Next year's college football draftees will walk across the stage and shake the commissioner's hand in Chicago, Ill., the National Football League (NFL) and city officials confirmed.
According to The Associated Press, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the Draft's return to Chicago in 2016 at the annual owners' meetings Tuesday. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel confirmed the news as well.
We're thrilled. They have earned it," Goodell said. "The success that we've had last year set a new bar for the draft."
The NFL and city of Chicago have not settled on a location for the draft, The AP noted, though it will be near Grant Park. The draft also has a date: April 28-30. The league reportedly chose Chicago because of the "Draft Town" party held in Grant Park.
The NFL was said to be considering Los Angeles, which could well host the 2017 draft since the league did not make a long-term commitment to Chicago. The NFL Draft was in Chicago last spring after the event was in Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall for several years in a row.
"It's about the national event," Peter O'Reilly, the NFL's senior vice president of events, told The AP. "It wasn't, as we know, just Chicagoans coming here to Grant Park. There were people, every team was represented here. Again, the entire country started to converge on the heartland of football here."
Last year's event was held in Roosevelt University's Auditorium Theatre, The AP noted, but the NFL could decide to go somewhere else in 2015.
Said Emanuel, "The NFL draft is world-class event, and I'm proud they picked a world-class city like the city of Chicago."
(Source: The Associated Press)
