NFL draft presentation at City Council promises uniquely Green Bay character. Here's what to know
GREEN BAY — Residents should expect to see the NFL draft build up around Lambeau Field starting March 29 and anticipate the physical signs of the draft to stick around until May 6.
NFL representatives and local coordinators gave a 50-minute presentation Tuesday night to the City Council, emphasizing the Green Bay and Wisconsin flavors of the 2025 NFL draft, and pulled back the curtain on several key areas of public interest developed over months of coordination with local governments, businesses, and nonprofits.
Much of the information has been reported already, but Tuesday night's presentation collected disparate information in one place and offered new bits of information on how this national event will be hosted around Lambeau Field, which Jon Barker, NFL global head of major events and international games, called the "Mecca of football."
"We always say the draft is not the NFL's draft," Barker said to the City Council members and a public gallery where all 50 seats were filled. "This one is Green Bay's draft. This is your draft. You worked really hard to get it. We want to make sure it really feels like your draft."
Here's what you need to know from Tuesday's presentation on the NFL draft.
The draft stage area will take the longest to construct out of any NFL draft structure, according to the presenters. So, it'll be the first structure constructed and one of the last structures to come down, according to the presentation's four-phase timeline. It will be built in the northeast corner of the Lambeau Field parking lot, near the intersection of South Oneida Street and Lombardi Avenue.
The NFL anticipates work on the stage to begin March 29, and work on the NFL Draft Experience to begin April 18. The entire draft area will be taken over by the NFL on April 21 so they can conduct a bomb sweep at 10 p.m. April 22 and the site can be locked down on April 23 before opening to the public on April 24. Once the draft is over, the work to clear the area and open up roads will be similarly staggered, with full access to the area and surrounding roads restored by May 6 at the very latest.
According to the presentation, there will be about 70 football fields worth of programming at the NFL Draft Experience situated at Titletown and the west side of Lambeau Field with various activities for all ages, including meet-and-greets with players, autograph opportunities, and youth-targeted football clinics.
General admission is free, and fans will be able to enter along Lombardi Avenue at the west end of Titletown and the southwest corner of Lambeau Field at Ridge Road.
But premium entry participants will have two exclusive entrances of their own, one near TitletownTech and one outside the Resch Center and Resch Expo, according to the presentation.
Once inside, visitors will be free to roam toward the draft theater viewing area at the eastern parking lots of Lambeau Field that the presenters said would be a standing-room-only crowd of green and yellow, as well as the actual draft stage that the presenters said was inspired by the design of Lambeau Field itself.
Here's the general schedule of events as it was presented on Tuesday:
Thursday, April 24 (Round 1):
Noon: Gates open; NFL draft experience opens
TBD: NFL draft pre-show
7 p.m.: NFL draft theater opens
10 p.m.: NFL draft and draft experience close (NFL draft experience to close before last pick in Round 1)
Friday, April 25 (Rounds 2 and 3):
Noon: Gates open; NFL draft experience opens
TBD: NFL draft pre-show
6 p.m.: NFL draft theater opens
10 p.m.: NFL draft experience closes (draft experience to close before last pick in Round 3)
11 p.m. NFL draft closes
Saturday, April 26 (Rounds 4 to 7):
9 a.m.: Gates open; NFL draft experience opens
TBD: NFL draft pre-show
11 a.m.: NFL draft theater opens
6 p.m.: NFL draft and draft experience close
A detailed schedule will be exclusive to the companion OnePass app, according to presenters, and will be updated with new activities throughout the draft.
Much of the new information in Tuesday's presentation regarded parking, shuttles to get people around within the Green Bay area, and charter buses transporting people from outside of the area to Green Bay.
Road closures have already been announced, and the NFL draft presenters added on Tuesday that roads will begin to open up again as the site is cleared out after the end of the draft. It's expected that all roads will be fully open to regular traffic by May 6, according to the presentation.
As for parking, Green Bay residents are familiar with parking on people's lawns for a fee. The practice will be institutionalized in the OnePass app where visitors will be able to see a map of all residents who've notified the NFL and Discover Green Bay of how many spaces will be available on their property and when parking spaces will be available. Those interested in making parking spaces available can fill out a survey with Discover Green Bay that has already attracted nearly 300 responses, said Nick Meisner, Discover Green Bay's vice president of digital marketing. What the survey doesn't ask for is price, which visitors will have to find out when they get to their parking spot. Available spots will be updated in real time.
Drivers of over 40 shuttles are currently being recruited and vetted by Brown County, Meisner said. More rideshare locations will be available on St. Agnes Drive from Ridge Road to Fisk Street and Reggie White Way from Lombardi Avenue to Tony Canadeo Run. Additional scooters and bike services are yet to be determined.
And to get people to Green Bay in the first place, Meisner said he's compiling a list of charter bus companies from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois with the contact information of their dispatchers for a real-time communication to handle logistics.
Drop-off points for charter buses from outside Green Bay and shuttles within Green Bay will be at:
Lombardi Avenue from Argonne Street to Military Avenue.
Bart Starr Drive from Lombardi Avenue to Tony Canadeo Run.
Mike McCarthy Way from Bart Starr Drive to Holmgren Way.
Pick-up will occur at the parking lot of Cabela's, 1499 Lombardi Ave., next to Interstate 41.
Ralph Ennis, the NFL's director of investigations and security, said a team of analysts based in Mount. Laurel, New Jersey, has been assessing threats to the draft. No credible threats have been found.
He assured that there would be "a lot of concrete" around the perimeter of the draft event with magnetometers and X-rays at every entrance. Bomb-sniffing dogs will check each vehicle that passes through and patrol the entrances for any explosives on people themselves. Air space around the draft will be restricted; any drones flown in the area will violate the temporary flight restriction. Cameras will monitor for overcrowding.
"We have thought of virtually everything that could possible happen," Ennis said in coordination with local law enforcement.
The stylistic theme for the 2025 NFL draft is "Built by community," according to Ashley Hamilton, NFL Director of Event Location Strategy and Planning. The creative team at the NFL wanted to "not only leverage the culture of the city, but the state," Hamilton said.
A close inspection of the 2025 draft logo shows wooden boards, which are supposed to evoke the region's bonds and nod to Wisconsin's lumber industry, according to Hamilton. Rings of wood show up again in the logos of each of the 32 NFL teams.
Continuing with the natural theme, the official draft font, called bristle, is supposed to evoke a handcrafted quality. Other patterning on the NFL's branding for the draft is supposed to resemble the shape of farm fields as seen from overhead and crop lines.
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. Contact him at 920-834-4250 or jlin@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: NFL draft officials at Green Bay City Council emphasize Wisconsin flavor
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