Well, that was quick. Prior to this May’s NFL Draft, rumors began to float around about the Draft expanding to four days. Not even a month later, we know that will be the case.
On Thursday night, NFL.com’s Ian Rapaport reported that the NFL would be changing the location of the Draft from Radio City Music Hall in New York City to Madison Square Garden or an unnamed location in Chicago or Los Angeles because of scheduling conflicts at Radio City in April and May.
LA, Chicago and NY (MSG) are finalists to host 2015 NFL Draft. Why? Radio City informed @NFL that it will NOT be available in April or May
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 5, 2014
Then, following up on Rapoport’s tweet, NFL.com’s Bryan Fischer wrote a more detailed article about the shift. In his article, Fischer revealed that the league had sent letters to Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York asking for details about how they would host the Draft, with two sets of dates given – April 22-25 and April 29-May 2. Both sets of dates are four days, and take place from Wednesday to Saturday. This would seem to indicate that the NFL is serious about expanding the draft to a fourth day from the current three day format.
The NFL is obviously hoping to build on their record ratings for this year’s Draft. But is adding a fourth day of filler really the best way to do that? I assume the final three days of the Draft will all feature two rounds each, but who is really going to tune in to the final day of coverage to see sixth and seventh round picks? Obviously, there will be a large chunk of insane people that do that, but there’s not much appeal to me, and I imagine there are many casual fans that feel the same way and be against any further expansion of an already too bloated NFL Draft.
[NFL.com]
