We previewed NFL Draft Town in detail earlier this week. However, that wasn’t enough. The NFL Draft is such a huge sporting event that it’s actually two sporting events. It’s the only day on the calendar that unites all NFL fans, and all college football fans.
It’s the only sporting event that actually airs on two networks. And viewership and interest continues to grow larger every year! So we had to do a second Draft Town, NFL Draft fest preview. Yesterday, we stopped by and got a chance to see some areas that aren’t open to the public yet.
Almost a selfie as you can see my reflection sort of. #NFLDraft2015 #NFLDRAFT #Chicago pic.twitter.com/zR5Vy20QLo
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) April 26, 2015
Congress Plaza. #DraftTown #NFLDraft2015 #NFLDRAFT #Chicago pic.twitter.com/8FdEc850pB
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) April 29, 2015
Here’s preview images of Selection Square and the ESPN set. Remember, this is the first draft to ever see one of it’s day held entirely outside! It’s also the first draft with a Draft Town!
Exclamation points!
SportsCenter anchors Lindsay Czarniak and Steve Levy and ESPN Senior Vice President,SportsCenter and News Rob King, discussed SportsCenter’s big week in a media conference call Tuesday. Here are some of the highlights from the call, interspersed with ESPN’s very picturesque set, which is adjacent to Draft Town.
You can see the skyline behind the desk, the lake and Draft Town to the east.
Levy: “I’m told and it gives you an idea how big the idea the event is, the draft, it will probably be the second highest rated SportsCenter of the year. And think about that. That’s three and a half hours after the first couple of picks are already made. But that’s the appetite of the NFL fan.”
“They’re so glued. They want more. Want more”
King: “ultimately what we found was more than 80 percent of all the traffic coming to ESPN digital media was coming either through six sports or 100 teams.
“And of those 100 teams, 31 were NFL teams. So 31 of the 32 NFL teams were in the top 100 teams of all the traffic consumed on ESPN.com. We covered the Jacksonville Jaguars anyway. My point is since we got to see the NFL be so wholly present in top 100 teams, it came as no surprise to us that the NFL and its story lines are of interest to fans year-round.”
Czarniak: “I find it intriguing that this will be the first time since ’92 that the top pick and the second potential number two pick will not be there in person live, if they do in fact go one and two.”
Levy: “I would say no sporting event has come further than the NFL Draft now, with all the glitz and glamour and red carpet, the way I understand it started in a conference room in a bad hotel with just general managers in the room and that was it and you read about it the next day in the newspaper. So the event has certainly come a long way.”
For more on Draft Town go here.
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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