Detroit Is Set to Host the NFL Draft a Decade After Going Bankrupt

• Detroit is set to host the NFL draft next month, a decade after going bankrupt.
• Mayor Mike Duggan told BI he hopes the event will reintroduce the city to the rest of the United States.
• The Lions’ playoff upset also boosted Detroit’s economy this year.

For much of the last half century, Detroit has been a symbol of the decline of the Midwest.

Its population has declined significantly, unemployment and poverty rates have soared, and new Japanese and Korean automakers have captured market share at the expense of Ford and GM, which remain vital to Michigan’s economy.

In July 2013, the city hit financial rock bottom when it became the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, having accumulated debts of approximately $18 billion.

A little more than a decade later, Detroit is preparing to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors for the 2024 NFL Draft in late April — and Mayor Mike Duggan sees the event as an opportunity to show how the city changed.

“The last time the country paid attention to Detroit was 10 years ago, when we were bankrupt,” he told Business Insider. “These images of blacked out street lights, absent police and devastated communities have remained etched in the minds of many people.”

“We view the draft as a chance to reintroduce Detroit to America and the world,” Duggan added.

Resumption of bankruptcy

As Duggan notes, media coverage of the 2013 bankruptcy crisis showed the rest of the United States just how bad things were in the Motor City.

Average police response times were up to an hour due to underfunding, Axios reported, while the mayor’s office estimates the unemployment rate was 20 percent.

Meanwhile, in a metaphor for the bleak economic outlook, two out of five streetlights were not working when the city went bankrupt, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Detroit still has its share of financial problems – for example, the bankruptcy process has led to massive pension cuts that have frustrated many recent retirees.

But the Chapter 9 filing also wiped out $7 billion in debt overnight — and the city’s finances have improved significantly under Duggan, who took office in January 2014.

Detroit finally paid off its creditors 12 months later and major real estate investment projects, pension cuts and high local tax rates have allowed it to balance its budget every year since then, helping the city erase its debts and even accumulated 150 million dollars. fund for rainy days.

Law enforcement response times have fallen to just 12 and a half minutes on average, according to city police, while the unemployment rate was 8% in January.

Authorities were also able to fund a program to upgrade the city’s outdated street lighting system and launch a downtown regeneration project that won praise from the World Economic Forum.

This week, Moody’s, the rating agency, upgraded Detroit’s municipal bonds to investment grade for the first time since 2009.

“It’s been 10 years of tough choices and sound financial management…no one in 2014 would have predicted that Detroit would return to investment grade in less than a decade,” Duggan said in a press release.

The new Detroit

The April NFL Draft – one of the most important weekends on the sports calendar – is expected to bring eyes back to Detroit.

Hundreds of thousands of fans are expected to attend the event, and tens of millions will watch on television. Last year’s event in Kansas City is estimated to have boosted its economy by nearly $165 million, according to data from Visit KC.

Duggan told BI that the local sports commission’s bid for the 2024 draft was part of a conscious effort to highlight downtown Detroit and show the city’s recovery from near bankruptcy. catastrophic.

“Las Vegas and Kansas City have created huge fan parks, but we’re doing something radically different by broadcasting the draft to the streets of Detroit,” he said. “There will be activities everywhere, and it will be the largest group of people we’ve had in the city over three days in years.”

Local real estate developer Bedrock Detroit has played a central role in the city’s downtown renovation efforts, having invested heavily in the renovation efforts.

Another local figure excited about the draft is founder Dan Gilbert, who is perhaps best known as the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA franchise.

“The NFL Draft is important,” he told BI. “You have fans from 31 other markets, plus over 50 million people who will be watching on TV. We hope people will come, love Detroit, go home and tell their friends and family about it.”

Sporting success

Perhaps Detroit’s economic recovery coincided with a Lions resurgence.

The city’s NFL team has long been a symbol of futility, but last year, quarterback Jared Goff and head coach Dan Campbell led the franchise to its first division title in three decades.

In the playoffs, Detroit beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Los Angeles Rams before losing to the San Francisco 49ers. The two home games generated spending worth $70 million for the city, according to Visit Detroit data.

The Lions’ Ford Field stadium will also host the Final Four of the NCAA College Basketball March Madness tournament, which Duggan and Gilbert say will give the city another significant financial boost.

Duggan, who is a lifelong Lions fan, said the team’s run this year helped highlight Detroit’s recovery from bankruptcy, giving residents a reason to be proud of the city again.

“I’m 65 years old and the Lions have only won one playoff game in my life,” he said. “To see them win two playoff games last year, it’s almost indescribable the psychological impact it had on the city.

“No matter where you went in southeast Michigan, everyone was smiling and talking about the Lions,” Duggan added. I don’t know how you can put that into dollars. »