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Trump announces Washington D.C. to host 2027 NFL Draft
President Trump announces Washington D.C. will host the 2027 NFL Draft, marking its return to the capital since 1940.
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Reuters - Mon, 05, May 2025
- 15:20 EDT
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U.S. President Donald Trump greets people as he attends the Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., February 9, 2025. / REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
The National Football League will host its 2027 draft in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Donald Trump announced on May 5 at the White House, bringing the league's biggest off-season event to the nation's capital for the first time since 1940.
The three-day event that regularly attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors is expected to take place on the National Mall, a stone's throw from the White House.
"The draft is a celebration of one of our country's most cherished cultural institutions," said Trump, speaking from inside the Oval Office.
Also read: Trump attends Super Bowl with a complicated NFL relationship
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters he expects more than one million visitors at the 2027 draft, far more than the estimated record 775,000 who attended the 2024 edition in Detroit.
The announcement comes days after the Washington Commanders struck a deal with the District of Columbia to return to the site of the club's former RFK Stadium, where Washington played from 1961-1996 and enjoyed the most successful era in franchise history.
The new stadium is expected to open in the nation's capital in 2030.
Commanders owner Josh Harris, who agreed to buy the team in 2023 after a turbulent period under previous owners Dan and Tanya Snyder, was in attendance to present the U.S. president with a team jersey with "Trump" emblazoned on the back.
"You are the ultimate commander, so it is a Commanders jersey," said Harris.
The draft has rotated through multiple cities since the NFL ended New York's five-decade-long reign as host in 2015. The three-day 2025 draft was held last month at Lambeau Field, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, home of the Green Bay Packers, with next year's selection of college players joining the NFL to be held in Pittsburgh.
Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl in February, where the crowd at the Superdome in New Orleans greeted him with a mix of cheers and boos, but he has a long and complicated history with the league.
Trump bought into the doomed upstart United States Football League in the 1980s and sought to have it compete directly with the NFL.
In 2017, during his first term in the White House, he spent weeks attacking the NFL over players who knelt during the pre-game playing of the national anthem in protest over police brutality and racial inequality.
Goodell, who stood next to Trump as the president addressed the media, in February had defied Trump's calls for private companies to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs, saying the league would continue its DEI efforts.
Trump's current term will overlap with several major international sporting events in the United States, with the Club World Cup set to take place in 11 U.S. cities from June 14-July 13.
The United States will co-host the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and Canada, while the 2028 Summer Olympics are set for Los Angeles.
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