Kansas City should remain hopeful to host NFL Draft in future years
By Matt Conner
A new report from Terez Paylor brings hope for Kansas City residents who are anxious to host an NFL Draft weekend in the near future.
Some relationships begin with an instant spark—love at first sight, as they say—an obvious pairing that works from the outset. Others begin over time, as a friendship forms, trust builds and eventually two people decide to make a go of it.
That analogy is admittedly lame, but it holds true for Kansas City and its hopes to host a future NFL Draft. The city has made no secret of its bid to host a draft ever since the NFL unmoored the popular spring event from its annual hold in New York City, at Radio City Music Hall.
From Chicago to Philadelphia to Dallas, the draft has now become a roving exhibition for football fans of all kinds of enjoy three days of NFL-related festivities for the entire family. Kansas City has submitted bids from the outset to be next on the list, and they were named among the finalists to host this year’s draft before Dallas won out. From there it looked good for 2019—until it didn’t.
Nashville, Tennessee was named the host city for the 2019 NFL Draft, and it gave the fine folks behind the bid for Kansas City another loss despite their efforts. The city’s bid was apparently good enough for serious consideration, yet once again they were bypassed for another site. After the Nashville news broke, it was easy to wonder whether K.C. would ever be able to host the draft.
It turns out their long-term efforts might be the very thing that gets them a chance to host the NFL Draft sooner than later. Terez Paylor, now of Yahoo! Sports, recently reported that Kansas Citians should hold out hope for a future draft weekend given the following quote from Peter O’Reilly, senior vice-president of events for the NFL.
"“A market like Kansas City [for instance] has been very interested for a while and has taken it very seriously. It’s not a decision I necessarily make but that certainly helps them, given the commitment they’ve made to hosting the draft.”"
While other cities might have been an instant hit with the decision-makers, it turns out that trust has developed enough in this relationship over time that the NFL now feels good about K.C. being a host “given the commitment” in their bids to be a future host. Some relationships need time as one partner learns to trust the other. It sounds like the NFL is now warming up to K.C. as a host city for the draft given the way they’ve proven themselves to be interested over the long-term.