logo

Will 2025 be the first time Green Bay, Wisconsin hosts the NFL draft?

By Tom Kertscher
YES

The National Football League announced on May 22, 2023, that Green Bay would host the 2025 draft in and around Lambeau Field.

Two Green Bay-area state lawmakers are asking that the state's next budget include $2 million to help stage the event, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The 2023 draft, a three-day event held in April in Kansas City, drew more than 312,000 people, according to the league.

The only other time the NFL draft took place in Wisconsin was on Dec. 9, 1939, when it was held in Milwaukee. The draft was done downtown at the Schroeder Hotel, now the Hilton Milwaukee City Center.

It is known as the 1940 draft because the players drafted were eligible to play in the NFL starting in the 1940 season. Among those attending were Packers co-founder Earl “Curly” Lambeau, for whom Lambeau Field is named, according to Green Bay Packers team historian Cliff Christl.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
FACT BRIEF BY
facebook
twitter
email
email