Cheeseheads are on the clock for this year's NFL draft.
Green Bay, Wisconsin, hosts the 2025 NFL draft outside of Lambeau Field from April 24 to 26 for the first time in the city's history. It joins Milwaukee — which hosted the draft in 1940 — as the second Wisconsin city to play setting to the annual event. It will be the smallest market, based on population size, to host the NFL draft since it was first established in 1936.
The NFL draft used to take place in New York City each year, but the league decided to move it out of the Big Apple in 2015. Since 2016, the draft has been held in a different city year to year, leading to increased hotel performance in each host market.
"It'll definitely have a big impact on Green Bay and the surrounding markets around it," said Colin Sherman, director of hospitality market analytics in Texas and the U.S. South for CoStar Group.
NFL draft takes on Titletown
Green Bay has 53 hotels with about 5,000 rooms, according to CoStar data. There are 710 luxury and upper-upscale rooms, 2,300 upscale and upper-midscale rooms and 2,000 midscale and economy rooms in the city.
When Detroit hosted in April 2024, the market had 96 hotels with 11,451 rooms. Kansas City the year prior had 41 hotels in its central business district with 8,359 rooms.
Green Bay's smaller size compared to past host markets should be favorable when it comes to sizeable hotel demand, Sherman said.
"I think we're going to see that compression impact the market quite a bit, particularly on demand, and then also performance wise for [revenue per available room] and [average daily rate] and fairly high occupancy," he said. "The impact, when you look at it from an absolute number, it's probably going to be bigger [than in past host markets]. It's such a small hotel market."
Becky Vealey, vice president of revenue generation for Greenwood Hospitality, a strategic partner of Hotel Equities, said her company's Green Bay property, the Autograph Collection Hotel Northland, is sold out over the duration of the draft. The property was also able to push rates due to the structure of the market.
"If we were in a primary market like New York where the rates are elevated already, it would be a different story. But from our perspective, it has not hindered our ability to secure those higher rates, particularly for an event like this," she said.
There's been a pickup in demand in the dates leading up to the draft as well, Vealey said.
"It's been a great demand generator, particularly for April and coming out of that Easter week, because that Easter week is usually a softer time for hotels," she said.
A typical Green Bay Packers home game also leads to hotels in the market to operate at full occupancy, she said.
"Football is king in Green Bay. Anytime that there's a home game, there is significant demand in the city," she said. "Hotels normally all sell out, and this is not going to be any different. Since there's such a strong NFL history there, this is attracting a lot of interest from fans."
Another factor at play is the novelty of this event taking place in Green Bay near Lambeau Field, a hallowed ground for any fan of the sport. While a significant figure of the attendees figure to be from drive-to travelers, the setting's "Titletown" aura could prove to be a demand driver, Sherman said.
"Green Bay is kind of one of those football meccas too," he said. "You could see a lot of travelers from outside come in and rally take the whole weekend to enjoy the draft and the festivities."
Joy Crowe, general manager of the Doubletree by Hilton Neenah — which is about 40 minutes southwest of Green Bay — said her property typically reaps the rewards of a smaller Green Bay market by capturing sellout crowds for Packers home games. Demand has trickled in a tad slower than expected for the draft, but the property has seen a pick up leading up to it and have been able to push rates "significantly higher" than an average April weekend.
The difference between the draft and a Packers game is the length of stay tends to be longer for the draft since it's a three-day event. Crowe said a Packers game generally will net a length of stay of one to two nights, but the draft has been more three to four night stays.
With the draft itself being a free event, Vealey said she believes that emboldens travelers to spend a bit more setting up their accommodations and planning their stay. This also includes more guest and non-guest spend at food-and-beverage outlets on property.
The Hotel Northland's Poke The Bear restaurant will have a lot of draft day specials, such as themed cocktail menus and entertainment to attract people in, Vealey said.
Host markets drive hotel performance, at least initially
Taking the draft on the road each year has proven to be a big success for the league, with growing attendance and notoriety at each successive host market. Last year's draft in Detroit had an attendance of 775,000 people, according to Front Office Sports. Green Bay only has a population of 105,744, as of 2023 data.
According to CoStar data, occupancy was up 19.5% year over year on the first night of the draft in Detroit last year. Rates were up 53.7%, leading to a revenue per available room increase of 83.7%.
Jacob Dondzila, general manager of the Shinola Hotel in downtown Detroit, said his property was able to push rates north of 100% year over year on the first night of the draft.
"The energy in the city and the excitement in the city was really matched with the hotel bookings," he said.
Hotel performance quickly tailed off in Detroit after the first night, however, with occupancy down year over year on both the second and third nights of the draft. This isn't too much of a surprise, though, given that the top prospects are selected on the first night and bring in the most fanfare.
Dondzila said the Shinola held on to some of its pricing power over the weekend, but the property saw the same drop off in demand after the first day.
This is in line with Kansas City's hotel performance when it hosted in 2023. Occupancy and average daily rate peaked on the first night of the draft at 77.1% and $184.88, respectively, before tailing off over the next several days.