KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The NFL is putting the finishing touches on the 2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City, Missouri, as it kicks off Thursday.
Tuesday, the NFL gave KSHB 41 a sneak peek at what's in store for NFL prospects from the second they arrive to the moment their name is called.
“I came up here this morning, the red carpet was actually down and we’ve been talking about the red carpet for months and now to actually see it out here on the memorial courtyard means we’re moving in the right direction," said Senior Event Manager for NFL Events Steve Farago.
The red carpet serves as a big welcome mat for NFL Draft prospects coming to town.
“Everybody’s really excited, I’m sure the prospects themselves are getting really excited knowing that their big day is coming in a couple days here, so everybody’s looking forward to it for sure," said Farago.
RELATED | NFL putting finishing touches on 2023 NFL Draft
Players will walk the red carpet before making their way down to the green room inside Union Station. That's where players will be holding their breaths as they wait to hear their names called out on the big stage.
"We're super excited. We're happy to really see the vision that's on the plan really come to life, and we're ready to go for Thursday, Friday and Saturday," said NFL Events Manager Kelsey Pietrangelo.
The NFL Draft Theater is the largest one to date, designing it to fit and highlight Union Station.
"Just looking at Union Station itself, it is so iconic and it means so much to Kansas City, so there were several iterations, kind of having some backdrops, looking at it, but at the end of the day, just knowing how beautiful the building is itself, we just had to make sure that we included that into the overall draft theater," said Pietrangelo.
As the NFL puts the finishing touches on the 3.1 million-square-foot site, you can bet it's going to be shining bright come Thursday.
"The amount of LED that we have in here, there's 1,488 LEDs that are inside the theater and 400,000 watts of sound amplification," said Pietrangelo.
