NFL draft reaches max capacity, won't reopen until Friday

The NFL draft site closed Thursday evening as throngs of fans crowded downtown Detroit and the site reached its maximum crowd capacity, prompting frustration from those who said they were turned away.

The draft sent an alert that the event would not reopen until Friday.

The alert, from the NFL OnePass smartphone app came shortly before 7 p.m., followed a couple of earlier ones pointing to near-capacity crowd size. One NFL draft official tweeted earlier in the afternoon a crowd estimate of 150,000, but the tally for the day apparently dwarfed that.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced from the draft stage Thursday night that attendance for the day was more than 270,000 people, a record.

A follow-up alert sent shortly after 7 p.m. said the site is closed. An earlier note had directed visitors to visit Grand Circus Park or other Draft Day in the D viewing parties.

The alert about reaching maximum capacity noted that the NFL draft would open for Day 2 on Friday at noon.

The closure wasn't good news for those trying to get in, or for those trying to return.

Ali Muhammadi-Rad, 14, and Ayden Nita-Rad, 15, cousins from Long Island who made the 10-hour drive to Detroit with an older relative, briefly left the site to grab dinner and said they were devastated to learn they could not re-enter.

“Words can’t (describe) how I’m feeling right now. I can’t express how mad I am at the city of Detroit. … Roger Goodell, I’m coming for you,” said Ali Muhammadi-Rad, referencing the NFL commissioner.

Ali, a Buffalo Bills fan, and Ayden, a Baltimore Ravens fan, both wearing their respective team jerseys, said they arrived early and waited for hours close to the stage where the draft would be held when they got hungry.

“I’m mad because we got here at like 9 o’clock,” said Ayden Nita-Rad, 15. “I’ve never been to a draft before and it’s just a big part of the NFL.”

As for what they would do now, Nita-Rad said, “I don’t know, I guess watch it online.”

Jazmin and Xavier Hobbs of Toledo arrived in Detroit about 5 p.m. and said they spent several hours wandering around, trying to get close to the action.

They called the event’s organization chaos.

“There are no signs to tell you where to go,” Jazmin Hobbs said. “You get to one spot, they tell you to go to another spot … go around. Then you get there and they say this isn’t even an entrance. ... It’s frustrating and unorganized.”

The couple went to the NFL draft in Cleveland 2021.

“It was nothing like this,” Jazmin Hobbs said. “It was so much easier.”

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan had warned visitors last month to plan their trip and arrive early because the downtown footprint would fill up, though he touted other options nearby.

Duggan said in March: “I want people to start thinking about this and their experience. If you were at the draft in Las Vegas or Kansas City, everybody was inside the NFL fence. You swiped in and they accommodated everyone. Here, our fenced area is in downtown, it's not going to be as big. I'm guessing one in three or one in four people who are down here are actually going to be inside the NFL fenced zone."

Duggan could not be immediately reached Thursday.

Jeanine Martinez, originally from Detroit but now living in Fort Lauderdale, was stuck behind a fence on Griswold around 7:30 p.m. after walking downtown for two-plus hours.

She flew in just to enjoy the draft to be a part of a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“We were so close to getting the championship … this was kind of a close to it,” she said.“We tried Entry One, Entry Two … it’s very disappointing I wasn’t able to get in.”

But she wasn’t ready to give up yet and planned to circle the footprint to try to find a way in.

Mike Boundy, 31, drove in around 2 p.m. Thursday from Chicago for the draft. Boundy, a Lions fan, has a friend who lives about half a mile from the draft site, and they walked over a bit later, not expecting to have any problem getting in.

As they got closer, people started flooding toward them, saying they wouldn't be able to get in.

"It was kind of nuts," he said, comparing the crowd size to the Lollapalooza music festival.

Boundy said he spotted a man and his approximately 10-year-old son, both Cincinnati Bengals fans, upset over being turned away. This was about 6 p.m. he guessed.

The boy was crying and the man said they would head back to their hotel.

Boundy, who said things ultimately worked out for him and his friend, said they headed to The Detroiter Bar to make the best of the situation. The vibes were good there, he said via phone as a crowd could be heard in the background.

Free Press staff writers Dana Afana, Dave Boucher and Arpan Lobo contributed to this report.

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: NFL draft hits max capacity as some fans turned away