Someone on twitter was bitching the other day about the fact that the Vikings have no place to put all those people like the previous venues.

Bitching is some peoples super power.

MaroonBells wrote:

Someone on twitter was bitching the other day about the fact that the Vikings have no place to put all those people like the previous venues.

Yeah, I think it was Vikeologist......its like, relax dude. Its going to be a fun event.

MaroonBells wrote:

Someone on twitter was bitching the other day about the fact that the Vikings have no place to put all those people like the previous venues.

right? there is a huge fucking park right by the stadium.

JustInTime wrote:

https://twitter.com/sleepervikings/status/2056341840685674621

Wow, big news for the Cities. Did we ever hear what other cities were competing?

Honestly not sure how fun the actual event will be, but being in the throes of 100,000+ NFL fans is going to be an adventure that's for sure. If the Twins are in town or the Wild/Wolves are playing, that could be a fun trip.

pattersaur wrote:

Honestly not sure how fun the actual event will be, but being in the throes of 100,000+ NFL fans is going to be an adventure that's for sure. If the Twins are in town or the Wild/Wolves are playing, that could be a fun trip.

Yeah, I've never understood the appeal of attending a live draft, especially for people who follow it closely.

they were talking about this on the powertrip this morning, I didnt hear the whole segment, but they all seemed to be in agreement that the USB location would not be a very good place if the numbers like Pittsburgh just had were expected. I think they said like 805,000, with the light rail station right off the back of the plaza, between the plaza and 2 block park, that would be a danger/nuisance I think. With the stadium holding 70k, you could likely get a few thousand more on the field level, the concourse areas with viewing could be good as well, but they thought the main stage would likely be outside so ... who knows, it would likely be fine, and being in the mid west instead of the east coast, I would expect to see lower numbers than Pitt, maybe not even as many as GBay at 600k since you arent as close to chicago or detroit?

It'll be fine...We have the experience with Super Bowls, Final Fours etc...

Trust me, this state could use some good news (and cash infusion) after the fed surge, political assassinations, kids getting murdered praying at their school etc..

This falls into a happy category - at least for sports fans.

SKOL!

When they announced Green Bay for 2025 there was a guy on another board who made post after post about they didn't have the infrastructure, the hotels, the this, that, yada yada and it would be a DISASTER. Over and over he was catastrophizing. And then it went off without a hitch. Because as I told that guy, you may live your life without an ounce of planning or foresight, but the NFL doesn't partner with a city on the draft until they've figured out all the logistics to make sure it's going to work.

comet52 wrote:

When they announced Green Bay for 2025 there was a guy on another board who made post after post about they didn't have the infrastructure, the hotels, the this, that, yada yada and it would be a DISASTER. Over and over he was catastrophizing. And then it went off without a hitch. Because as I told that guy, you may live your life without an ounce of planning or foresight, but the NFL doesn't partner with a city on the draft until they've figured out all the logistics to make sure it's going to work.

I've heard similar things about Mpls. Same bitch, different year, different location.

MaroonBells wrote:

I've heard similar things about Mpls. Same bitch, different year, different location.

Thats crazy stuff...

Minneapolis has a city population of roughly 428,000 residents and a metro population of nearly 3.8 million. In contrast, Green Bay has around 106,000 residents and a metro population of about 330,000

Mpls = 10.2k hotel rooms, 40k if you include Mpls metro area

GB = 5k-9k hotel rooms...

GB relies heavily on Eastern Ridge Wisco to be able to host events like the draft. But they could never be considered for something like a SB or Final 4.

Badger may have a good perspective to share.

Minneapolis will be fine. They estimate 70% of the attendance is from locals...and 85-90% if you consider the driveable area from outside of the local market but still in the team coverage area. Pittsburgh set a record last year for about 80000 fans across the 3 days. That meant you had roughly 120000 attendees from outside the local market or 30000 a day. Assuming double occupancy, we're talking about 15000 forms of lodging needed. Many that attend the draft from outside the local area are likely planning to stay with someone they know in the area. I certainly do when I go to Vikings or Packer games. So...let's assume 1/3 of that 15,000 lodging is handled by family and friends in the area....you're now only looking at 10,000 hotel rooms or similar needed. Lambeau has some very large tailgate areas and bar/music venues near the stadium which helped minimize rooms needed. There were a lot of people that went to the draft in motorhomes and simply stayed near the stadium after hanging at the bars. Many from Madison/Milwaukee chartered busses and went up for the day (and drank all the way up and back)

Green Bay is puny compared to the Cities. The only way to get a hotel room or VRBO, etc. on event days up there is to pay a large premium and book a year in advance. Otherwise, for us in Madison, it's a party bus, designated driver or motorhome for the 2.5 hour drive back or go with the standard Sconnie "Jesus take the wheel". I'm fortunate to have friends up that way so I have options to stay in GB.

they can use the LEARING CENTER to figure things out

ORLANDO, Fla. — The pick is in for the 2028 NFL draft, and the Twin Cities and the Vikings will play host.

NFL owners voted at the spring league meeting here Tuesday. Minneapolis-St. Paul will be the third market within the NFC North to be awarded one of the league’s biggest events in a five-year span, joining Detroit (2024) and Green Bay (2025).

The Vikings and Minnesota Sports and Entertainment announced in late March they had made a bid for the event. The team has been attempting to bring the draft to Minnesota since 2019.

Downtown Minneapolis will be the anchor site for the fesitivities, but draft-related events will also take place in St. Paul, at the Mall of America and in Eagan at the Vikings Lakes development, which includes TCO Performance Center and the Omni Vikings Lakes Hotel, said Matt Meunier, MSE’s executive vice president of business development and tourism, in March.

Applause after Minneapolis wins the draft in unanimous vote

Owners applauded after a unanimous vote of approval for Minneapolis’ hosting following committee recommendation, according to a league source in the room. 

Funding model makes drawing big events challenging

Minnesota Sports and Entertainment (MSE) is the only sports commission in the country of its standing to not have a permanent funding model for large events, which has made landing major events more difficult. The draft will be funded primarily through corporate sponsorships.

Ecolab President and CEO Christophe Beck, U.S. Bank President and CEO Gunjan Kedia and Medtronic Chairman and CEO Geoff Martha are honorary co-chairs of the draft committee as is Vikings co-owner Mark Wilf.

The Minnesota Legislature, which wrapped up its 2026 session Sunday, did not pass a bill that would have provided a dedicated funding stream for MSE. Wendy Blackshaw said the lack of public funding puts the state at a disadvantage in the competitive bidding process. Recent efforts to host the 2028 U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials and this fall’s first Big Ten women’s volleyball tournament fell short.

“It has been a challenging period of time in Minnesota, specifically Minneapolis,” Blackshaw said. “So, this is just a wonderful way for this event — and the magnitude of this event — to help those businesses and help the hotels and restaurants."

NFL chief celebrates Minnesota's 'great community' of sports fans

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell praised Minnesota as a marquee sports destination as the league announced the Twin Cities as the location of the 2028 draft.

"Minnesota knows how to show up for big moments, and we've experienced it firsthand,” Goodell said in a statement. “Working with the Minnesota Vikings and Minnesota Sports and Events, we look forward to bringing the 2028 NFL Draft to this great community, driving positive economic impact throughout the region, and hosting an incredible event for fans and the next generation of the NFL."

Economic impact of the draft can be huge for host city

Statewide economic impact after a city hosts the NFL draft is high.

The draft is generally expected to generate $200 million in economic activity for its host region, according to Wendy Blackshaw, the Minnesota Sports and Events’ president and chief executive. She said a major benefit for the draft, compared with the Super Bowl, is the event is free to those who attend.

Nearly every city since Philadelphia in 2017 has reported over $100 million in economic gains, with Nashville and Detroit surpassing $200 million. 

Last year, the draft generated nearly $73 million for the Green Bay, Wis., area and nearly $105 million for the state of Wisconsin. Pittsburgh has yet to release an economic impact report for the 2026 draft. 

Strib

Hosting the NFL draft is a big deal for Minneapolis. It didn’t used to be.

The NFL draft will be held in downtown Minneapolis around U.S. Bank Stadium in 2028.

Of all the big events Minnesota has hosted so well over the years, this will be one of them.

The draft is a spectacle for the speculative.

There will be NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell becoming a human Snuggie, wrapping himself around every prospect who comes on stage.

There will be a massive media presence, and a massive crowd of people, many of whom will scream and cheer when their favorite team takes a left guard from a small school they couldn’t locate on a map.

The draft — our draft — will attract fans from all over the country, if not the world, filling our streets with those wondering whether that safety from Kent State running a 4.3 at the combine would be the ideal sixth-round pick.

Like everything else in the NFL multiverse, the draft has grown into an entertainment hub all its own. This is a league that can turn its schedule release into a weeklong drama that drives ratings.

Which reminds me of the first NFL draft I covered, at the Vikings’ Winter Park facility in Eden Prairie, in 1990. Which was not a spectacle.

The stars of that show: One dog-eared draft pamphlet, no internet and a bag of chips.

The draft was popular then, but it didn’t draw hundreds of thousands of fans. Mock drafts were done by two cult figures, Mel Kiper and Joel Buchsbaum. Kiper was turning himself into a TV star. Buchsbaum was a reclusive writer for Pro Football Weekly who would mail you his draft preview if you sent him a check.

The internet was not a thing yet, so there weren’t 100 new mock drafts every day to peruse. Most mock drafts were assembled by a couple of local sportswriters, and ran the week of the draft.

I was so excited to cover that draft in 1990 that I drank gallons of coffee in the morning … and in the early afternoon. Problem was, the Vikings had traded their top draft picks for Herschel Walker, so myself and a couple of other reporters watched television in the dank basement of Winter Park while we waited for the Vikings to make their selections.

When they did, legendary personnel gurus Frank Gilliam and Jerry Reichow walked down the steps, sat at a well-used table and told us, bluntly, whether they thought they had found any players who might help the team.

We did get to snack on a bag of chips.

Back then, the NFL was still a mom-and-pop league. Most of the teams were owned by local families. The stadiums were mostly awful, the fields were sometimes worse, and the draft — like the schedule release, the scouting combine and training camp practices — had yet to become a big deal. The league would shut down for weeks, if not months, during the summer.

At some point in the ‘90s, the league realized that NFL fans were insatiable. That’s why today we have games all over the globe, sold-out training camp practices, full coverage of the combine, schedule-release parties and, yes, a “draft season” that begins in September and runs through late April. For true draftniks, there is always a mock draft to read if you’re bored on Memorial Day or the Fourth of July.

Because we have so much to offer in the Twin Cities, and because we in flyover country lack self esteem, we tend to be very good at staging big events.

As the sign at the 1987 World Series in the Metrodome said: “We like it here.” So there.

We are considered a middling market, yet we have the WNBA, NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, Class AAA baseball, PWHL, Big Ten, MLS, a PGA Tour stop that will feature Scottie Scheffler and a women’s golf major this year. There’s women’s soccer, volleyball and football, and winter sports and here let me apologize if I left out your favorite local team or sports.

We’ve got it going on, and the people who organize and attract our big events almost always receive high grades.

Out of respect for this moment in Twin Cities sports history, I won’t point out that the NFL draft is mostly a bad reality TV show. Fans get emotionally attached to people they don’t know who may not even make their team.

None of which matters to the hundreds of thousands of fans who will travel to Minnesota and cheer at the draft like they’re watching the Super Bowl.

This is a good time to follow the NFL.

This is an even better time to be the NFL.

“Garbage team and a garbage state”: NFL fans furious with the Minnesota Vikings officially hosting the 2028 NFL draft in Minneapolis

Story by Glenn Kaplan

The Minnesota Vikings finished with a 9-8 record last season in the NFL. Minnesota did not qualify for the playoffs once again. The Vikings have never won a Super Bowl in franchise history either.

Apr 23, 2026; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Florida Gators defensive lineman Caleb Banks is selected by the Minnesota Vikings as the number 18 pick during the 2026 NFL Draft at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images© Gridiron Heroics

Well, Adam Schefter of espn.com reported on Tuesday on Twitter, “Source: Minnesota officially has been selected to host the 2028 NFL Draft.” This is not a surprise at all because this was being discussed on Monday as well. The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the Washington Commanders will be hosting the 2027 NFL Draft in Washington, D.C. With the Vikings now hosting the 2028 NFL Draft in Minneapolis, Minnesota, it will be interesting to see which NFL city and franchise is going to host the 2029 NFL Draft.

NFL Fans Furious With the Minnesota Vikings Officially Hosting the 2028 NFL Draft in Minneapolis

There are a lot of NFL fans who are furious about the Vikings being able to host the 2028 NFL Draft in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are people who do not like that city very much. This is what fans had to say about Minnesota’s franchise hosting the 2028 NFL Draft:

It is not a surprise that a lot of NFL fans do not like the Vikings hosting the 2028 NFL Draft. Well, this is good however for Minnesota and its fans because this is something they can get excited about, despite the fact about others thinking there is total corruption in that city as well.