Commanders owner envisions 1 million fans at '27 NFL draft on the Mall

Washington Post

05-05-2025

Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris said he believes hosting the 2027 NFL draft in D.C. will not only boost the significance of football in the District, but will shatter attendance and viewership records for one of the league's biggest annual events.
Harris, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) joined President Donald Trump in the Oval Office for Monday afternoon's formal announcement of the awarding of the draft to Washington.
'I'm hoping we break 1 million in terms of the visitors,' Harris told The Washington Post in a video conference call Monday, before the announcement. ' … And so there'll be a million — plus or minus, a million visitors — and then all those people will create a lot of economic activity.'
The formal permitting process with the National Park Service for the NFL to hold the draft on the Mall remains pending; an event there cannot be officially approved for permitting more than a year in advance. However, a person familiar with the planning for the draft said the NFL believes it has 'strong' federal support for the permit and is confident that it will receive it. Peter O'Reilly, the NFL's executive vice president of club business, league events and international, expressed similar sentiments.
'We feel confidence, obviously, with the support we have at the federal level, the great working relationship and planning we've done with the National Park Service,' O'Reilly said by phone Monday. "[It's] obviously important for them and for us, given the scale and scope of the draft, to have now a full two-year runway leading up to the draft.'
O'Reilly said the plans for staging the draft 'could evolve a bit' over time. For now, those plans including having the main draft theater sit on the National Mall in front of the Capitol, on Fourth Street between Jefferson and Madison drives, near the National Gallery of Art and the National Air and Space Museum.
A person standing at the podium on the draft stage would look out toward the Washington Monument. The backstage area would be on Third Street between Jefferson and Madison. The NFL's Draft Experience, the league's expansive fan festival, would largely be on Pennsylvania Avenue NW between Fourth and Seventh streets.
'But that core, free, accessible fan viewing area will be on the Mall,' O'Reilly said. He added that more than 20 NFL teams and cities have expressed interest in hosting a draft.
Should the turnout meet Harris's expectations, it would top the estimated crowd of 775,000 fans that attended the 2024 draft in Detroit and continue to reflect the league's almost nonexistent saturation point: If there is football, or anything related to it, people will come and watch.
'I do think there's the potential for a really, really sizable, perhaps record-breaking crowds in D.C. because of the great footprint, because of how accessible it is and because of … what I think will be that real convergence of fans from across the East Coast to D.C., obviously great throngs of Commanders fans with others joining as well,' O'Reilly said.
Th2 2024 draft generated $213.6 million in economic impact to the city of Detroit, according to Visit Detroit and the Detroit Sports Commission. The record economic impact is believed to be $236 million, set by Las Vegas with the 2022 draft.
An estimated 600,000 fans attended last month's three-day draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a city with a population of just over 100,000. That included a crowd of 220,000 on the draft's third and final day. About 1,800 media members were on hand to cover the proceedings. Broadcast coverage of the opening night of the draft drew 13.6 million viewers.
Monday's announcement was the culmination of nearly two years of behind-the-scenes organizing by the NFL; D.C. officials; the National Park Service, which manages the National Mall and Washington Monument; and the Commanders' ownership. The effort began in earnest when Harris and his group of 20 limited partners purchased the Commanders from former owner Daniel Snyder for $6.05 billion in 2023, setting the stage for a rebuild that unfolded in only 21 months.
In the fall of 2023, a delegation from the NFL visited D.C. to assess the area's potential for hosting a future draft, multiple people with knowledge of the visit said.
'A long time in the making,' O'Reilly said. 'And now the moment is right to really bring the draft to D.C. for Commanders fans and all NFL fans.'
The draft last was held in Washington on Dec. 10, 1940 at the Willard Hotel. The NFL held its season-opening kickoff event for fans on the National Mall in 2003 in conjunction with Washington's game in Landover, Maryland against the New York Jets.
'The Washington Commanders are obviously a really important, historic franchise in our league, positioned in the nation's capital which is so important for our game to have a strong, stable franchise there,' O'Reilly said. ' … We think it'll be another opportunity to raise the bar on this event. It points to the importance of this market and all of the great momentum in this market right now.'
Monday's draft announcement came a week after Harris and Goodell joined Bowser at the National Press Club to announce a $3.7 billion deal between D.C. and the Commanders to build a stadium at the RFK Stadium site on the banks of the Anacostia River.
Harris, a private equity investor, has moved quickly to return the franchise to prominence since purchasing it for a then-record price. After the team finished 4-13 in his first season as the principal owner, the Commanders ended last season 12-5, falling in the NFC championship game to the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Nearly every facet of the organization has been overhauled, and its facilities upgraded, with an eye on the future, including a new stadium in D.C.
With a draft coming, too, Harris hopes the team he grew up watching will continue to regain its cachet.
'I grew up in Chevy Chase, and I would ride my bike down Brookville Road to High's [convenience store], which used to exist before Chevy Chase Circle,' Harris said. 'I remember distinctly being 12 or 13 years old riding my bike and seeing no one — it was Sunday, I think it was halftime and I wanted to go to High's — and there was no one on the street, literally, on Brookfield Road, and I just remember feeling like, wow, everyone's inside watching football. I would love that idea to come back again and I think we are on our way.'