NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell visits Green Bay

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Despite the rain, dozens of Packers fans still made it out to hear remarks from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in person Monday as he visited Green Bay.

The Green Bay Packers made some last-minute changes due to the cool, rainy weather, moving an event with the commissioner indoors to the Johnsonville Tailgate Village, but the event remained open to the public.

Goodell recognized the community-wide effort to have Green Bay selected to host the 2025 NFL Draft. As we’ve reported, several agencies had a big hand in securing the host bid, including tourism bureau Discover Green Bay.

Green Bay is the 14th city to host the NFL Draft, which is the league’s biggest off-season event.

Goodell said it’s a perfect match for the city rich in football history.

“It’s a huge stage to show what your community is all about. I think everybody knows your love of football, but this is a chance to talk about the fact that you really do know how to do big events and you have a tremendous amount of pride in this community and you should,” Goodell said.

Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy spoke about the draft on behalf of the organization. Other speakers included Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.

The Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4 in June to provide $2 million in state funding to support hosting the Draft.

We don’t expect to learn too many new details about the festivities as those decisions are being made by the NFL and are still being finalized. We do know the main portion of the event should take place at Lambeau Field and on the Titletown campus just west of the stadium.

The Packers announced just before Goodell’s comments that training camp practices were being moved indoors, so they are no longer open to the public, and the DreamDrive was canceled due to the weather.

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