By Editorial Board FEBRUARY 13, 2015, 10:51AM
That slant pass the Seattle Seahawks threw at the New England goal line in the final minute of the Super Bowl was the costliest mistake NFL fans have seen lately. But we have a nomination for first runner-up: Chicago's agreement to host the NFL draft in April.
Once upon a time, this annual event drew about as much media attention as George Halas got when paying his property taxes. But the slow and often tedious process in which clubs select college players has become a three-day party hyped to the heavens by ESPN and the NFL Network, which televise the event. Last year it attracted 32 million viewers.
TV coverage is just part of the gala affair. When the draft comes to Chicago, it will have an assortment of needs it expects to be met. According to a Tribune story by Jared S. Hopkins, the NFL requested free use of the historic Auditorium Theatre, home of the Joffrey Ballet, for no fewer than three weeks.
It wants to block off portions of Congress Parkway and Wabash Avenue, as well as a parcel of Grant Park. It wants the city to provide free parking and even enact "a 'clean zone' city ordinance banning temporary commercial activity in and near draft venues," Hopkins reported. Good luck getting a hotel room for your visiting relatives: The league intends to get preferential rates at up to 13 hotels in downtown Chicago.
You see the theme. The NFL has morphed into Bridezilla. We can be grateful the Bears didn't have to give up a first-round pick.
The league may or may not get everything it demanded — the league and Choose Chicago, a nonprofit tourism body, declined to say. But Choose Chicago says it will need to raise as much as $4 million to cover the costs. This is expected to be the priciest draft ever by far, partly because of the expense of transporting all the NFL and ESPN employees who live in the New York area, where the event is usually held.
Choose Chicago promises that taxpayers won't be on the hook for any of it. Though that may be true, the many perks sought by the league would certainly affect the lives of people living or working in the area, and extra police would have to be diverted from places where they are more likely to stop crime.
Why should many ordinary folks accommodate themselves to the hassle of accommodating a party which very few will be allowed to attend? It's not like they'll be getting an All-Pro linebacker in the deal.
The city claims that luring the draft will boost the local economy. Asked if that is plausible, University of Chicago economist Allen Sanderson tells us, "No chance in hell."
In negotiating with the city and Choose Chicago, he explains, the NFL has all the leverage, because it holds a monopoly on a coveted prize and can pit rival sites against each other to extract the best deal for itself. A lot of the meals and lodging that attendees will buy are meals and lodging that, in the absence of the draft, would have been purchased by someone else.
Based on what's known, it's hard to justify going to all this trouble. But if the NFL wants to disclose to John Fox the top-secret formula for beating the Packers every year, we're in.