A journalism professor would tell you that you shouldn’t ever report rumors, only fact. I don’t quite agree. It can be very helpful to know the word on the street. But when the gossip is so unmoored from fact that it’s disproven in a matter of hours, the professor’s correct.
Sources say Minneapolis' U.S. Bank Stadium is the expected centerpiece of the 2028 NFL Draft, though no final decisions have been made. Getty Images
Numerous sources familiar with the NFL’s thinking consider Minneapolis-St. Paul a clear favorite to win hosting rights to the 2028 NFL Draft. The NFL’s events committee is scheduled to meet next week to discuss the matter, with an ownership vote expected at their May 19-20 meeting in Orlando.
In March, the Vikings and Minnesota Sports and Events announced a bid, with a plan that would make U.S. Bank Stadium the center of the draft weekend, with events also in St. Paul, the Mall of America and the Viking Lakes development around the team’s Eagan HQ. While NFL officials believe the modern Draft is best suited for cities without Super Bowl aspirations, and Minneapolis has hosted two Super Bowls before, nobody expects a third in the foreseeable future. The Vikings and NFL declined to comment.
Also, sources said, it’s possible the NFL looks to award two drafts at the same time, or in relatively short order. If that happens, some sources said Cincinnati has the inside track for 2029, but there is less clarity around whether the NFL is prepared to do that now. Commissioner Roger Goodell told Pat McAfee last week “we’re going to probably have to start allocating the drafts a little further in advance” due to the event’s size. Nothing is final, sources cautioned, and the Minnesota selection could still change in the weeks before a vote.
The traveling NFL Draft routinely draws hundreds of thousands of fans to a free, festival-like environment that comes at an opportune time for weather in most of the country, making it an ideal platform for civic promotion. It’s also a highly flexible event, capable of being customized to lots of stadium area and civic footprints. Ten teams had representatives at last weekend’s Draft in Pittsburgh to learn and develop their own hopes of hosting, Goodell said.
The only future draft with an identified host is 2027, when the Commanders and D.C., will host on the National Mall. Along with Washington, Minneapolis and Cincinnati, seven other cities participated in that meeting Goodell referenced: Baltimore, Buffalo, Charlotte, Houston, Jacksonville, Indianapolis and Seattle. However, neither Charlotte nor Jacksonville could host in 2028 due to major renovation projects at their respective stadiums.
The NFL faces new challenges as it permits institutional funds to invest in teams. Getty Images
On Tuesday, Forbes published an article about InStudio Ventures’ plans to raise $50 million for its new sports fund, which, according to Forbes, “has small stakes in the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers.” The article reads: “... Although InStudio Ventures isn’t among the eight [sic] private equity firms that have earned the league’s stamp of approval, founder and managing partner Danny Cortenraede has found his way into pro football anyway.”
That set off immediate alarm bells at NFL HQ and Arctos Partners, which is the only institutional shareholder of the Bills and Chargers. First off, sources said, the league greatly objected to any suggestion that someone found a loophole in NFL ownership vetting. Secondly, as far as the league and Arctos is concerned, it’s not true. Their view is that InStudio is merely one of hundreds of small sources of capital for Arctos and the other approved PE firms, which are the actual investors in NFL teams, and everybody knows the difference between an LP in a fund and the fund itself.
It was enough for the NFL and Arctos to act. Two sources told me that CAZ Investments, a feeder fund that aggregated retail investments for Arctos, refunded InStudio’s money Wednesday.
But Thursday afternoon, Cortenraede says his money has not been returned and that he’s still in the deal. “We’re still in the deal,” Cortenraede said. “We’re not redeemed. That’s a fact. Our legal team is also on it.”
Cortenraede said he’s eager to speak with the NFL and Arctos, and he wants an explanation for what rule he’s violated. However small or indirect his stake, Cortenraede said, InStudio does, in fact, have a position in those teams. “We really want to understand it. What’s actually the reason? And be very specific.”
Be that as it may, sources familiar with the NFL’s private equity program say the difference between Arctos and InStudio’s position is abundantly obvious, and rules prohibit those lower-tier investors from promoting their association with the league. Everyone in sports knows how carefully the NFL polices anyone trading on its name.
This is a new challenge for the NFL, which has only allowed institutional investors since August 2024. It was inconceivable for most of the history of sports that there could be any debate over who owns part of a team. The PE money has led to increased liquidity for team stakes and valuation increases, but it has brought a new level of complexity.
The NFL and flag football enthusiasts are notching more victories this spring, with several state governing bodies voting to formally sanction championships in high school girls flag football.
In the past week, Kansas, Maryland and Washington, D.C., became the 18th, 19th and 20thhigh school associations to approve girls flag. Two more big states are following fast behind, with New Jersey’s governing body expecting to take a vote Monday and North Carolina by midweek.
The NFL has encouraged its teams to make this a top priority in their markets. The Chiefs were a key force behind the vote in Kansas. The Ravens and Commanders pushed hard in Maryland and the Commanders also worked in D.C., and the Jets and Panthers are helping in next week’s votes.
The league’s stated goal is a full ecosystem of flag football opportunities, including NFL Flag youth leagues, high school, NCAA, the NFL and TMRW Sports’ coming pro flag league and the Olympics. “Growing the game at every level remains a core priority for our organization,” Commanders President Mark Clouse said after the Maryland vote.The NFL believes kids with first-hand experience playing football, even flag football, are more likely to become lifelong fans of the game. In some cases, local flag programs have become a sponsorship asset.
Sanctioning isn’t required for schools to start teams, but that step guarantees long-term institutional support and an interscholastic competitive framework. High school athletic associations are generally supportive, seeing flag football as a low-cost, low-risk way of addressing the difficult Title IX math created by large tackle football rosters. Some states have gotten hung up on more logistical questions, such as whether the sport should be a fall, winter or spring sport.
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Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell headlined the Browns’ ceremonial groundbreaking for their planned $2.4 billion Huntington Bank Field in Brook Park, Ohio, on Thursday.
India-based tech consultancy HCLTech became an “official AI” sponsor at MetLife Stadium as part of its renewal of a cornerstone sponsorship first signed in 2022, a designation and deal extension that also applies to its sponsorship of the Jets and Giants.
The NFL Draft audience was down 12% year-over-year as the event lacked a certain level of drama or anticipation. But SBJ’s Austin Karp reports the average audience over three days of 6.6 million viewers on ESPN, ABC and NFL Network (plus other streaming sources) is still the third-best figure on record since this format started in 2010.
NBC’s “Football Night In America” is going to have a significantly different look next season — and that goes beyond the addition of former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, as longtime studio analyst Chris Simms is not returning for the 2026 campaign, writes SBJ’s Richard Deitsch.
In this week’s SBJ Marketing newsletter, SBJ’s Terry Lefton notes that the NFL is without a spirits sponsor after Diageo didn’t renew its five-year sponsorship.
