Kansas City Hosts NFL Draft at Union Station

Story & Photo by Morgan Hill – Staff Reporter

   With the new NFL season on the horizon, the annual and always exciting NFL draft came to Kansas City for the first time in NFL history. With expected economic growth and immense benefits coming to our beloved city, here is the latest on how this sports phenomenon of an event will impact Kansas City.

   The numerous benefits the draft brings to the city are critical for Kansas City’s development and upkeep of the economy.

   “I think it will be a great showcase of the culture that we have here and the people that we have here in Kansas City, also that we can hold and host something of this stature, and do it well, I think will be a really positive kickback for Kansas City,” Lauren Hollingsworth, social studies teacher, said.

   With Kansas City becoming more of a civilian city, there is not much tourism coming in, especially for sports events. The draft changed that for Kansas City.

   “I think when people get a chance to get here and see that we’re more than just a fly-over town. That it’s kind of a thing where people stop and go man Kansas City’s kind of a cool spot,” Jason Jones, social studies teacher, said.

   With Kansas City being a blended sports town with civilians favoring all sorts of sports teams across multiple leagues, the NFL and the hometown Chiefs aren’t always favored for some.

  “I think it’s easy to be a Chiefs fan in Kansas City but perhaps those, other city-goers will start to adopt the Chiefs as their team as well,” Hollingsworth said.

   Over the past few years, Kansas City has been trending upward.  Most think that this draft helped Kansas City continue on this trajectory.

   “That ever since 2017, not to put everything on Patrick Mahomes, but because of him being here, he’s kind of been like an economic stimulus for the city,” Jones said.

   For some people, sports are hard to watch and get into a game. Even though the sports world is always evolving surely more people will catch on to more sports events and create new sporting interest in Kansas City.

   “Like I said earlier, I think this will help make us a spot where these promoters or other major sports leagues consider [Kansas City]. Because, there has been a huge push if the NBA intends to expand, to give Kansas City an NBA team. That would be phenomenal if we could get one,” Jones said.

   Overall, this draft had an immense impact on Kansas City that will last in the city’s history forever.