How Rahm, Goodell brought NFL Draft to Chicago

The most powerful man in Chicago gave Roger Goodell his personal cell phone number and instructions to use it.

If the NFL commissioner encountered any issues in the draft’s first voyage outside New York City in 50 years, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wanted to be the one to fix it.

“Just call me,” Emanuel told him. “I’ll take care of it for you … You don’t call anybody else.”

Emanuel had been hounding Goodell since 2012, when, at a Soldier Field event, the Mayor proposed bringing the Super Bowl to Chicago. So when a Radio City Music Hall scheduling conflict forced the NFL to look outside New York for the draft, Emanuel, his team and Bears chairman George McCaskey put on a full-court press.

Emanuel was committed.

“And he’s delivered on that,” Goodell said. “Over-delivered on that.”

The city’s pitch went like this: Chicago is close to the NFL’s major markets — 11 teams are within 500 miles of the city — and could provide an experience indoors and outdoors, ticketed and for free. The city was used to putting on major events, and Emanuel said, “the NFL, the draft, is a major moment in time.”

“It’s like its own sporting event,” Emanuel told the Sun-Times. “There’s the Super Bowl. There’s obviously the World Series. There’s the Stanley Cup. There’s the Final Four.

“But this is, because of the audience, this is an equally large-viewing sporting event.”

And it’s Chicago’s — at least for a year.

Emanuel persuaded Goodell and NFL owners to choose Chicago over the other finalist, Los Angeles.

The three-day event starts with Round 1 Thursday. Those who won the ticket lottery will gather at the Auditorium Theatre and, just outside, Selection Square. Over three days, more than 100,000 fans expected to enter the free, 900,000 square foot Draft Town.

If it goes well, the NFL Draft will never be the same — and Chicago could remain its home.

Emanuel told Goodell he had one goal.

“When you board the plane to leave,” Emanuel said, “I want you to think of one thought. And that thought is, ‘Why did we not do this years earlier?’”

‘Draftapalooza’

They finished touring the Auditorium Theatre last July and headed for lunch at the swanky place on the same block: the Chicago Club. From the rooftop, Chicago officials and NFL executives — including league events director Eric Finkelstein — looked east toward Lake Michigan and a bustling Grant Park, where workers had begun to construct stages and tents for Lollapalooza.

Choose Chicago President and CEO Don Welsh and Chicago Sports Commission executive director Kara Bachman took a step back and watched the executives’ minds churn.

From the roof, league executives quietly watched the structures being built — “That’s totally their language,” Bachman said — and an idea crystalized.

“Draftapalooza,” Welsh said.

The NFL even contracted with C3 Presents, the company that puts on the annual music festival in Grant Park, to build Draft Town, which will feature team row houses, football simulators, games, a museum — and even a bar.

Having raised money to cover costs, the draft will be no charge to taxpayers, Welsh said.

Draft Town will be similar to the fan festival during Super Bowl week, only free.

“An oasis in the offseason,” NFL senior vice president of events Peter O’Reilly said.

Not that much of exists anymore: the NFL Scouting Combine is in February, the start of free agency in March and the release of the schedule in early April.

Fan appetite is insatiable. More than 79,000 applied to the ticket lottery to watch the draft from the theater and Selection Square outside it, O’Reilly said. They came from all 50 states. With Draft Town, the NFL can mobilize those fans, and their wallets.

“It’s the No. 1 sport,” said Bears Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus, who will announce the Bears’ Day 2 picks 50 years after he was drafted. “And now it seems it’s not just starting in August at training camps.

“This is a big event. It’s kind of a lull in the year, and they’ve made it a very big deal now.”

Made-for-TV

When Seth Markman visited the Auditorium Theatre in the fall, he couldn’t see how it would work. The ESPN senior coordinating producer, who oversees draft coverage, figured it was about one-third the size of Radio City Music Hall.

He became invigorated by NFL’s indoor/outdoor plan.

“I think it’s going to feel like you’re building up to something kinda special,” he said. “And I’m not sure it’s always felt like that in the past, as much as I personally like New York.”

The draft has always been a made-for-TV event — its monster ratings are the only way Emanuel can compare it to playoffs with a straight face — and this year won’t be any different, even with a throng outside.

While city won’t know the economic impact of the draft until it conducts a report after the fact, the airtime is invaluable. Last year’s first round was the most-watched of all time, thanks to Johnny Manziel, with ESPN and NFL Network combining to average 12.4 million viewers.

This year, the NFL Network will air 53 hours of live coverage, while ESPN will do 42 hours of draft-related content.

It’s a ratings phenomenon, especially considering the rival programming: the NBA and NHL playoffs and Major League Baseball games.

“But, come on,” said ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr., who covered his first draft in 1978. “Football is king.”

A replay?

Whether the draft is a stepping-stone to a Super Bowl — or a replacement for one — is something Emanuel wasn’t ready to discuss. He joked he was only worrying about one event at a time.

“I think we should view this, if this goes well, if they could do the draft in New York for ‘X’ years, there’s a fear factor, a risk factor, right?” Emanuel said. “You’re changing what you know.

“My goal is, they get comfortable doing something in Chicago.”

The league has until Sept. 30 to decide whether to bring the draft back in 2016. Chicago has committed already, if the NFL says yes.

Meshing Grant Park with the downtown theater could make Chicago irreplaceable, if the league decides to run with the new format. The largest auditorium the NFL considered in Los Angeles had room for 7,000 fans; in Chicago, Goodell said, more than 100,000 can experience the draft.

“I think it comes down to really, does the vision come to life — of seeing so many fans embrace the draft and come out here and experience the draft,” said O’Reilly, the NFL’s senior vice president of events. “Not only, does everything work operationally — but, does that feeling of the draft as that oasis in the offseason come to life in an incredibly powerful way?

“I think that would make a big statement.”

Emanuel won’t make any predictions whether the draft will return, but he wants to make it easy for the league to say yes.

Goodell has his number, after all.

“I know what our goal is when you get on the plane and wrap up and take down the stage and everything,” Emanuel said. “I know what I want the feeling to be.”

Email: pfinley@suntimes.com

Twitter: @patrickfinley