The NFL draft — now a major sporting event — is returning to its humble roots in Philadelphia, where the first draft was held in 1936 at the Ritz-Carlton.
From that small room, to the first televised draft in 1980, to the spectacle at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall in New York City, the NFL draft has become a tourism bonanza that generates millions of dollars in revenue for the host city and attracts hundreds of thousands of fans.
The NFL is expecting to see more people crammed outside the Art Museum and along Benjamin Franklin Parkway for the three-day 2017 draft in Philadelphia than at any previous draft in its 81-year history, by virtue of a one-of-a-kind outdoor amphitheater built specifically for the event.