Draft euphoria became best-ever Lambeau experience

When the NFL draft was announced to be in Green Bay a few years back, my head was filled with many questions. After seeing Detroit do 750,000 visitors to the NFL draft the year before, it was hard for me to believe that Green Bay had the ability to do something that big. Throughout my life as a Green Bay resident, I became accustomed to seeing just over 100,000 people every Sunday in the winter for Packer games, but thinking of taking that number and multiplying it by six or seven seemed almost impossible. Finally, after many months of witnessing work across the entire city, the NFL draft finally came to fruition. With some family in town, we set out to hit a few local businesses, before getting in line for the draft. That is when we ran into a bit of a snag. Due to the immense popularity of the draft, Lambeau Field had reached its maximum capacity, leaving us waiting in line for close to an hour and a half. Once the time came to enter the area, the feeling of euphoria and excitement filled the parking lot. The four of us snaked our way through the crowd, before entering the stage area of the parking lot. That is when the crowd grew to the point that I had never seen before. During the first round of the NFL draft, standing in the sea of people, talking to each fan whose team was at the podium at the time, discussing who that team should pick and why, was an experience unlike any other. All of those picks from the Chicago Bears drafting Colston Loveland to the Atlanta Falcons drafting Jalon Walker to the Los Angeles Chargers drafting Omarion Hampton, it was all a lead up to the main event of the night — the Green Bay Packers selection. Hearing the crowd erupt when Mark Murphy announced Matthew Golden as the Packers’ first round pick was one of my most notable experiences at Lambeau Field. All in all, Green Bay supported the NFL draft much more effectively and efficiently than I had imagined. When I got there on Saturday, it was fairly obvious that the crowd had changed from people who were out for a party at night to mainly families from all over the world. Seeing them experience Lambeau Field for the first (and maybe only) time is what Green Bay wanted the draft to be. Portraying the city of Green Bay as a professional football museum worked perfectly and hopefully set up a return for years to come.