit’s attendance last year. While that may still be true, the NFL’s smallest market is showing out in a way not many expected.
That should bode well for other cold-weather cities with outdoor stadiums that don’t have a realistic chance at hosting a Super Bowl but want to lure the league’s traveling springtime circus. Washington, D.C., is a front-runner for the 2027 draft, and Buffalo has made its interest known for 2028 or 2029, with a new, $2 billion–plus stadium opening in 2026.
