New details about ‘Project Breeze,’ D.C.’s bid to host the 2027 NFL draft

Representatives from Events DC — the convention and sports authority for the District — and the NPS, which administers the National Mall and monuments, have been in discussion with NFL executives for months about the possibility of holding the three-day event in the District, the emails show.

In an April message to NPS executives and Beverly Perry, a senior adviser to D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), NFL Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Government Affairs Brendon Plack confirmed D.C. “made a bid for a big NFL tentpole event in 2027” and “ideally” the NFL would like to hold the event on the National Mall.

In January, Jeffrey Reinbold, the superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks for NPS, wrote to Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president of club business, international and league events, in support of the bid.

“The National Park Service has provided a letter of support to Events DC (the organization in negotiation with the NFL) for the NFL draft ‘to the degree that portions identified to take place on the National Mall can be organized and managed within the special event, sponsor recognition, and turf management guidelines in place for this iconic cultural landscape,’” NPS chief of communications Mike Litterst said in a statement.

The NFL, the Washington Commanders and Bowser’s office declined to comment on Washington’s effort. Events DC did not respond to requests for comment.

The league, according to the emails, has proposed having the main stage for the draft on 4th Street between Madison and Jefferson Drives, near the National Gallery of Art and the National Air and Space Museum. A portion could also be held on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, where attendees could flow to the Mall.

“As you can imagine this [is] very important to [the] District, and they are trying to put forth a winning bid proposal,” Marisa Richardson, an official in the NPS’s division of permits management, wrote to fellow NPS officials in January. “And we want to be good partners, but also realistic regarding our limitations.”

Local officials essentially revived their draft proposals from years earlier to relaunch conversations with the NFL before meeting with a delegation from the league in D.C. in mid-October.

The District had previously explored trying to host the 2024 draft, which ultimately was awarded to Detroit. Some of those connected to Washington’s latest effort have speculated D.C. probably would have landed an earlier NFL draft if not for the controversies that surrounded former Commanders owner Daniel Snyder.

Detroit hosted a record 775,000 fans over the three-day event in April. D.C. was among 12 cities with representatives at that draft to conduct site surveys, a person with knowledge of the matter has said.

Since the emails and documents recently obtained came through NPS, much of the correspondence centered on the Mall policies and the unique challenges of hosting a major commercial event on national parkland.

Among the litany of restrictions on commercialization along the Mall: Merchandise sales are prohibited, and logos of draft sponsors would have to be no larger than a third the size of the NFL draft logos. Alcohol, while generally prohibited on the Mall, may be allowed but only in an area designated by the NPS. There are rules for concessions. To protect the turf, there are weight and height restrictions for temporary structures, and even time limits on structures that block light for the grass.

Then there’s the issue of commitment.

The NFL typically likes to decide draft host cities at least a couple years in advance. It announced last year that Green Bay, Wisc., will host the 2025 draft and it announced in May that Pittsburgh will host the 2026 event. The league, according to emails between NPS officials, purportedly hoped to get a guarantee for an approved permit on the Mall for 2027, but the agency does not accept permit applications for special events more than a year out.

“In case you don’t know, the Mall came under fire in 2003 because of the [Britney] Spears/NFL concert to kick off the season,” Reinbold wrote in one email to Kym Hall, the NPS’s National Capital Area director. “The commercialization was over the top and the event resulted in new limitations on commercialization on the Mall.”

It’s not clear when the NFL will award the 2027 draft. Team owners meet on a quarterly basis. But the selection process could last until next May, if the NFL follows the timetable by which it awarded the 2026 draft.

Denver and Charlotte have been cited as particularly strong candidates to host a future draft, but those familiar with the league’s process say there are many cities eager to win the bidding for one. They describe the competition between cities attempting to host a future NFL draft as intense, and there are no assurances Washington’s effort will be successful.

Should D.C. land the 2027 draft, it would provide the strongest sign yet of the Commanders’ improved reputation under new owner Josh Harris, who purchased the team from Snyder last year for a record $6.05 billion.

Days after Harris closed the deal to buy the team, Bowser announced the creation of a sports team within the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to support pro and recreational sports teams, and to work with D.C. agencies to attract sporting events to the District.

For more than four decades, the NFL held the draft in various locations in New York before moving it to Chicago in 2015 and 2016. Since then, the event has moved to different NFL cities annually. It was held in Philadelphia in 2017; Arlington, Tex., in 2018; Nashville in 2019; Cleveland in 2021; Las Vegas in 2022; and Kansas City, Mo., in 2023. The 2020 NFL draft was conducted remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision to move the draft from New York initially was made due to a scheduling conflict at Radio City Music Hall. But it has worked in the NFL’s favor, given the support and enthusiasm the event has generated in different cities.

The broadcasts of the opening round of the draft in Detroit this year averaged 12.1 million viewers — more than any World Series or Stanley Cup Finals game last year and more than all but one NBA Finals game and all but one college football regular season game last year.