ASHWAUBENON, Wis. (WBAY) - With over 600,000 people attending the NFL Draft in Green Bay, restaurants, bars, and hotels near the draft site said they saw a large boost in customers and sales.
“The entire week we were sold out. We saw a huge pick up in how many people we saw in our water park, our restaurants were really busy,” Eric Moorehead said.
Tundra Lodge Resort General Manager Eric Moorehead said the hotel saw a 300% increase in business during Draft week.
According to Sportsimpacts, data shows 54% of people decided to stay in a hotel for their visit, with short-term rentals at 35.5%.
“About 10-15 years ago, Airbnb’s a lot of people loved them, but it’s kind of making that trend back to hotels because there are a lot of things Airbnb doesn’t have. They don’t have a restaurant, bar on site, they usually don’t have a pool, and they certainly don’t have a water park,” Moorehead said.
Stadium view owner Amanda Watson said while her business did see a boost during the three-day event, road closures to allow for the Draft set up and take down impacted normal traffic.
“There was a difference for the three days financially, but it offset the two weeks prior and after you lost money, so it kind of just washed out for us,” Watson said.
According to Zartico, cellphone and credit card tracking shows 20% of Draft attendees visited restaurants and 13% visited bars.
Watson said overall, she is happy to have been a part of such a historic moment for the city.
“The vibration of everybody and the vibe that everybody had coming in. They were just happy to be here, I mean it’s Green Bay, it’s legendary, it’s an amazing area, and a lot of people were really loving the draft,” Watson said.
Over 82% of people rated Green Bay as an excellent host city, with 70% calling Lambeau Field and Titletown an excellent host venue.
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