{"id":40697,"date":"2016-04-28T22:18:49","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T03:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=40697"},"modified":"2016-04-29T17:11:48","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T22:11:48","slug":"nfl-draft-making-an-impact-on-downtown-chicago-businesses-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/nfl-draft-making-an-impact-on-downtown-chicago-businesses-again\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Draft making an impact on downtown Chicago businesses again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Alex Valentine<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Sonia Agueyo sees the difference the NFL Draft is making. The front desk agent at the Travelodge in downtown Chicago said room bookings for Thursday\u2019s first day of the draft are more than double what the hotel would see on its busiest weeknight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had more than 120 arrivals, and we\u2019re pretty much booked up the next two nights,\u201d said Agueyo. \u201cNormally, on the busiest weeknight, we\u2019ll have about 60 rooms booked. Two nights ago, we had 12.<!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_40709\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-40709\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-40709 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/AlexSidebar-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Business increased for hotels along Michigan Ave in the lead up to the NFL Draft this weekend (Alex Valentine\/ Medill). \" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/AlexSidebar-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/AlexSidebar-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/AlexSidebar-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/AlexSidebar.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-40709\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Business increased for hotels in downtown Chicago in the lead up to the NFL Draft this weekend (Alex Valentine\/ Medill).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of the same people as last year, but we\u2019re definitely seeing more, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Employees at the Renaissance Blackstone Chicago Hotel and the Congress Plaza Hotel on Michigan Avenue, directly across from Draft Town, agreed that business was much busier than usual this weekend \u2014 and even busier than during last year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n<p>That should be good news for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who cited tourism revenue as one reason for lobbying to bring the draft to Chicago last year after 50 years in New York. A study by the Sport Industry Research Center at Temple University said last year\u2019s event had a direct impact of $44 million for the city, including hotel revenue, dining, sales tax revenue and temporary jobs.<\/p>\n<p>NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave Chicago the draft again this year, but last week reportedly said the event \u201cvery likely\u201d will relocate in 2017.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 200px;float: right;padding-left: 10px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40573\" src=\"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/nfl-draft2016-medill-coverage-logo-190-black.jpg\" alt=\"NFL Draft 2016 Medill Reports\" width=\"190\" height=\"244\" \/><br \/>\n<ul class=\"post-list\"><li class=\"listed-post\"><a class=\"pcs-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/from-nazareth-to-nfl-cj-west-looks-to-make-impact-with-san-francisco-49ers\/\" title=\"From Nazareth to NFL: CJ West looks to make impact with San Francisco 49ers\">From Nazareth to NFL: CJ West looks to make impact with San Francisco 49ers<\/a><\/li><li class=\"listed-post\"><a class=\"pcs-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/undrafted-rookies-fight-to-make-chicago-bears-roster\/\" title=\"Undrafted rookies fight to make Bears roster\">Undrafted rookies fight to make Bears roster<\/a><\/li><li class=\"listed-post\"><a class=\"pcs-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-bucky-irving-tragedies-nfl\/\" title=\"Chicago native Bucky Irving overcomes tragedies on path to NFL\">Chicago native Bucky Irving overcomes tragedies on path to NFL<\/a><\/li><li class=\"listed-post\"><a class=\"pcs-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/the-nfls-first-all-remote-draft-made-for-a-lot-of-entertainment\/\" title=\"The NFL\u2019s first all-remote draft made for a lot of entertainment\">The NFL\u2019s first all-remote draft made for a lot of entertainment<\/a><\/li><li class=\"listed-post\"><a class=\"pcs-post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/overcoming-obstacles-northwestern-safety-jared-mcgee-looks-to-take-the-league-by-storm\/\" title=\"Overcoming obstacles, Northwestern safety Jared McGee looks to take the league by storm\">Overcoming obstacles, Northwestern safety Jared McGee looks to take the league by storm<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"listed-post\" style=\"margin-top: -20px;vertical-align: baseline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/category\/nfl-draft\/\">All NFL Draft stories<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chicago wants to keep the draft here, if not next year, then some time in the future. Goodell told ESPN on Thursday night that no decision has been made for 2017, but didn\u2019t go so far as to say the draft probably would move.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed to be good for business Thursday night, as the first round began shortly after 7 p.m. Temperatures in the low 40s made coffee shops popular. The Starbucks in the Renaissance Blackstone Chicago Hotel lobby and the one on Michigan Avenue were packed for most of the evening.<br \/>\nThe Dunkin&#8217; Donuts on Harrison Street was quiet during the late afternoon, but employee Oscar Alverado said he expected business to pick up once Draft Town attendees had weathered the cold for several hours.<\/p>\n<p>Ania Swiderska, co-owner of BeeZzee, a restaurant and juice bar across from Roosevelt University, said Lollapalooza brings more customers than the draft, but not many more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re a little slow right now, but we\u2019ll get busier later tonight when people start heading back to their hotels,\u201d Swiderska said. \u201cWe were caught a little off-guard last year, but now we know what to expect.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Fans gather at the Hyatt on Michigan Avenue (Alex Valentine\/ Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alex Valentine Sonia Agueyo sees the difference the NFL Draft is making. The front desk agent at the Travelodge in downtown Chicago said room bookings for Thursday\u2019s first day of the draft are more than double what the hotel would see on its busiest weeknight. \u201cWe\u2019ve had more than 120 arrivals, and we\u2019re pretty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":40698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2677,27,28,492,31,436],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2016-nfl-draft","category-business","category-general-interest","category-nfl-draft","category-sports","category-spring-2015"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NFL Draft making an impact on downtown Chicago businesses again - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/nfl-draft-making-an-impact-on-downtown-chicago-businesses-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NFL Draft making an impact on downtown Chicago businesses again - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Alex Valentine Sonia Agueyo sees the difference the NFL Draft is making. The front desk agent at the Travelodge in downtown Chicago said room bookings for Thursday\u2019s first day of the draft are more than double what the hotel would see on its busiest weeknight. \u201cWe\u2019ve had more than 120 arrivals, and we\u2019re pretty [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/nfl-draft-making-an-impact-on-downtown-chicago-businesses-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-29T03:18:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-29T22:11:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/04\/Hyattmain.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alex Valentine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alex Valentine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/nfl-draft-making-an-impact-on-downtown-chicago-businesses-again\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/nfl-draft-making-an-impact-on-downtown-chicago-businesses-again\/\",\"name\":\"NFL Draft making an impact on downtown Chicago businesses again - 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