You Like Us; You Really, Really Like Us!

The NFL Draft in Detroit drew 750,000 visitors from all 50 states, Canada and beyond. Since it is rare to have so many guests from diverse locations in such a brief time, the Downtown Detroit Partnership took advantage of the opportunity to survey visitors about their impressions of Downtown Detroit both before, during and after the Draft.  

The results were stunning.  

• The survey shows that already had a positive impression of Downtown Detroit made a positive impression coming into the Draft.  

• That impression got even better for all survey groups after they attended the Draft.  

• An overwhelming majority of visitors said  they would recommend visiting Downtown Detroit to a friend or family member.  

The NFL Draft Survey was conducted between April 18 and April 30, 2024. During this time, 831 individuals accessed the web-based survey with 685 submitting completed questionnaires. We partnered with all the Downtown hotels to notify guests and passed out invitations in the parks. Prizes were offered to encourage participation. 

The questionnaire contained six (6) core questions focusing on the respondent’s impressions and experiences in Downtown Detroit during the NFL Draft and four (4) demographic questions: zip code of residence, race/ethnicity, age, and when they last visited Downtown Detroit if at all. Each question core was analyzed by these demographic variables where appropriate. 

For analysis purposes, zip codes were grouped into four (4) regions: International/National (10.1%), Detroit Region (57.5%), Out-State-Michigan (16.6%) and Unknown (15.8%). 

First, we wanted to understand how attending the Draft affected people’s perceptions about Downtown Detroit. While WE know that Downtown Detroit is outstanding, we were surprised to see just how strong an impression Draft attendees had coming into the event. Respondents were asked to rate their prior and current (after being in Downtown) impression of Downtown Detroit on a scale of 1 to 7 where 1 represented very negative and 7 represented very positive. Overall, among all groups, the AVERAGE prior impression score was an outstanding 6.31. The lowest group, the national/international group of respondents, still averaged a 6.13 positive prior impression.  

Table 1: Prior and Current Impression, by Home Area 

The group with the lowest positive impression (though still very positive) was the group of attendees from outside of Michigan (national/international group). That group was also the group that had the largest positive change in impression between prior and post arrival in Detroit. After experiencing Downtown during the Draft, their impression increased nearly half a point to 6.54. Downtown left a strong net positive impression with our visitors.   

Looking at the results by age, it is clear that younger visitors had a stronger initial positive impression than did older visitors. Those 18-29 years of age and those 30-39 years of age had mean prior impression scores of 6.43 and 6.41, respectively. In contrast, visitors 40-49 and 50-59 had lower initial impression scores (though still strong). Interestingly, the oldest group (over 60) also had a higher initial impression (6.44). The lower initial impression scores among the 40–60-year-olds may reflect that they were most affected by the time when the national negative stereotype of Detroit (murder capital, bankruptcy, etc.) was most prevalent, whereas the narrative has been changing to be more positive in the last 20 years, when it would have made the largest impression on  younger respondents.  The oldest respondents may well remember the time before Detroit’s darker days, when the City was still thriving in the 50s and 60s. Though the 40- to 60-year-olds had the lowest initial impression, it is worth noting that they also had the largest positive change in impression from attending the draft.  

Table 2: Prior and Current Impression, by Age Group 

We were also interested in finding out how likely visitors were to recommend a visit to their friends or family, which is a question used to determine an industry standard measure called the “Net Promoter Score” (NPS). Respondents were asked to indicate on a scale of 0-10, with 0 representing not at all likely and 10 extremely likely how likely they were to recommend visiting Downtown Detroit to a friend or colleague. In an NPS question, 9-10s are considered “promoters,” and 0-6 are considered “detractors”. The Net Promoter Score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. NPS ranges from −100 (meaning everyone is a detractor) to +100 (meaning everyone is a promoter). Most companies consider a decent Net Promoter Score to be >0%. Any positive NPS is good. An NPS of +50 is considered excellent¹.  Downtown Detroit’s NPS for visitors attending the draft was a world-class 81. Incredibly, over three-quarters of all respondents, 75.4%, gave a response of 10. The mean score for this item was 9.37.  

These results demonstrate what we have known for years — that Downtown Detroit is a world-class destination, which has a strong national/international reputation. While our survey sample was not a representative sample of the whole United States, the results do apply to the people who visited Downtown Detroit for the draft. Since we know that among draft attendees the overwhelming majority of 750,000 people would recommend Downtown Detroit to friends and family (and likely will in the future), the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit should have a strong positive impact on visitation in future years.