Green Bay is the NFL’s smallest market by a significant margin.
The crowd for Thursday’s first round of the NFL Draft dwarfed the town’s population.
Fans flocked to Lambeau Field on Thursday night, where the draft was conducted from a stage in the shadows of the revered football stadium.
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At the start of Thursday’s broadcast, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell estimated that 125,000 people had shown up, with more people filing in.
“We have over 125,000 people here and still counting,” Goodell announced.
By the time the night was over, the official attendance number stood at 205,000.
Fans wait for the start of the first round of the NFL football draft, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
That’s well more than the population of Green Bay, which stood at an estimated 105,744, per a 2023 U.S. census estimate. NFL vice president of communications Brian McCarthy cited a street sign in Green Bay touting a population of 107,395.
Either way, more people showed up for the draft Thursday night that actually live in Green Bay.
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Here’s what an estimated 205,000 people standing outside a football stadium looks like.
It’s an impressive crowd, indeed. And one that event eventually reached capacity.
But forgive Lions fans if they’re not so impressed.
Detroit hosted the draft for the first time in 2024. It drew a record crowd of 275,000 people downtown for last year’s first round. When the three-day draft was over, more than 775,000 fans had shown up to the NFL’s annual April showcase, which also stood as a record.
Detroit’s also a major American city with a population (633,218) six times that of Green Bay just in its city limits, and a metropolitan population of more than 4.3 million people that dwarfs the Wisconsin town.
Green Bay doesn’t project to challenge Detroit’s record this weekend. But it drew an impressive crowd nonetheless, and one that’s not likely to be challenged relative to size of the host city.
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