D.C.’s bid to host the 2027 NFL draft envisions staging a significant portion of the three-day event on the National Mall, according to planning documents and emails obtained by The Washington Post.
Washington, D.C
Could the 2027 NFL draft be coming to the National Mall?
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 that D.C. “made a bid for a big NFL tentpole event in 2027” and that “ideally” the NFL would like to hold the event on the National Mall.
The NFL, the Washington Commanders and Bowser’s office declined to comment on Washington’s effort. Events DC and the National Park Service did not immediately 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 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 that 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.
The NPS has informed the NFL that it supports Events DC’s bid for the draft, so long as the portions that are proposed to take place on the Mall adhere to federal regulations for park areas administered by the National Capital Region.
“Special events” on the Mall and other park areas must meet numerous restrictions on commercialization and sponsor recognition, as well as strict guidelines to protect the turf. For example, 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; weight and height restrictions for temporary structures; and even time limits on structures that block light for the turf.
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,” Jeffrey Reinbold, the superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks for NPS, 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 that 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.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
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4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
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