GREEN BAY, WIS. (WFRV) – A lot of preparation goes into welcoming hundreds of thousands of people into your city for a three-day event.

Just ask those tasked with planning for the 2025 NFL draft set to come to Titletown April 24-26.

On Tuesday evening, we got additional insight into that planning and preparation. Officials from the Green Bay Packers, Green Bay Police Department, and Discover Green Bay provided an update to Green Bay’s common council on their preparation for the NFL draft.

Alderman Chris Wery had asked for key contributors in the planning for the NFL draft to come to a common council meeting and update alders on their progress.

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“We know that this is going to be bigger than a gameday, it’s really jamming three game days into one,” said Green Bay Police Department captain Ben Allen who is one of the people leading preparations for the draft. “But I know we’ll be able to handle that based on numbers we’ve seen, experiences we had in Detroit, experiences Packers staff have had at other drafts.”

Captain Allen was one of several Green Bay officials in Detroit last spring when the Motor City hosted the draft.

Allen said that one of the advantages that they have over their counterparts in Detroit is that there are no high-rise buildings around Lambeau Field. From a public safety perspective, he said this makes policing the large crowds easier.

Allen said that the actual draft footprint in Green Bay (Lambeau Field, Titletown District, and Resch Center Complex) is over twice as big as the one used in Detroit. He said the proposed area for the main NFL draft stage (tentatively placed in the Lambeau Field parking lot near Oneida Street) is about four times as large as the area used in Detroit. These are preliminary numbers that could change.

As far as just the NFL draft footprint (area used for official NFL draft activities), Green Bay will be likely welcoming fewer people than Detroit into a larger area. However, Detroit’s draft area was right in the middle of their city so people had many more options for food, shopping, and entertainment outside of the draft area.

There’s mostly residential neighborhoods around the Lambeau Field area.

Allen said he’s confident that they’ll be able to safely welcome the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to descend upon Lambeau Field next spring for the draft.

“Everyone will have to go through a metal detector to get into the actual footprint, everybody will be screened, much like gameday,” said Allen adding that they’re still trying to figure out how many entry points they’re going to have to get into the NFL draft footprint.

With those big crowds expected in Green Bay during the draft, another major question is how people will get to and from Lambeau Field. Green Bay Packers officials addressed this in their presentation to common council on Tuesday night.

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“Getting to and from the draft is certainly going to be key and what the NFL is building is a plan that will include multiple options,” said Director of Public Affairs Aaron Popkey.

He said shuttles are going to be important to them in terms of accomplishing that goal. He said they’re planning shuttle routes at multiple locations with several local bus companies and that these shuttles will run to and from Lambeau Field multiple times per day.

He said he hopes people utilize ride shares to get to the NFL draft and said that they’re even looking at ways to implement some of the park and rides along the highways into the transportation plans.

As far as finding parking for everybody when they arrive at Lambeau, Popkey said they’re counting on the time-honored tradition of nearby residents allowing people to park on their front lawns.

Discover Green Bay officials initially projected that around 240,000 people will attend the NFL draft next spring in Green Bay across its three days. There were about 750,000 people in Detroit for the NFL draft last spring which was a record for the event.

A Discover Green Bay official said that for now they’re sticking with their initial attendance projection despite the numbers coming out of Detroit. They’re focused on making sure that restaurants and local small businesses can maximize profits from the large crowds next spring at the NFL draft.

“Encouraging folks to get stocked up with plenty of time ahead of the draft, make sure their staff is available, hiring part time staff, it’s all going to be critical,” said Nick Meisner who is Discover Green Bay’s Vice President of Digital Marketing and Communications.

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