Are you ready for some football? Just in time for last tonight’s NFL Kickoff game between the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs, the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) recently released statistics about the benefits of hosting the NFL Draft in April of this year.
“When we chose to pursue the Draft, we did so with the goal of an economic win for our city and region,” Julie Coker Graham, PHLCVB president and CEO, says in a press release. “We are thrilled that not only did it generate substantial economic activity for Philadelphia, but we were also successful in showing the world that this city is a premier destination for sports, big events and tourism in general.”
And win they did. The Draft generated an estimated $94.9 million for the City of Brotherly Love, exceeding their projections of $80 million. Over the course of three days, attendance was recorded at 250,000 people. Out-of-towners from 42 states accounted for 63 percent of attendees with 17 percent choosing to stay overnight. These stats boosted hotel revenue by 11 percent in comparison to the same date range the previous year. In total, 18,991 room nights were booked in the region.
Data was collected and analyzed by Temple University’s Sport Industry Research Center (SIRC). Results were published in the NFL Draft Event Impact Report. PHLCVB also worked closely with Visit Philadelphia to pull off the massive undertaking.
A bit of Draft trivia: Philadelphia hosted the historic first NFL Draft in 1936 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. It returned to the city in 1949-1950, 1953-54, 1956 (first three rounds) and 1957-1961. Other past host cities include New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.
