NEW YORK _ NFL officials stood atop the Art Museum steps on May 18, 2016, looked down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia and envisioned an unprecedented NFL draft.
The NFL first held its annual draft 81 years ago in a Broad Street hotel ballroom a 1{-mile walk from those steps. It continued in auditoriums and theaters, including 50 consecutive years in New York from 1965 to 2014.
The league added an outdoor fan festival to the auditorium atmosphere during the last two years in Chicago. But they were emboldened to make it bigger. So they bypassed more traditional venues like a theater or arena, encouraged by Philadelphia's history of holding major events along the Parkway.
"Standing on those steps and seeing that this is such a heroic moment, this is a culmination for these (draft picks), we set out on, 'Could we create a theater? Could we build a theater here?' " said Peter O'Reilly, the NFL's, senior vice president of events.
"We know it's going to be complicated. We know it's going to be audacious. But this is what we have to do, and the Parkway itself was natural. It's a home to so many iconic events over the years."
They were guided by the principle of finding a way for more fans to experience the draft instead of its being restricted to only those who have tickets. From October 2015, when Philadelphia and the Eagles first expressed interest in the 2017 draft, to last spring and summer, when they determined how it would come to life, to recent months, when planning and construction commenced, the NFL transformed a selection day for college football players into an event expected to draw 200,000 fans over three days to Philadelphia.
It requires erecting a 3,000-seat theater along the Art Museum steps, turning the Franklin Institute into the site at which officials from 32 teams submit their picks, and making the nearly one-mile Parkway in between a free fan festival.
"If we do this right," NFL director of event operations Eric Finkelstein said, "it will look absolutely amazing and will be something to not only make the NFL proud to be associated with it but also showcase and highlight the city of Philadelphia as well."
