Are NFL Draft visitors saying nice things about Detroit?

Detroit showed out for the 2024 NFL Draft on the first day Thursday — and crushed not only attendance records but also stigmas many visitors had about the city.

Detroit isn’t as bad as he expected, said San Francisco 49ers fan Mark Castanon, a first-time visitor from California.

“It’s actually not been anything like we’ve been told, or been told to worry about,” Castanon said. “They said that the downtown has been revitalized, going through a lot of processes there, and the restaurants and the bars and the streets — everything looks nice, clean, safe.”

The NFL Draft attracted fans from all over the country to downtown Detroit to the NFL Draft Experience at Hart Plaza and the Draft Theater at Campus Martius. 

 

By 6:30 p.m. Thursday, officials closed entry to the event as it hit capacity — yet thousands more gathered at nearby parks and venues. The NFL announced Detroit set an all-time first day record with more than 275,000 fans in attendance.

Many visitors who have never been to the city before said they weren’t sure what to expect for the three-day event, which continues Friday and Saturday. Preparations have been underway for months to beautify public spaces and open businesses for the event — and Detroit’s comeback made a lasting impression.

 
 
 

Castanon traveled from California to attend the NFL Draft as a 49ers superfan, invited by the NFL team itself. He brought along his friend Jamie Garrison, who he met in a Bay-area 49ers booster club.

“I love it,” Garrison said. “I’ve already said that I will absolutely come back and at first I wasn’t so sure, but this has been a wonderful experience.”

Despite their newfound attraction to the city, first-time visitors Castanon and Garrison said the price tag that came with local hotels was a lot less appealing. Even hotels in Southfield were several hundred dollars a night, they said. The two decided to stay in Windsor and are taking a shuttle to the draft festivities all weekend.

 
 
 

It wasn’t just first-timers who were pleasantly surprised by their impression of Detroit. Returning visitors, like Buck Joffrey of Santa Barbara, Calif., said he knew Detroit was improving but he didn’t know what that would entail.

“I was a surgical resident in Ann Arbor, like, 25 years ago and (Detroit) looks different now, it looks better,” Joffrey said. “We always thought it had potential whenever we went to Greektown and stuff, and I always wondered why it wasn’t popping because it was cool and now it looks a lot better.”

Joffrey, 50, and his daughter, Cosima, 11, traveled from California for the draft, though Joffrey is originally from Minnesota and is a lifelong Minnesota Vikings fan. Joffrey and his daughter are staying downtown, and glad to be because it’s easy to walk around the draft footprint and the People Mover helped them get around.

“I just think it looks like it’s headed in the right direction,” Joffrey said of downtown. “There’s more stuff cleaned up. I remember it not feeling particularly safe, like, 25 years ago.”

For the NFL Draft, the People Mover will operate on 24-hour service from 7 a.m. April 25 until 11:59 PM April 28. There’s no fare all year for the above-ground train and multiple stops within the NFL Draft footprint.

 
 
 

Tosha Hill, 52, and her husband, Kevin Hill, 54, drove from Cincinnati to attend the NFL Draft and are staying in Troy for a more affordable hotel. The Hills said they regularly visit Detroit for concerts and other events.

“I love the bounce back, because we were here some years ago right after COVID and the city was shut down, but here, now, this is the bounce back,” Kevin Hill said.

While Lions fans waited in long lines to pose with their team’s helmet and jersey, Tosha and Kevin Hill took turns taking photos of each other in a jumbo Cincinnati Bengals helmet, which, conveniently, matched their orange Bengals tracksuits.

 
 
 

The attention on Detroit allows the city to show off its good side. 

“It’s like they all go through a training class or something,” Castanon said with a laugh, recalling the interactions he and Garrison have had with locals and Lions fans, calling them, “super, even, overly friendly.” 

In their red and gold gear, Garrison and Castanon stood out in the sea of mostly Honolulu Blue-clad Lions fans.That and Castanon’s full-face paint and 49ers helmet. 

Castanon and Garrison also anticipated they would get a few sour looks from Lions fans due to the result of the NFC Championship game in January, but were pleasantly surprised to be on the receiving end of “good-natured ribbing.”

 
 
 

Jay Colla, 52, from Royal Oak, said he likes that the draft and other prominent events — like the Detroit Lions playoff run — are drawing more attention to Detroit, despite being a Pittsburgh Steelers fan himself.

“When I first moved here in 2000, I actually looked at apartments down across from what is now Little Caesars Arena, and I chose to stay out in the suburbs because there was nothing here,” Colla said. “No grocery stores, gas stations. And now my cousin lives down here and everybody loves it down here.”

Colla sported matching Steelers gear with his two sons, and didn’t let the Detroit Lions-themed events get in the way of their good time. They especially looked forward to seeing the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which was in the NFL Fan Experience portion of the footprint. They also participated in the 40-yard dash, high jump and the Detroit Lions fan experience tent.

 
 
 

Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Colla said he’s been a Steelers fan ever since he could remember, but he expected the NFL Draft to be like a “shot of adrenaline in the arm” for Lions fans.

“I’m not a Lions fan, but I can relate to what the Lions fans have been going through. I mean, back when Barry Sanders was here, we get so far, and then we don’t make it,” Colla said. “I really feel like the Lions are up and coming, and depending on how well they do in the draft this week, I think this is going to be a year where we’re going to see them again in the postseason.”

 
 
 

The NFL Draft continues Friday and Saturday in Detroit. Friday, gates open at noon to the NFL Draft Theater at Campus Martius and the NFL Draft Experience at Hart Plaza, and the second and third rounds of the draft are Friday 7-11 p.m. Saturday, gates open at 9 a.m. to the venues for the fan experiences, and the final rounds of the draft are noon-7 p.m.

 
 
 

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