Kansas City considered “longshot” to host 2018 NFL Draft
By Matt Conner
The Chiefs are trying to become a future site for the NFL Draft, but when it comes to next year’s events, Kansas City has been called a “longshot.”
According to Field Yates of ESPN, the Kansas City Chiefs’ dream of hosting the NFL Draft in the very near future, at least as soon as 2018, is a far-fetched one, as the city has been called a “longshot” along with Green Bay. Instead, the NFL analyst is reporting that Dallas is a frontrunner along with Philadelphia, who is also hosting this year’s draft. A final decision has not been made yet.
Earlier this week, Chiefs team president Mark Donovan openly discussed his longing to bring the Super Bowl and NFL Draft to Kansas City, to allow the city and the Chiefs incredible fan base to experience the NFL highlight events. Donovan even said the team was sending personnel to check out the logistics at this year’s events in Philly to better understand the scope of what it takes to put on the draft. Perhaps this will be important in future years, but for now it appears that 2018 will not happen.
A two-year stint in various cities has also been floated, ever since Chicago held the last two events. Philly could handle the draft two years in a row before it travels to another city for a two-year run. In that case, it could be cool to see Kansas City host the draft from, say, 2021-2022.
Despite the disappointing news for the next year, the very few sites that have already been mentioned make it very likely that Kansas City should get the chance to host the draft at some point in the not-so-distant future. Perhaps it won’t be next year, but Chiefs fans should reasonably expect to enjoy the festivities in the next decade and maybe sooner.