Sports officials still focused on bringing NFL Draft to Indy
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe city of Detroit is celebrating what it calls record-breaking attendance for the three-day NFL Draft, which wrapped up on Sunday and is expected to generate more than $160 million in economic impact, according to the city.
The draft moves to Green Bay, and Indianapolis is still hopeful it can be in the mix for 2027, says Indiana Sports Corp President Patrick Talty.
“We’ve expressed our letter of interest. We’ve sent teams to drafts in the past to see how we would fit in and how would we put that together,” said Talty. “In our letter of interest, we’ve outlined some general things that we think we could be really good at and why the draft would would fit well here.”
Talty told Inside INdiana Business that Indy has its sights set on the 2027 draft, but is waiting on bid specs and direction from the NFL.
“[2027] is definitely still very viable,” he said. “We have to sandwich it in between some of the other big events that we already have on the books. We have a Men’s Final Four in ’26, Women’s [Final Four] in ’28 and another Men’s Final Four in ’29. So, ’27 fits perfectly within that schedule; we’d love to host it then.”
Talty noted that even if Indy doesn’t land the draft in 2027, the city will still continue to look for a bid in 2030 and beyond.
Indy’s well-earned reputation as a big event city actually presents some challenges when it comes to scheduling. Talty noted the recent NBA All-Star Game earlier this year and the upcoming U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in addition to the future Final Four tournaments and Big 10 football and basketball championships.
“We are built for big, big events; we are built for for hosting large conferences and sporting events, and people love it here,” he said. “That’s a blessing and a curse, but I don’t think I would trade it any other way to have that lineup. I’ll do the work to try to figure out how to make it work for all these other events that we want to go after.”