The 2020 NFL Draft will be taking over Sin City this spring, but it won’t be a welcomed site for the locals. According to a report from Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, traffic on the Las Vegas strip will be shut down while the NFL is in town.
There are approximately 400,000 fans who are expected to be in attendance for the draft.
As for where the stage will be set up, the plan is to place the stage at the Bellagio which will allow the iconic Bellagio Fountain to be a “showpiece” for the event.
The 2020 NFL Draft will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 23 to April 25. Las Vegas edged out bids from cities like Denver, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Cleveland/Canton.
The stage for the 2020 NFL Draft in Las Vegas will be on the water at the Fountains of Bellagio. The players will be transported to the stage by boat. pic.twitter.com/8sVl8p2ZBx
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) January 21, 2020
In recent years, the NFL has strayed from tradition and moved the draft out of New York City, where it had been held for years.
In 2015, the NFL Draft moved to Chicago, Illinois which marked the first time since 1965 that the draft was held outside of New York City. It was held at Auditorium Theatre in Grant Part which marked the first draft to feature an outdoor component. The draft returned to Chicago in 2016 after the great reception a year prior. In 2017, the draft shifted to Philadelphia where it was held on the iconic Rocky Steps outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was the most attended draft in NFL history with more than 250,000 fans.
Then, in 2018, the draft was held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and it marked more NFL first’s. It was the first time in history that the draft was held in the state of Texas, while also being the first draft to take place in an NFL stadium. The 2019 NFL Draft was held in Nashville, Tennessee.