Could the NFL Draft Come to Baltimore?

For nearly 50 years, the NFL Draft was held in New York. Starting in 2015, the NFL opted to use different cities as draft locations to get fans more excited about the annual event. From Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Green Bay, the NFL has been open to the draft being held in any city that meets certain criteria. The 2026 NFL Draft will be in Pittsburgh and in Washington, D.C., in 2027. For a few weeks, Baltimore Ravens president Sashi Brown has shared that the team has been in the process of submitting a proposal to bring the draft to ‘Charm City’. The question is: are the Ravens capable of hosting an event of that magnitude?

The criteria that are considered when selecting a host city include, but are not limited to, available venue size, potential fan engagement, transportation, hotel accommodations, and more. In terms of venue size, there are plenty of places in Baltimore where the draft can be held, utilizing the beautiful harbor or stadium that will feature the new additions by the time the draft occurs. As for fan engagement, there is no shortage of dedicated Ravens fans in Baltimore who have been waiting for a league-organized event. There is also a healthy number of fans of other franchises, all in the DMV, Pennsylvania, or immediate eastern seaboard area, who are undoubtedly preparing for a quick drive on I-95 or I-83 to experience an event like this. Hotel accommodations and transportation are situations that are steadily improving in the city, especially in the last decade. Even if inner-city hotels are not ideal for certain fans, there are plenty of hotels and transportation services in surrounding towns like Towson, Owings Mills, and Timonium.

Here come the problems with Baltimore hosting the draft as early as 2029. Where the draft itself will take place is problematic because of the lack of wide-open areas in the immediate downtown Baltimore area. There are some places that could hold upwards of 250,000 people on any one of the three days of draft weekend. This includes the Baltimore Peninsula, Under Armour HQ, Inner Harbor, and even RavensWalk, between both Ravens’ and Orioles’ stadiums. Now, the logistics of each location would have to be run through numerous simulations, and as an outsider with no affiliation to NFL decision-making, I am not qualified to claim which location would be better for draft night and draft weekend festivities. Each location has pros and cons, mostly being whether they can fit almost 300,000 people in a single area, with vendors, a draft stage, a green room for day one prospects, and more activities for fans.

Another problem, but an easily avoidable one, would be the overlap and conflict of the draft festivities with the schedule of the Baltimore Orioles. Back in 2013, the Ravens were forced to be one of the only teams in NFL history to play their first regular-season game on the road after a Super Bowl because the city was double-booked with the Orioles in town that day. The Orioles' schedule was released in September of 2012, making it impossible to know that the Ravens would win the Super Bowl in February of 2013 and would need to host Week One in September of 2013. If the Ravens are awarded any future draft event, there would be at least two years of warning that the MLB schedule builders can use to make sure the Orioles are out of town in the last week of April.  

Ravens president Sashi Brown said in his media availability Monday that he and the Ravens are still in active communications with the league. This communication with the NFL representatives includes the process of getting to know the local market and how the city, state, surrounding counties, and franchise will work through the required criteria and the possibility of hosting this event. The Super Bowl and Pro Bowl will never be in the picture, and the combine will most likely never depart from Indianapolis. This leaves the draft as the only viable league-wide annual event available to the residents of Baltimore and Maryland. At the end of the day, Baltimore would love to host the NFL Draft at some point in the coming years. If the city, state, and franchise can convince the league to go through with Baltimore as a host city, there will assuredly be a turnout similar to Detroit, Green Bay, or Nashville’s weekend of hosting.