UPDATE: new photos of Draft Town from the areas not yet open to the public. Media Preview at this link
Having the NFL Draft in Chicago could be the greatest thing since sliced bread. (“Sliced bread having been invented the previous winter” -Abe Simpson)
Or it could be an enormous disaster that will spawn dozens of horrifying headlines.
Or something in between.
Or all of these things all at the same time.
Because Draft Town, a ginormous fan fest that’s never been done in concordance with the NFL Draft, only with the Super Bowl, will be lab tested with Chicago as its petri dish.
Chicago is a city known for graft, corruption, police brutality, public intoxication and a sometimes dysfunctional obsession with sports. Yes, you could say the same exact thing about most big cities, but hey, what could go wrong?
Draft Town will draw thousands upon thousands of NFL fans and party-goers. It does include a bar. Day three of the NFL Draft on Saturday will be held outdoors. Yes, a draft outdoors! NFL Network will have an outdoor set all three days; ESPN will have an indoor set on the first two days, and an outside stage on Day 3. As you can see from these photos, there are gigantic structures being put in place for this event.
The team tables underneath tents are already in place. The streets that will be closed off from traffic have Draft Town and NFL Draft banners already on the street light poles. Many of them display a single corporate buzzword:
“ACHIEVEMENT.”
“EXCITEMENT.”
“COMMITMENT.”
“RESPONSIBILITY.”
All that’s missing to brand Draft Town to the highest level of corporatization is pluralizing with Zs.
“SPORTZ”
“FOOTBALLZ”
Perhaps I’m being cynical; Draft Town probably won’t end up a real life version of the County Fair in Seth MacFarlane’s “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” There are a lot things about this NFL Draft that are awesome; and it’s not even up for discussion that these things are awesome. One such example is Buckingham Fountain (you know it from the Married…with Children opening sequence) will light up in the colors of every team that’s on the clock on Thursday and Friday night. That’s pretty cool.
We also have high hopes for “Selection Square” at Congress Plaza. The design of the plaza, and the statues you’ll find at that intersection remain one of the most underrated locations in all of Chicago. It’s extremely scenic, and it’s one of the few places in the city that truly resembles a European capital city from an architectural standpoint. Yet no one ever talks about it or sells posts cards of it.
Picking Congress Plaza to be Selection Square was brilliant. Also not up for discussion is the size and scope of the NFL Draft. This year is the biggest one ever; and next year will be even bigger than that. NFL Draft media conference calls attract hundreds of reporters and sometimes run for two hours. Between ESPN, NFL Network and NBC, there have been at least 16 of these calls that have totaled over 25 hours of draft talk.
These calls begin all the way back in January. Mel Kiper Jr. said on a recent call that he began doing Draft analysis back in 1978, and he was just one of three guys who was doing it 37 years ago. The NFL mock draft database on Walter Football, the largest collection on the internet, has 357 mock drafts. The NBA database on WF has just 24 mocks.
NFL Network boasts 79 hours of NFL Draft coverage this year.
In other words, Draft Town is every town and football talking season is now distinct from football season. Football talking season, NFL Draft punditry season, Draft Town season- it’s all year round.
Heres Selection Square under construction #NFLDraft2015 #NFLDRAFT #Chicago pic.twitter.com/7jddye1FSg
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) April 26, 2015
AFC East and AFC North teams will select here, outdoors rounds 4-7 Saturday #NFLDraft2015 #NFLDraft #Chicago pic.twitter.com/HRk78Ka475
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) April 26, 2015
The NFL Draft cannibalized the NBA Playoffs and Stanley Cup Playoffs much like Christmas cannibalized Thanksgiving. That’s unfortunate. However, the draft also cannibalized spring college football season, so that’s a great thing!
Like Homer Simpson deciding whether he should vote for Sideshow Bob or not “I don’t agree with his Bart killing policy, but I do agree with his Selma killing policy.”
Tune in Monday at 1230 pm central for my NFL Draft segment on ESPN Radio Honolulu the Bobby Curran Show
Take a look at my 2015 NFL mock draft and my 2016 NFL mock draft
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Instagram (@paulmbanks)
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