KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The main stage for the 2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City, which begins in two weeks, will be the largest structure ever built for the draft.
Jon Barker, NFL senior vice president of global event production and operations, told the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council Thursday that the stage outside Union Station will be 380 feet wide and 175 feet deep — larger than a football field — for the draft, which takes place April 27-29.
The NFL also will use more LED screens than any previous draft with 10,000 square feet of LED panels and screens, according to Barker.
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The stage will be open with no back to highlight Union Station’s architecture.
“We want to highlight Union Station,” Barker said. “... We want to highlight the architecture of this great building.”
Among the centerpieces of that effort will be LED screens constructed over Union Station windows along with large screens that flank the stage to the left and right.
There also will be a large screen on the left side of the north lawn of the National World War I Museum and Memorial, which has an obstructed view of the stage.
Immediately in front of the stage, there will be seating reserved for NFL partners and draft prospects’ families with limited standing-room only capacity around the fountain on West Pershing Road outside Union Station.
Seventeen prospects will be in attendance at the 2023 NFL Draft, according to a list the NFL released Thursday evening.
The main viewing area for fans will be the north lawn National WWI Museum and Memorial, similar to the championship parades for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals during the last decade.
A hard perimeter will be put in place around the NFL Draft area, which includes the NFL Experience, family-friendly football theme park, that will take over the south lawn of the National WWI Museum and Memorial.
Security measures will include more than seven miles of fencing and more than five miles of hardened concrete encircling the area around Union Station and the National WWI Museum and Memorial.
There also will be a “clean zone” around the draft perimeter, so food trucks and other vendors will be prohibited from parking along streets in the area “for security reasons most importantly,” according to Kathy Nelson, who serves as the president and CEO of the Kansas City Sports Commission and Visit KC
The main entry for all draft attendees will be through the south lawn of the National WWI Museum and Memorial, so attendees should be prepared to walk relatively long distances.
Numerous streets in the area of the draft have been closed and may remain closed through May 7.
There will be "supplemented parking enforcement" in neighborhoods around the NFL Draft, according to KCPD.
The NFL Red Carpet event before Thursday’s first round will take place on the north edge of the National WWI Museum and Memorial courtyards grounds.
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