Chicago mayor wants the city to host the NFL draft and Super Bowl
By Mike Dyce
The New York/New Jersey Super Bowl in cold weather was a success and that has other cold weather cities clamoring to host the big game. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has made it known that not only does he want the city to host the Super Bowl, he’d love to see them host the NFL draft as well.
“I would say that there are two things in pro football I would love to see in Chicago, either one of them or both: the NFL draft and the Super Bowl,” Emanuel told David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune said. “They have different advantages for the city given that we have neither one, both would be great attractions for the city to bring national attention. We’ll work on both.”
The door is certainly open for a Super Bowl being hosted their in the future, but the draft seems a bit more far-fetched. It isn’t out of the blue however, Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks reported that the NFL in considering taking the draft on the road in the future.
"Though the planning and consideration is only in the preliminary stages, league sources say the NFL has tasked three internal study groups to consider options that include holding the three-day draft in three different NFL cities in the same year, or moving it around to a different NFL city each year, in an attempt to make it an even more accessible and fan-friendly event than it has become at Radio City, its home for the past eight years. The third study group within the league was formed to consider other sites in New York if the league opts to not move its draft out of the nation’s largest market, but can’t continue to schedule the event for late April at Radio City due to the venue’s plans to re-institute a potentially lucrative “Spring Spectacular” show to be annually held in the weeks around the Easter holiday."
Chicago would be a great city to host the draft, an outdoor Super Bowl might be less comfortable for fans in the seats however.