The D.C. bid to host the 2027 NFL Draft plans to stage a significant portion of the three-day event on the National Mall, according to planning documents and emails obtained by The Washington Post.
The correspondence, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to the National Park Service (NPS), provides information on what local organizers have internally called “Project Breeze.”
Representatives from Events DC (the District’s sports and convention authority) and the NPS, which manages the National Mall and monuments, have been in talks with NFL executives for months about the possibility of holding the three-day event at the District, the emails show.
In an April message to NPS executives and Beverly Perry, a senior advisor to D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), NFL Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs Brendon Plack confirmed that D.C. “has made a bet on a major NFL event in 2027” and that “ideally” the NFL would like to hold the event on the National Mall.
The NFL, the Washington Commanders and Bowser’s office declined to comment on Washington’s effort. Events DC and the National Park Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to the emails, the league has proposed that the main Draft venue be located on 4th Street, between Madison and Jefferson Drives, near the National Gallery and the National Air and Space Museum. A portion could also be held on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, from where attendees could reach the shopping center.
“As you can imagine, this is very important to the District and they are trying to submit a winning bid proposal,” Marisa Richardson, an official in the NPS permit management division, wrote to her fellow NPS officials in January. . “And we want to be good partners, but also realistic about our limitations.”
Local officials essentially revived their preliminary proposals from previous years to relaunch talks with the NFL before meeting with a league delegation in D.C. in mid-October.
The District had previously explored the possibility of trying to host the 2024 draft, which was ultimately awarded to Detroit. Some of those associated with Washington’s latest effort have speculated that DC likely would have landed an earlier NFL draft if not for the controversies surrounding former Commanders owner Daniel Snyder.
Detroit welcomed a record 775,000 fans during the three-day event in April. D.C. was among 12 cities with representatives in that draft to conduct site studies, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
As recently obtained emails and documents came through the NPS, much of the correspondence focused on mall policies and the unique challenges of hosting a major commercial event in a national park.
The NPS has informed the NFL that it supports Events DC’s bid for the draft, provided that the proposed portions of the event on the Mall comply with federal regulations for park areas managed by the National Capital Region.
“Special events” on the Mall and other areas of the park must comply with numerous restrictions on marketing and sponsor recognition, as well as strict guidelines to protect the turf. For example, merchandise sales are prohibited and draft sponsor logos should be no larger than one-third the size of the NFL draft logos. Alcohol, although generally prohibited on the Mall, may be permitted, but only in an area designated by the NPS. There are rules for concessions; weight and height restrictions for temporary structures; and even time limits for structures that block light from grass.
Then there is the question of commitment.
The NFL typically likes to decide draft host cities at least a couple of years in advance. Last year it announced that Green Bay, Wisconsin, will host the 2025 draft and in May announced that Pittsburgh will host the 2026 event. The league, according to emails between NPS officials, was reportedly hoping to get a guarantee for an approved permit at the Mall by 2027, but the agency does not accept special event permit applications more than a year in advance.
“In case you don’t know, the Mall came under fire in 2003 because of the (Britney) Spears and NFL concert that kicked off the season,” wrote Jeffrey Reinbold, NPS superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, in a email to Kym Hall, NPS Director for the National Capital Area. “The marketing was over the top and the event resulted in new limitations on marketing in the Mall.”
It’s unclear when the NFL will award the 2027 draft. Team owners meet quarterly. But the selection process could last until next May if the NFL follows the schedule on which it awarded the 2026 draft.
Denver and Charlotte have been cited as particularly strong candidates to host a future draft, but those familiar with the league’s process say there are many cities eager to win the bid. They describe the competition between cities trying to host a future NFL draft as intense, and there are no guarantees that Washington’s effort will be successful.
If DC does manage to get selected in the 2027 draft, it would be the strongest sign yet of the Commanders’ improved reputation under new owner Josh Harris, who purchased the team from Snyder last year for a record $6.05 billion.
Days after Harris closed the deal to buy the team, Bowser announced the creation of a sports team within the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to support professional and recreational sports teams, and to work with D.C. agencies to attract sporting events to the District.
For more than four decades, the NFL held the draft at various locations in New York before moving it to Chicago in 2015 and 2016. Since then, the event has moved to different NFL cities annually. It was held in Philadelphia in 2017; Arlington, Texas, in 2018; Nashville in 2019; Cleveland in 2021; Las Vegas in 2022; and Kansas City, Missouri, in 2023. The 2020 NFL draft was held remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to move the draft from New York was initially made due to a scheduling conflict at Radio City Music Hall. But it has worked in favor of the NFL, given the support and enthusiasm that the event has generated in different cities.
Broadcasts of the first round of the draft in Detroit this year averaged 12.1 million viewers, more than any World Series or Stanley Cup Finals game last year and more than all but one NBA Finals game and all but one college football regular-season game last year.
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