Another case of show me the money.
The countdown to the kickoff of the 2018 NFL Draft can now be measured in hours. But the National Football League planning department is already looking ahead to the 2019 Draft which technically is the beginning of the 100th anniversary of the NFL. The NFL Draft is put out to bid. Whoever shows the NFL owners the best money deal gets the three day event. The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and Cleveland are teaming up and has made a pitch along with Denver, Kansas City and Nashville. The NFL with a different name, the American Pro Football Association, started in Canton at a meeting at Ralph Hay’s Humpmobile car showroom on September 17, 1920. The league changed its name in 1922 to the National Football League, the last Humpmobile came off the assembly lines in 1939.
The NFL is dangling the Draft before cities. Some economists claim that it is worthwhile for a city to snag the event. NFL friendly economists pulled out some numbers proving the 2017 Philadelphia NFL Draft was a big success for the city as it attracted 250,000 people and had an economic impact of $100 million although those figures are guesses and are never proven. Canton may need the money as the planned expansion of the Pro Football Hall of Fame into a football village has problems and money is needed in a hurry to get the project done. The proposal was for Canton to become a tourist hub with four-star hotel, a state-of-the-art stadium, a water park, a youth sports complex, a retail promenade, convention space, a 143-bed assisted living facility for retired Hall of Famers and a small hospital. Stark County, Ohio politicians may have to bail out the project which now has an estimated billion dollar price tag by raising local taxes. The 2019 draft winner will be announced in May.
