Detroit sets NFL draft attendance record. Largest Detroit event ever?

[Lowell]

It's been an amazing and wonderful watch the jam-packed crowds in Downtown Detroit. Who'da thunk it back in the ruins days, eh?

It begs a question for me for the Detroit historians on the forum. Is this the largest event in Detroit history, in terms of head count?

[southen]

Do we know how many marched with MLK?

it was a striking visual but I kept thinking about how big of a crater that is in the heart of the city. I hope Bedrock doesn’t wait too long to start redeveloping the site.

[JBMcB]

No interest in going, but great news that it was so well attended. Sounds like it was well managed, which is the most important part.

I don't quite understand the hubub. We were in NYC when the draft was taking place in 2014, and didn't even realize it until we walked through Rockefeller Center where a street was blocked off for all the news trucks. We had to ask someone what was going on. It was clearly some big event, but there weren't mobs of people walking around, at least not any more than usual for midtown Manhattan.

[Van Dyke Brown]

I don't know the answer but some other potential events:

Red Wings championship parade in 1997 was reported at over 1,000,000 people.

How many folks do the Detroit/Windsor fireworks attract each year? I've read over 1,000,000 but that is between both cities.

[Lowell]

I recall when the first DEMF's [Detroit Electronic Musical Festivals] were held at Hart Plaza and the number one million being tossed around. Clearly it was no where near that, maybe 100K at best. I'd say the same for the Red Wings parades.

Like Van Dyke Brown, my guess is that the Fireworks crowds which line both side of the Detroit River might rival this weekend's numbers. However those are very difficult to assess.

I use the 115,000 full Big House in Ann Arbor as my measure for guesstimating. Based on being amid a few of them and from the aerial shots of downtown during the Draft, I think the estimates of 700K over the three days are accurate.

It's my understanding that the outdoor arena on the Monroe Block was ticketed. Are there numbers for those tickets sold? Outside and about that there were clearly thousands more hanger-abouts.

[Jason]

The thing with counts is that for things like the Red Wings parade, those numbers just come from some random police officer looking around and guessing how many people there were. With the draft there was actual counting happening.

[Ray1936]

The thing with counts is that for things like the Red Wings parade, those numbers just come from some random police officer looking around and guessing how many people there were. With the draft there was actual counting happening.

As a retired police officer, I can tell you exactly how we estimate crowds.

We count legs and divide by two. Simple.

[Jimaz]

As a retired police officer, I can tell you exactly how we estimate crowds.

We count legs and divide by two. Simple.

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! Ya scurvy dog. I'll keelhaul yer carcass for undercounting me.

[Gistok]

As long as they don't use the Trump courthouse rally counter...

[mwilbert]

There certainly have been huge crowds for the fireworks, but that's just one night. In aggregate this might well be the biggest. I can't think of anything obvious that would have been bigger.

[stasu1213]

Do we know how many marched with MLK?

it was a striking visual but I kept thinking about how big of a crater that is in the heart of the city. I hope Bedrock doesn’t wait too long to start redeveloping the site.

looking at photos of the crowd marching down Woodward I think that it was probably close to 1000,000. However, if you take the same crowd that had gathered at Campus Martius the first evening of the draft and marched them down Woodward the size would had been second to the Freedom March down Woodward in 63 which was probably bigger than the actual march on Washington in 63

[jackie5275]

I wasn't at any Freedom Marches, but I've been to the fireworks many times. I would liken it to that size of a crowd. When I was jammed in at the theatre stage, it felt just like being at Hart Plaza on firework night. That's how I described it to folks who didn't attend.

[jcole]

When I was a kid, late 60's/early 70's, they used to say that there was over a million at the fireworks. Downtown would get shut down at about 5 in the afternoon, Belle Isle earlier than that. They literally shutdown the freeways coming in to the city with cop cars parked across them.
Hoedown at Hart Plaza in the mid to late 80's ran about a quarter million people

[1953]

I was at the Red Wings parade in 97 and it struck me as one of the most well attended events in Detroit history [[at the time), although it was only one day and not three.

1953

[401don]

When I was a kid, late 60's/early 70's, they used to say that there was over a million at the fireworks. Downtown would get shut down at about 5 in the afternoon, Belle Isle earlier than that. They literally shutdown the freeways coming in to the city with cop cars parked across them.
Hoedown at Hart Plaza in the mid to late 80's ran about a quarter million people

As has been stated, these non ticketed events are often greatly exaggerated. Hart Plaza when empty of tents, stages, etc. can hold about 40,000 people.

[Bong-Man]

The late 70's - early 80's hydroplane races were estimated at over a million people. I know they stretched the truth, but those years of the races were very well attended.

[1953]

Nobody has mentioned the city's sesquicentennial in 1951 - video I've viewed of that event made it look like a really well attended affair, and at the height of the city's population.

1953

[Richard]

I think it had more value with optics then the amount of people,a massive event was pulled off in Detroit where it did not make the national news with people doing stupid things.

That’s pretty rare these days,kudos to all of those who attended and kept their wits about them and had a good time,which is how it should be.

[coracle]

It’s incredible that so many people went to the NFL DRAFT to “celebrate” a game called “Football” that lasts circa 10-12 minutes actual play time for every 3 hours of watching.

Even when compared with Baseball, Basketball and the other, football is still the dumbest spectator sport on the Planet! [[but only just!)

[401don]

It’s incredible that so many people went to the NFL DRAFT to “celebrate” a game called “Football” that lasts circa 10-12 minutes actual play time for every 3 hours of watching.

Even when compared with Baseball, Basketball and the other, football is still the dumbest spectator sport on the Planet! [[but only just!)

Watching people watch the draft was pretty exciting though.

[Richard]

It’s incredible that so many people went to the NFL DRAFT to “celebrate” a game called “Football” that lasts circa 10-12 minutes actual play time for every 3 hours of watching.

Even when compared with Baseball, Basketball and the other, football is still the dumbest spectator sport on the Planet! [[but only just!)

My grandfather used to work for U.S. Steel and got comp tickets for the Vikings,as a kid I used to hate going to a football game,freezing in an open stadium in the middle of winter while sitting on a concrete bench.

Never was into any of that,wrestling in school but after that it was cars.

Some cannot see the thrill of going down a 1/4 mile as fast as you can probably just as much as I hate the other sports.

Even though I did not appreciate it as a family time thing but even worse now because with sports they made it so unaffordable so people cannot even go.

I donate equipment to little leagues so they can raise revenue through concessions to buy uniforms,the drama I see from the parents and the players makes me wonder what the point is ,you would think it is about the fun.

But it’s like anything else, to each their own.

I see they canceled the boat races again.

I watched a thing on Atlantic City with a casino worker,she said they make more money off of online betting and sports betting then from people walking into the door to gamble.

You have to admit though ,getting paid $50 million to run with a ball while trying not to have a bunch of fat guys squish you in the process could be tempting.

I know a couple of guys that play for the Buccaneers,when I first met them and they started talking about football I asked them.

Is it not dangerous on that ice while you dribble a ball down the court and shoot it into a basket while playing football ?

They never mentioned it again .