Out-of-state NFL draft visitors pleasantly surprised by Detroit
Significant time, effort and money went into spiffing up downtown Detroit to look its best for the hundreds of thousands of visitors dropping in for the 2024 NFL draft.
And some early reviews are now in.
For many of the event's out-of-state visitors, the city of Detroit — still less than a decade out of bankruptcy — exceeded their expectations for liveliness, hospitality, restaurants and development activity, as well as general friendliness, according to numerous on-the-street interviews Friday.
"It’s much better than the reputation," said Garnet McDonald, 56, who was visiting from outside Toronto.
McDonald was last in Detroit about seven years ago, when downtown Detroit was already on the rebound path. But he said there seems to be even more businesses around now, as well as more stuff to do.
“It seems more vibrant," said McDonald, who attended the draft with his 25-year-old son, Evan, both donning New York Jets jerseys. "The biggest takeaway for me is just the friendliness of the people. Every storefront, every Uber driver, everybody we’ve experienced has been great.”
Miami residents Pedro and Zaida Mesa were on their first-ever visit to Detroit. They said they felt safe in downtown, really enjoyed strolling the RiverWalk and had had great dining experiences at Central Kitchen + Bar, Niki's Pizza and The Hudson Cafe.
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"We didn’t think it was going to be so good," Pedro Mesa, 56, said. "Not only for the sports, but the city has been great.”
PJ Falconi, 57, who lives near Pittsburgh and wore a gold Steelers hoodie Friday afternoon, said downtown looks better than it did when he last visited Detroit for Super Bowl XL in 2006 where the Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks. He said he sees more businesses, more restaurants and a very clean city.
He and his 16-year-old son, Rocco, also were impressed by their hotel, the newly renovated Hotel David Whitney, which was one of many empty downtown buildings back in 2006. Now, empty downtown buildings are few and far between.
“It’s a nice city — it changed a lot," Falconi said, standing near the new Hudson's site development on Woodward, which was still a vacant surface during his last visit. “Everybody here is friendly.”
A common refrain
Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, told the Free Press that he has been hearing many similar anecdotes from draft visitors.
"We’ve not only put in a lot of investment leading up to this — and quite frankly, that investment is gonna last well beyond this event — but we’re also changing perceptions," Larson said. "I can’t tell you how many people from out of town I’ve run into who’ve said ‘I had this vision of Detroit, and it was totally different than this great vision I have now of Detroit.’"
Yet, not every out-of-state visitor has had a perfect draft experience.
Kevin Sabres took off work Thursday and Friday so that he could make the trip from Chicago to Detroit. But when the 26-year-old L.A Chargers fan made it to the entrance about 5:30 p.m. Thursday — opening night — he was turned away, like hundreds of other late-arrivers, because the Draft Zone already had reached capacity more than an hour and a half before the first name was called.
"Furious. Awful." Sabres said Friday afternoon, sitting a few feet away from the Mom's Spaghetti food truck and chowing down on Eminem's local fare.
His friend, Johnathan Kingman, 27, of Grosse Pointe, said the same thing.
"I mean, we were super excited to get down here and then to be told we can't even get in, that was pretty tough," he said.
So, the duo made sure they got to the draft space early on Friday.
"We've been walking around, it looks very cool. I just can't wait for it to start tonight," Sabres said.
Kingman, who previously attended the University of Detroit Mercy, agreed it was great to see everyone in Detroit celebrating.
"Just seeing how the city's grown each and every year since I've been down here has been incredible," he said.
Free Press staff writer Dave Boucher contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Out-of-state NFL draft visitors pleasantly surprised by Detroit
