Buffalo Bills to bid to host 2028 NFL Draft

Can you imagine a better Thursday night than booing Roger Goodell for a new order of chicken wings?

This hypothesis could soon become a reality, as Buffalo News staff writer Ryan O’Halloran reports that the Buffalo Bills are considering bidding to host the 2028 NFL Draft. The draft, if ultimately awarded to the team, will be held inside the new Highmark Stadium, the Bills’ under-construction venue that is expected to open in time for the 2026 NFL season.

According to O’Halloran, the organization anticipates NFL clubs will receive a “memorandum of expression of interest” from the league over the summer.

“We’ve seen the success and growth of the draft in other markets,” Bills COO Pete Guelli told O’Halloran. “(The NFL Draft) is the kind of (opportunity) that we’re going to pursue as an organization, and we think the city of Buffalo would be absolutely perfect for this type of event.

“Our plan would be to express interest, and it’s competitive. There’s no guarantee it will work, but we want to go that route.”

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Buffalo may be a long way from hosting an event of the scale and pageantry of the NFL Draft: The league reported that more than 700,000 fans attended this year’s draft in Detroit. That said, the annual event has been assigned to smaller markets in recent years as the league attempts to diversify the recipients of its major offerings; Cleveland hosted the draft in 2021 before Detroit hosted it this year. Green Bay will lead the draft next year and Pittsburgh will host in 2026.

Buffalo, the 54th largest market in the United States, is currently the second smallest market in the NFL, just behind Green Bay (No. 69). The availability of hotels and accommodation is an issue frequently raised when the region is touted as a potential host for major sporting events; as of February 2019, Visit Buffalo Niagara estimated there were 2,385 hotel rooms in Buffalo. This figure may have changed over the past five years and does not include accommodation in surrounding towns and suburbs (although this would likely only be a marginal increase).

There is precedent for a team holding a draft from its stadium; Dallas hosted the 2018 event from AT&T Stadium, while Green Bay will host next year’s event from inside Lambeau Field. Bills owner Terry Pegula has had success attracting major league draft picks to the area in the past; The NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, also owned by Pegula, hosted the 2016 NHL Draft at the KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo.