The 2024 NFL Draft was an economic boon for the city of Detroit

A core part of the sales pitch when a city hosts a big event, like the NFL Draft, is the economic impact that it will come with for said city. Visitors from other cities (or countries) come and spend their money at hotels, bars, restaurants, etc. It's also natural for those doing the selling to inflate said numbers early on, using projections and usually without accounting for costs of any sort.

In any case, the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit set a record for attendance since the event began traveling to a different city each year with 775,000 people attending over the course of the three days. It was a great success, to say the least, with a central location and good late-April weather fostering the massive attendance.

Of course, the draft was also great for the Motor City's economy.

2024 NFL Draft was a huge economic boom for Detroit

According to a study performed by the Sports Business Program at Washington University in St. Louis and released by Visit Detroit and the Detroit Sports Commission on Thursday, the draft in April generated $213.6 billion in economic impact for the city.

Here are some specific notes from the study:

-$161.3 million of the $213.6 million represents new spending within the Detroit region from the draft. The Detroit region is defined as Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties
-$106.4 million of the $161.3 million in gross economic impact is being retained long-term, as new income for households, business proprietors, and tax revenues
-30.2% of all attendees traveled more than 100 miles to attend the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit
-Fans from all 50 U.S. states and more than 20 countries attended the 2024 NFL Draft

-A fan from Australia traveled more than 11,000 miles to attend the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit

-Hotel occupancy in the city of Detroit during the Draft: Wednesday, April 24-84%; Thursday, April 25-92%; Friday, April-26: 85%; Saturday, April 27-74%
-Other findings in the economic impact study included total spending by companies who attended or were involved with the NFL Draft. Gross economic impact only accounts for spending by non-local fans and companies (with some exceptions) who inject new money into the local regional economy as a result of the NFL Draft.

It's fair to say Detroit being showcased like it was during the draft will foster people coming back to visit. According to WXYZ in Detroit, the NBA and NHL All Star Games are in line to be coming to town in the near future and other big sporting events are on the radar.