KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Thousands of NFL fans converged Thursday night to Union Station and the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, for the opening round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Kansas City is OUT HERE.
— NFL (@NFL) April 27, 2023
📺: 2023 #NFLDraft -- TONIGHT 8pm ET on NFLN/ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on NFL+ pic.twitter.com/DQQUHgv96n
Local officials said that the area designated for watching the draft - a different area than the fan-centric NFL Draft Experience on the south side of Liberty Memorial - reached capacity around 6 p.m.
On Wednesday, the NFL’s Senior Director of Events Nicki Ewell said the draft viewing area had a capacity of roughly 60,000 people, with the ability to expand “a little more than that.”
“We’ve been here a dozen times to make sure we have this site as buttoned up as possible,” Ewell said. “You’re going to see all the fences and you’re not going to be able to just converge onto the site, so definitely there is going to be a capacity and we expect to hit that on Thursday.”
Ewell said the league has been promoting the option for fans to come back to participate in the NFL Draft Experience and watch the draft itself for rounds two and three on Friday and all remaining rounds on Saturday.
“There is going to be a cap and that’s why we’re promoting to come back on Friday and to come back on Saturday if you don’t get an opportunity to make it on Thursday night," she said.
A KSHB 41 News producer said that event officials made an announcement over the loudspeaker that the lawn area on the north side of Liberty Memorial was closed and blocked access from the south side to the north lawn.
The overall draft area differed largely from when Kansas Citians trekked down to the area for the recent Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parades this year and in 2020, and in the 2015 when the Kansas City Royals won the World Series.
During those events, outside of restricting access to certain parts of the parade route, fans were able to freely roam about.
The NFL’s Ewell said Wednesday the league had been working with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department and other law enforcement agencies across the area.
“Police have been a great partner to make sure that knows know if we do get to a capacity situation, we don’t want to have you head down and have a poor experience,” Ewell said.
Ewell added however, that “this is not the Chiefs parade or the Royals parade where its hundreds of thousands of people just converged down to the site.”
The second and third rounds of the NFL Draft are set to continue Friday night. The NFL Draft Experience will re-open to fans at noon Friday and stay open until 10 p.m.
The NFL Draft Experience will run on the third and final day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.
—-
Look for more coverage of the 2023 NFL Draft below and at kshb.com/kcontheclock
