More major sporting events ‘coming’ to Detroit after NFL Draft success

“It’s coming.” After the success of the NFL Draft, Detroit may suddenly become a hub for major sporting events.

Without a doubt, the 2024 NFL Draft was a success for the city of Detroit. Not only did the city break the NFL Draft attendance record with an estimated 775,000 patrons over the three-day event, but Detroit got rave reviews from visitors, and the event produced some truly breathtaking moments like this:

Detroit’s enthusiasm and success as a host city may also lead to some other cool opportunities down the road.

Claude Molinari, President and CEO of Visit Detroit, joined local Channel 7 (WXYZ Detroit) toward the end of the draft, and explained how there were sport league representatives at the NFL Draft that came away extremely impressed with what Detroit pulled off.

“We have some of their pre-team scouts coming in to look at the city. We’re hosting one of the leagues right now, because they’re interested in bringing their all-star game here.”

One distinct possibility is an NBA All-Star Game. As Pistons COO Richard Haddad explained, the wheels have been moving on that for months now, and several reps were in Detroit last weekend to see how well the draft was run.

“It’s something we’ve been working on with the NBA for a while,” Haddad said. “Commissioner Adam Silver was here a couple months ago, and I think every single person he met in Detroit, the first thing out of their mouth is, ‘When can we get an All-Star Game? When can we get an All-Star Game?’

“So, he’s committed to work with us, the league is committed to work with us. We actually have some executives from the NBA who were here this weekend seeing everything that there is to see at the NFL Draft. It’s been a great opportunity for them to see Detroit put it’s best (foot) forward and to see what Detroit is capable of doing.”

As of right now, NBA All-Star game locations have been settled through 2027, so the soonest it could be in Detroit is 2028.

But Detroit is widening their scope beyond the NBA. Molinari believes Detroit will soon be a hub for these kind of national sporting events, as we just saw with not only the NFL Draft, but the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight being held at Little Caesars Arena back in March.

“We’re going for a lot of other stuff. Big Ten football championship, Big Ten basketball championship. We want every NCAA event,” Molinari said. “We’re also—NBA All-Star Game, NHL All-Star Game. You can count on them. They’re coming.”