NFL Draft moving from Radio City Music Hall in New York, to Chicago

NOTHING sells hope to fans of all 32 NFL teams like the draft, and next year the league will bring that hope — and all the accompanying hoopla — to Chicago.

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 08: Johnny Manziel of the Texas A&M Aggies poses with a jersey after he was picked #22 overall by the Cleveland Browns during the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on May 8, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

NOTHING sells hope to fans of all 32 NFL teams like the draft, and next year the league will bring that hope — and all the accompanying hoopla — to Chicago.

The Los Angeles Times and Yahoo Sports report that the draft, which for the last nine years has been conducted in New York’s Radio City Music Hall, will move to Chicago next spring and be held from April 30 through May 2.

Radio City Music Hall.

The Chicago Bears confirmed that the event will be held in the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University.

It’s not the Super Bowl, but the annual selection meeting is the biggest event of the off-season and it is heading out of New York after 50 straight years there. The move likely is a result of aggressive lobbying by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Commissioner Roger Goodell’s ongoing drive to broaden the appeal of the league, which will play three regular-season games in London in the 2014 season. Chicago was selected over Los Angeles.

The draft has outgrown Radio City Music Hall, where a scheduling conflict prompted the NFL to push back the event two weeks this year, shifting it from the final weekend in April to the second week of May. Speculation is the NFL could look to host future drafts in stadiums used by the NBA and NHL and maybe even the NFL. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he would like to have the draft at his AT & T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Former commissioner Pete Rozelle, a visionary when it came to promoting the sport on television, had to convince the league’s owners to take the draft to television and ESPN in 1980 when the event was held at the New York Sheraton.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sits with draft prospects.

According to Nielsen, the three-day event this May was viewed by 45.7 million people on ESPN, ESPN2 and league’s NFL Network, topping the previous record of 45.4 million in 2010. Chicago was one of many cities across the country that showed interest in hosting the event with Los Angeles eventually becoming the other finalist. It could become a travelling show not unlike the Super Bowl.

Originally published as NFL Draft moving from Radio City Music Hall in New York, to Chicago