The Cincinnati Bengals and the city want to host the NFL draft.
Exiting the successful draft this year in the smaller market of Green Bay, the Bengals and city of Cincinnati are “making a concerted push” to host the NFL draft, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier.
Cincinnati hosting the draft would target the 2028 or 2029 event. The target was initially 2027 before hotel construction downtown delayed plans.
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Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval confirmed last month that the city is working on this while awaiting approval from the NFL to make a formal submission.
“We’re trying to not only think about our built environment like the convention center and our hotel capacity but also putting together the team and the resources to proactively bid on these large events,” Pureval said, according to WLWT’s Matthew Dietz.
As of this writing, Buffalo is making a push for the same timespan the Bengals and Cincinnati have targeted, with Baltimore targeting between 2029-2031. Pittsburgh hosts the event in 2026 and Washington in 2027.
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