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The NFL Draft has a long-standing heritage. For 86 times before this year, newly eligible players have shown their skills to franchises, hoping to get selected to play on the biggest football stage of all. Every year, the draft is held in a host city. This year, the honor is bestowed to Las Vegas for the 87th edition. Vegas is a new addition to the roster of cities chosen to host this event and will become the 11th city to host the draft.
What 10 cities have hosted the NFL Draft?
The NFL Draft first took place in 1936 in Philadelphia and has taken place every year since. In 1937, New York hosted its first draft and has dominated the list of cities since then. In 1938, Chicago hosted its first draft.
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These three cities dominated the landscape from the beginning with the draft being rotated between them, interspersed with the 1940 and 1941 editions being held in Milwaukee and Washington DC, respectively. For the two cities, this was the only time they got to host the draft. In 1948 and 1949, Pittsburgh hosted two consecutive drafts, while Los Angeles got a chance in 1956.
This domination by the three cities became a monopoly from 1965 to 2014, with New York being designated as the fixed venue for the draft. Fifty-seven drafts have been held in the city. Madison Square Garden has hosted it 10 times (1995-2004), New York Marriott Marquis hotel nine times (1986-1994) and Radio City Music Hall nine times (2006-2014).
After 2014, the NFL Draft was allowed to move back to other cities, but for the first three years after that, it remained in either Philadelphia or Chicago. The latter hosted in 2015 and 2016, whereas the former took the 2017 edition. It was only after that that we saw a new host for the first time since 1956, when the 2018 edition was held in Dallas.
The 2019 draft saw the city of Nashville host for the first time. The 2020 draft was supposed to be the year that the NFL Draft came to Las Vegas, but the COVID pandemic laid waste to those plans. Hence, they were rewarded with the 2022 draft, while 2020 draft was held virtually. The 2021 draft saw Cleveland being added to the roster.
The full table of host cities is below:
Considering the popularity of football across the country, it seems that the NFL has finally awakened to the possibility of the draft being able to draw in fans across the country. Over the coming years, one hopes that the number of cities increases far beyond the 11 we have now.
