NFL Says Green Bay (Pop. 105,744) Saw 205,000 In Attendance For First Round Of The Draft

Practically everything the NFL touches succeeds to some degree, so kudos to the person who years ago decided it would be a good idea to take the draft on the road to great sites like Las Vegas, Detroit, Nashville … and, yes, Green Bay.

Green Bay is not a thriving metropolis.

Green Bay Draft Attendance Doubles Population 

Titletown boasts a population of 105,744, according to the latest available US Census figures dating from 2023.

And yet, on Thursday night, the NFL reported the attendance for the first round of its 2025 draft was 205,000.

That's alotta chesseheads – including some imported ones, obviously.

This attendance figure is truly stunning when you consider that if every single person in town attended the draft – something that probability says did not happen – nearly 100,000 other folks came in from parts unknown and swelled the crowd.

I've been to Green Bay. 

And Appleton.

There are not enough hotel rooms for that many visitors.

Football fans fill the NFL Draft theater and overflow area on Thursday, April 25, 2024 during the first day of the NFL draft in Detroit.

Detroit Still Draft Attendance King

Last year, Detroit broke the NFL attendance record for one day and for the entire three-day event. There were 275,000 motorheads attending the first round of the Detroit draft. And the three-day event boasted 700,000 people, which set the record for the three-day event.

That broke Nashville's record of 600,000 people over three days.

But Detroit has a population of 633,218, according to the latest US census figures.

So a town almost six times the size of Green Bay managed only 70,000 more people attending. Way to maximize, Green Bay.

One more thing:

I've covered a ton of NFL drafts. And Green Bay and the NFL last night provided the greatest start to a draft I have ever witnessed.

It was a great show as if scripted by an Academy Award-winning writer – the kind we like, not the woke kind that ruin films.

GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN - APRIL 24: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell enters the stage on a bicycle prior to the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft at Lambeau Field on April 24, 2025 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)

Best Start To An NFL Draft Ever

Firstly, the idea to put Roger Goodell on a bicycle to make his entry was genius.

For the uninitiated, the move is a message to Green Bay because Packers players have a longstanding tradition of borrowing the bicycles of kids that show up outside their locker room every day before practice.

The players ride those bikes across the street from Lambeau Field to the practice field.

So, Goodell's entrance was part peddling and part pandering.

But despite the hat tip to Green Bay, the huge crowd took up another tradition with gusto. They booed the NFL commissioner lustily.

And they booed.

And they booed.

At one point, Goodell good-naturedly exclaimed, "Oh, c'mon!"

Clay Matthews Steals The Show

And then the best part of the opening occurred. The NFL had past Packers players accompany Goodell to the podium – yes, a ploy to diffuse the booing – and then Clay Matthews delivered perhaps the greatest opening to a draft ever.

He joked he'd gotten a phone call from President Trump and read the message.

"It says, "My fellow Americans," Matthews read holding a note. "The Bears still suuuuuuck!"

The crowd roared. 

All 205,000 of them possibly.